Toward A Steady-State Economy (Buch von 1973)

Verbindungen

• Herman Daly verfasste ~

Angaben

Herman E. Daly (editor): Toward A Steady-State Economy. W. H. Freeman and Company, 1973.

Klappentext

In his introduction to this volume, Professor Daly quotes from Bertrand Russell’s “In Praise of Idleness.” Lord Russell postulates that a certain number of people are employed making all the pins the world needs. An invention is introduced, however, that allows the same number of employees to make twice as many pins during their eight-hour workday. “In a sensible world,” writes Lord Russell, “everybody concerned in the manufacture of pins would take to working four hours instead of eight, and everything else would go on as before.” In the far-from-sensible real world, he concludes, the production of pins would be doubled, thus causing a glut on the market, the bancruptcy of half the pin industry, and the unemployment of half its working force. “In this way,” he explains, “it is insured that the unavoidable leisure shall cause misery all round instead of being a universal source of happiness.”

Toward a Steady-State Economy is a collection of essays on the theme that economic growth for growth’s sake is destructive and unsustainable. These essays include consideration of alternatives to “growthmania” as well as criticisms of it. Although topics range from physics to theology, the writers’ main emphasis is on political economy. Contributors include Preston Cloud, Paul Ehrlich, Kenneth Boulding, Garrett Hardin, Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen, and C. S. Lewis.

The book is recommended as basic reading for courses in environmental economics and as provocative supplementary reading for courses in principles of economics. It is also suitable for any economics, political science, sociology, or social science course on current issues and for environmental studies courses, including those oriented toward physical or biological science.