About this title: Small is Beautiful is the perfect antidote to the economics of globalization. As relevant today as when it was first published, this is a landmark set of essays on humanistic economics. This 25th anniversary edition brings Schumacher's ideas into focus for the end-of-the-century by adding commentaries by contemporary thinkers who have been influenced by Schumacher. They analyze the impact of his philosophy on current political and economic thought. Small is Beautiful is the classic of common sense economics upon which many recent trends in our society are founded. This is economics from the ...
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Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Hartley and Marks Publishers
Date Published: 2000-06-15
ISBN-13:9780881791693ISBN:0881791695
Description: Good. PAPERBACK, EX LIBRARY, no other marks noted in text, end page removed, All of our products are cleaned with an disinfectant for your protection before shipping. read more
Binding: softcover
Publisher: Hartley and Marks Publishers
Date Published: 2000
ISBN-13:9780881791693ISBN:0881791695
Description: Fair 286 pages. Former public library copy with library stamps/stickers. Tight binding. Covers, first+last 75 pages have cornercurl/cornercreasing; well-used book. Covers also have edgewear. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Hartley and Marks Publishers
Date Published: 2000-06-15
ISBN-13:9780881791693ISBN:0881791695
Description: Good. Excellent customer service. May ship from alternate location depending on your zip code and availability. Satisfaction guaranteed! ! read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Hartley and Marks Publishers
Date Published: 2000-06-15
ISBN-13:9780881791693ISBN:0881791695
Description: New. New Book. Excellent customer service. May ship from alternate location depending on your zip code and availability. Satisfaction guaranteed! ! read more
"I've never been all that interested in macroeconomics, but intrigued by the title, I gave Small is Beautiful by E.F. Schumacher a try. It was a long read, but a good one, and I culled interesting insights from every chapter. Schumacher's visionary simplicity with the largest elements of society were radical 30 years ago, but incredibly relevant, then and today.
A fair portion of the book is spent emphasizing the way our economy is unsustainable and how quickly we use up our natural resources. Schumacher also explains how little consideration was put towards pollution until it was too late. In the folksy way of a 60s radical, he speaks about the importance of the land in a way that is neither hollow nor flippant, but full of wisdom and grace.
"The whole point is to determine what constitutes progress." What is progress? What should aid to the third world look like? These questions are where Schumacher particularly shines, explaining a need for intermediate technologies to improve the quality of life for everyone and not just investments which only improve the quality of life for the highest classes and leave the lower ones even more destitute.
"No system or machinery or economic doctrine or theory stands on its own feet: it is invariably built on a metaphysical foundation, that is to say, upon man's basic outlook on life, its meaning and its purpose. I have talked about the religion of economics, the idol worship of material possessions, of consumption and the so-called standard of living, and the fateful propensity that rejoices in the fact that 'what were luxuries to our fathers have become necessities for us."
When I read quotes like that one, I couldn't help but think about what the economic implications of Christian thought are, and how few Americans I know, least of all me, embody them."
"I read this because a number of permaculturalists referred to it as the 'only book on economics they were familiar with.' He has some very good points on the need to reconnect economics with the land, local communities, and physical labor, and the idea of intermediate technology is very good, however his emphasis on socialism as the meta-economic answer was a disappointment."
"This treatise from E.F. Schumacher makes an excellent, clearly written case for a more humane brand of economics, politics, and the way we structure our societies. First published back in 1973 and drawn from essays and speeches first written even earlier, Small Is Beautiful remains amazingly current today. This is both a testament to the power of Schumacher's ideas and a cause for dismay, as it highlights how little progress we've made fighting poverty, inequality and environmental destruction over the last three-and-a-half decades. Still, there's plenty of inspiration to be found in Schumacher's words. Most importantly, though Schumacher writes much about what an ideal world might look like, he provides plenty of suggestions of little ways in which we could reform existing institutions to put people, not profits, first."
he was way ahead of his time on lots of things. has some really cool business ideas on how to organize worker-owned, semi-cooperative, small companies."
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