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Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future
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Customer Reviews
Rating:  - An Economy Based on Having Stuff is not Sustainable
This is a great book group read! It is not too long, has great examples, and is a pleasurable read. Not a book just for economic eggheads, but for everyone!
When I read this book I wanted to buy 100 and share them with people and discuss the ideas in the book. Since then my book group also read the book and can't stop talking about it.
McKibben challenges the fundamental economic belief that having more will make us happier and is necessary for our country's economic survival. Instead he offers a different model for our economic life that is sustainable for the planet and for us as a people.
Rating: - A Durable Future
Deep Economy is a very well written and important book. What I like best about it is the way Bill McKibben puts together a comprehensive way of looking at contemporary problems. He smoothly shows how individual consumer decisions, such as buying locally, and large scale environmental issues such as global warming are closely connected. I haven't read any of McKibben's earlier books, but he has been studying and writing about environmental and economic issues for several decades. The title is a play on the term "deep ecology," used by radical environmentalists. McKibben makes a persuasive case that economics is the best way to attack many of our most serious problems.
McKibben's most fundamental point is that we must question the widely held assumption that growth is necessarily a good thing for the economy. He concedes that for people living in extreme poverty, a certain amount of growth is indeed necessary, but that beyond a certain point it is counterproductive. Not only for the environment, but for happiness and well being. He quotes statistics that suggest accelerated growth in income and spending has been associated with a decline in overall happiness for Americans.This is partly due to what he calls "hyper-individualism," the extreme focusing on self that leads to alienation and the collapse of communities.
This is not, of course, an objective look at these issues, nor is there any pretense of this. I don't necessarily agree with all of McKibben's political assumptions. One could, for example, take many of the facts and possible solutions McKibben puts forth and interpret them in a more libertarian (rather than the anti-individualist, communitarian bias he has) way. But political ideology is not really the point of the book. McKibben believes, as do an increasing number of environmentalists, that global warming, peak oil (the world may be running out of oil very soon) and other environmental problems will soon make our current way of life (meaning Western, especially American) impossible. This is no longer a fringe position. With nations like India and China trying to emulate the American lifestyle, the prospect of running out of resources such as coal and oil no longer seems like a distant prospect. Add to this the issue of climate change and we really are facing a serious challenge to radically change the way we live.
Deep Economy is more than an alarmist tirade. It contains many hopeful ideas for the future, many of which are already being done. Probably the most basic and radical idea in the book is that local food production is actually more efficient than the mass production system that dominates the marketplace today. From local farmers markets across the U.S. to innovative solutions implemented in African, Asian and Central American countries, McKibben shows that the solution to virtually all food problems is simply for more people to grow and consume locally. The vast amounts of energy used in transporting food, the health concerns presented by genetically engineered crops and factory farmed meat all point to the extreme wastefulness of the agribusiness status quo.
McKibben prefers the term "durable" to sustainable, but it means basically the same thing. In this book, he makes a very good case that the only durable future we have is one that is far smaller, less wasteful and community-based than the present American model. Perhaps some of the most significant statistics he sites are towards the end of the book, where he compares American and European consumption patterns. This is important because Western Europeans are not poor or disadvantaged -in fact they have longer life spans, superior educational systems and work shorter hours compared to Americans; all this while driving smaller, more efficient cars, living in smaller homes and consuming about half the energy as Americans. This is proof that the American notion that "more" and "bigger" is better is a fallacy, and one we can no longer afford to believe in.
Rating: - Essential, easy reading
On a very basic level, "Deep Economy" by Bill McKibben is about global warming. But McKibben moves beyond the message we hear from people like Al Gore--unplug your cell charger and you've done your part!--to explain how our spending affects the environment and the strength of communities.
His ideas would almost seem to contradict his message--after all, spending locally and organically actually causes consumers to spend more money than if they did all our shopping through the internet or at Big Box stores. But the result--less energy spent in transporting goods, and more relationships bulit when neighbors meet face to face--is worth every penny.
One of the most frightening points he makes is that if people around the world lived as we do in America--owned the same percentage of cars, that sort of thing--we'd run out of resources. Scarier still is that we promote our brand of lifestyle through our movies and music, which cross borders; if a country the size of China buys this message, we're screwed.
A final point he makes is that all this spending isn't making us any happier--our satisfaction levels, as marked by surveys, have steadily decreased. "More" is not equal to "Better," he says.
The book is highly readable, even for all its facts and details. I purchased it for people who I know won't listen to people like Gore, sure that no one can come away from a reading of this book unchanged.
Rating: - Deep Economy = Right on the money!
If you are looking for a good entry-level book addressing some of the more complex social issues of our time, then Deep Economy is a good place to start. Like other social issues book that deal with social issues, Bill McKibben's book will probably scare and then anger the reader at first, but it's a message that can't be ignored.
McKibben's premise is that our current economy is based upon year after year growth and expansion and our environment and well-being can't take it too much longer. He argues that our unofficial national motto of "more is better" is killing us as we tear through our global resources and destroy our bodies. Technology, vocational efficiency and economic growth are turning us into the hyper-individualized individual that is easily manipulated and controlled by big business corporations. We are obsessed with consumerism and excess but studies are showing us that "more stuff" does not actually make us any happier thus it is pointless. Meanwhile we are destroying the Earth through the burning of fossil fuel and the little gains we are slowly making will be more then wiped out by the growth of China and India's economies which are trying to become like the USA. His solution is logical as he argues we must become more communal in every facet of our life. Our economies, our energy usage/distribution and our food system will all benefit the Earth as a whole if we can address these problems at the community level.
This is all pretty heady stuff that most of think about at some levels, but might not be ready to accept as a way of life like McKibben suggests. Nonetheless this is a great intro book while others out there go into these subjects with more detail.
Bottom Line: Because of its short length and uncomplicated prose, this is a great book to give to that special someone that hasn't read any social issue books yet but might benefit from it.
Rating: - Deep Economy
I believe this book should be required reading for every citizen. Bill McKibben challenges the conventional dogma that continuous growth is necessary for a healthy economy. He suggests that perpetual economic growth is no longer making most people better off. He traces the roots of the doctrine back to the advent of the steam engine. During the 19th and early 20th centuries economic growth accelerated exponentially. Improving efficiency became very nearly a religion. Reliance on individualism and the free marketplace became the new mantra. It seemed that we could have the best of all worlds -- unlimited individual freedom and a chicken in every pot. This belief took a hit during the Great Depression, but it was revived following World War II. For the period between World War II and 1960 as GNP increased, poverty decreased, reinforcing the conventional wisdom that advocated perpetual economic expansion. However since 1979, real income has declined steadily for 90% of Americans. The gap between rich and poor has become ever wider. As productivity increased, individual earnings decreased. Proposed remedies range from ever more reliance on market forces and less on government (privatization), to more governmental redistribution of wealth through social programs. But no one questions the wisdom of promoting more and faster growth as a way to increase wealth. It is not a "left" vs. "right" issue. Democrats and Republicans compete as to who can grow the economy fastest! "Growth" is always the un-trumpable hand, even as more and more "middle income" people fall into poverty and inequality keeps on growing.
The problem with this race for growth is twofold -- we are running out of the resource that fuels it (oil), and we are increasingly interfering with the delicate balance of CO2 in the atmosphere, creating dire consequences for the climate. We have created a vicious cycle -- utilization of finite environmental resources has led to greater wealth which has enabled us to live in ways that are contributing to greater and greater environmental destruction. This destruction threatens to lead to catastrophic climate change. No one at the center of our economic or political lives perceives climate change to be a reason to question the doctrine of endless economic expansion.
Ecological economists have figured out a way to calculate the cost of carbon emissions, and to include the "embedded energy" cost into the final value of a product. A pound of factory-farmed peas, for example, includes the cost of fertilizers, pesticides, preparation, packaging, and distribution, all of which produce carbon emissions. The result is many times the cost of the original product grown on a small farm and sold locally, say in a farmers' market. This calculation is easier for an economist to follow than a politician. McKibben says we need to help them understand!
He presents evidence that suggests small farms produce more food. This seems counter-intuitive, as we think of machines freeing us to do more productive work. But close observation by attentive farmers can greatly increase the quantity and quality of produce per acre. Also mega-farms are energy inefficient. Fossil fuels replaced human and animal energy with a natural resource that came cheap and was seemingly inexhaustible. The move to mechanized, centralized agriculture supposedly created a "more efficient" and abundant food system. The irony of this system is glaring as we see food banks giving out cornflakes in Iowa! It is true that producing more is better up to the equivalent of about $10,000 per person. Then the marginal utility of increased wealth begins to fall, and all that extra "stuff" becomes a burden.
McKibbon offers a new way to look at how to structure our productive lives. Centralized production vs. local cooperatives each have their advantages and disadvantages. Localized economies require more man/hours but produce better quality and benefit the environment rather than depleting it. Contrary to what one might expect, they can provide more leisure time, security and individual satisfaction. They bring people together. The book is filled with stories from throughout the world where this approach is succeeding. We do not have to choose between state socialism and market capitalism. Social conservatives and environmentalists can find common ground. The social checks and balances on which the Adam Smith paradigm relies fall away as economies are nationalized and globalized and individuals become isolated. The wealthy are cut off from their neighbors. Decisions are made based on the "bottom line" rather than the common good.
There is a powerful momentum in our society against change, an inertia that is difficult to overcome. But this book presents solutions to our "addiction to oil" that are appealing As the price of oil rises and the effects of climate change become more alarming, we may be inclined to reevaluate our collective mind-set. We may be forced to shift to a more community-based and durable economy, and this may turn out not to be so bad!
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