Product Description

Updated and Expanded Edition

Winner of the Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order 1992, Named New Options Best Political Book


Economist Herman Daly and theologian John Cobb, Jr., demonstrate how conventional economics and a growth-oriented industrial economy have led us to the brink of environmental disaster, and show the possibility of a different future.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #73149 in Books
• Published on: 1994-04-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 534 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Pushing for economic growth above all else, industrial nations ignore the damage done to the biosphere by the profligate use of energy and scarce resources. Daly, a World Bank economist, and Cobb, a philosopher-theologian, set forth a detailed, far-reaching blueprint for a highly decentralized economy built around small communities, scaled to human needs and stewardship of the planet. Their important, radical critique of contemporary economic thinking in the book's dry first half leads to specific proposals in the second. These include a tax on industrial polluters, worker participation in management and ownership, reduced military expenditures and a self-sufficient national economy that relies less on imports. In place of gross national product, they put forth an "index of sustainable economic welfare" as a yardstick of true growth.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
This book is a profound critique of conventional economic theories and policies. Daly (economics, Louisiana State Univ.), an economist at the World Bank, and Cobb (theology and philosophy, Claremont Graduate Sch., Cal.) provide an alternative approach to economics, one that is more humanistic and less scientific. Their criticisms are rooted in a religious/philosophical framework of stewardship and community. The idealistic policies that flow from this new approach will be controversial. This book is highly recommended, especially for college libraries. Few other volumes address these issues with such insight.
- Richard C. Schiming, Mankato State Univ., Minn.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author
Herman Daly is professor at the University of Maryland School of Public Affairs. He worked for several years at the World Bank. He is co-author of the influential For the Common Good, among other books.

Customer Reviews

Thought-Provoking in Every Way
To dismiss this book as leftist ranting or environmental hysteria is simply wrong -- and I would bet that the reviewers offering these opinions did not read the whole book. This book offers a stunning combination of ecological economics and philospohical critique. It is this dual focus that helps it avoid the dryness of most economics books and the abstractness of most environmental treatises. At bottom, Daly and Cobb are pushing for more human and manageable SCALE: meaningful work in more localized economies. Only by creating these smaller units, where entire processes can be grasped and influenced, can people change the way they think and live. The book crescendos with a discussion of the human prospect itself -- whether or not our species is on an inherently self-destructive trajectory, thanks to our very powers of ingenuity and adaptabilty. This is a book that should produce a profound change in the reader; but only if it is read slowly, carefully, and thoughtfully.

Humane and incisive
Because of the large number of issues and sometimes conflicting solutions proposed, this is a difficult book to classify. Key, however, is the authors' profound refusal to subordinate the common good of the community to the god of the free market. This does not mean the elimination of markets where they have proven effective and non-destructive. It does mean keeping their operation within strict limits, so that people can regain a sense of community and a sustainable environment. Much of the book is taken up with showing the limits of market theory and practice, and in that sense should be studied by all with an interest in America's secular religion. Proposed solutions are decidedly non-ideological and largely eclectic. Both the left and the right should find points of agreement. All in all, this is an invaluable guide to many of the planet's most pressing problems and should be required reading for college undergraduates.

Ethical, Humanitarian, Communitarian, Sustainable
Edit of 21 Dec 07 to add links

Dr. Herman E. Daly may well be a future Nobel Prize winner ...he is especially well-regarded in Norway and Sweden, where he has received prizes one step short of the Nobel. He is the author, co-author, or primary contributing editor of many books that fully integrate the disciplines of economics and ecology. I bought the three most recent for the purpose of selecting one to give out at my annual Global Information Forum. I ended up choosing this book to give away to hundreds, in part because it is available in paperback and is not a more expensive "trade" publication; and in part because it is strong in laying out specific ecological policy areas in the context of a strong theological or ethical perspective.

Of the three books I reviewed, (the newest Ecological Economics: Principles And Applications, the oldest, updated, Valuing the Earth: Economics, Ecology, Ethics) the first, the text-book, is assuredly the most up-to-date and the most detailed. If you are buying only one book for yourself, that is the one that I recommend, because these are important issues and a detailed understanding is required with the level of detail that this book provided. It should, ideally, be read with "Valuing the Earth" first (see my separate review of that book, from the 1970's updated with 1990's material and new contributions), then this book ("For the Common Good"), and finally the text book as a capstone. But if you buy only one, buy the text book.

This is a second-edition work, updated from the 1984 first edition. I like it very much in part because it comes across as less academic and more common-sense in nature. Part One does a lovely job of tearing apart the fallacy of misplaced concreteness with respect to economics, the market, measuring economic success, the reduction of the human to a "good" that can be traded without regard to humanity and ethics and community, and land. Part Two gently introduces the reader to the many distinguished thought-leaders and practitioners who have gradually matured the discipline of economics to embrace humanity, community, and sustainability as non-negotiable realities that cannot be ignored.

Part Three, a major factor in my choosing this book over the others for broad pro-bono distribution, addresses the specifics of policies one element at a time: free trade versus community; population; land use; agriculture; industry; labor; income policies and taxes; from world domination to national security as an objective. Finally, Part Four, without being corny or preachy, describes the religious or ethical vision (I still think the Golden Rule works as a one-sentence definition of common interest).

An afterword on debt in relation to money and wealth is particularly timely as the American public foolishly allows the White House carpetbaggers to run up a $7 trillion deficit that our great-grandchilden will never be able to pay off if we continue is these evil and irresponsible directions, all in sharp opposition to the sensible and ethical constructs in this book.

Of the three books, none of which really duplicate one another in any negative way, albeit with overlaps, this is the second that I recommend for purchase, after the textbook.

See also, with reviews, published since then:
The Battle for the Soul of Capitalism: How the Financial System Underminded Social Ideals, Damaged Trust in the Markets, Robbed Investors of Trillions - and What to Do About It
Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution
Green to Gold: How Smart Companies Use Environmental Strategy to Innovate, Create Value, and Build Competitive Advantage
Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things