For the Common Good: Redirecting the Economy Toward Community, the Environment, and a Sustainable Future / Edition 2

by Herman E. Daly, John B. Cobb

Overview

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.

Named as one of the Top 50 Sustainability Books by University of Cambridges Programme for Sustainability Leadership and Greenleaf Publishing.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807047057
Publisher:	Beacon Press
Publication date:	04/28/1994
Edition description:	Expanded
Pages:	544
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.94(h) x 1.19(d)

About the Author

Named one of the 100 "visionaries who could change your life" by the Utne Reader, Herman E. Daly is the recipient of many awards, including the University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award, the Heineken Prize for Environmental Science, and the "Alternative Nobel Prize," the Right Livelihood Award. He is professor at the University of Maryland's School of Public Affairs, and coauthor with John Cobb, Jr., of For the Common Good.

Editorial Reviews

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. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

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.

Library Journal

Daly (economist, the World Bank) and Cobb (philosophy, Claremont Graduate School) expose the outmoded abstractions of mainstream economic theory. They conclude, in particular, that economic growth--the prevailing yardstick for measuring economic success--is no longer an appropriate goal as energy consumption, overpopulation, and pollution increase. Instead, they propose a new measure for the economy--the Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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