For the Common Good
Redirecting the Economy Toward Community, the Environment, and a Sustainable Future
Daly, Herman E. and Jr. Cobb , John B
Publisher: Beacon Press, USA
Year Published: 1989
Pages: 482pp Price: $20.95 ISBN: ISBN 0-8070-4703-1
Resource Type: Book
Cx Number: CX4495
The authors argue that America's growth-oriented, industrial economy has led to environmental problems and propose an alternative economic paradigm.
Abstract:
This book will mainly interest readers with some grounding in economics; other will find it difficult, though not necessarily impossible, to follow the technical jargon (each term is usually explained when first used.
The authors, a World Bank economist and a theologian, argue that economists should cease regarding their field as a science measurable by arbitrary standards such as the Gross National Product, which fail to take into account the environmental harm emphasis on economic growth is doing.
However, their proposal to change public misconceptions about the value of unlimited growth, free trade etc, by reforms in religion and in the universities seems to overlook the degree to which the need to grow or perish is integral to corporate capitalism, and the extent to which our institutions are locked into the structures of the prevailing economic system.
Two pages are devoted to a few of the efforts to build alternative economic models through small communities.
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