- Hardcover: 268 pages
- Publisher: Greenwood Press; Revised edition edition (30 Sep 1993)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0275947033
- ISBN-13: 978-0275947033
- Product Dimensions: 23.1 x 14.9 x 2.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 5,355,836 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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,,"."one of the most instructive and entertaining books that I have ever read in the field of economics""-Journal of Economic Issues
Product Description
First published in 1967, "The Costs of Economic Growth" was based on the central conviction that the official figures for growth in real income were entirely compatable with a decline in human welfare. Twenty-five years later, this work remains the most persuasive and systematic demolition of the religion of growth yet published, its arguments only reinforced by the growing social and environmental problems of the late twentieth century. For this new edition, the text has been revised and updated in the light of recent global perils and environmental degradation.
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First Sentence
Revolutions from below break out not when material circumstances are oppressive but, according to popular historical generalisation, when they are improved and hope of a better life is in the air. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Revolutions from below break out not when material circumstances are oppressive but, according to popular historical generalisation, when they are improved and hope of a better life is in the air. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
First published in 1967, E J Mishan's critique of our growth-driven economy was a forerunner of the new economic approach now associated with E F Schumacher and Herman Daly. While a little dated in its style, the basic foundations of his critique are currently only increasing in relevance as the credit crisis, climate change and the end of oil combine forces against the dream of eternal growth on a finite planet.
The key principle of The Costs of Economic Growth is that expanding population, technology and affluence have unintended 'spillover' effects, or social costs. Packaged with the consumer 'goods' that we seek, come 'bads' that we didn't expect. "We have paid dearly," he writes "for the material plenty and for the technological toys bequeathed to us by science." Even though our affluence may be destroying us, we remain committed to economic growth, consumers of the West "quaffing regularly at the fount of unlimited expectations".
Mishan's solutions are a rambling set of ideas headed in the right direction rather than a prescription. He questions whether progress should be decoupled from technological advance, advocated an extension of human rights to include quiet, air, and water, and suggests `reserves', areas of land where certain consumer choices would not be permitted.
A product of its time, not every suggestion here works (see his distinctly `Brave New World' predictions of robot poetry or artificial wombs.) Still, despite its shortcomings, this remains a relevant and necessary book that is ripe for rediscovery.
The key principle of The Costs of Economic Growth is that expanding population, technology and affluence have unintended 'spillover' effects, or social costs. Packaged with the consumer 'goods' that we seek, come 'bads' that we didn't expect. "We have paid dearly," he writes "for the material plenty and for the technological toys bequeathed to us by science." Even though our affluence may be destroying us, we remain committed to economic growth, consumers of the West "quaffing regularly at the fount of unlimited expectations".
Mishan's solutions are a rambling set of ideas headed in the right direction rather than a prescription. He questions whether progress should be decoupled from technological advance, advocated an extension of human rights to include quiet, air, and water, and suggests `reserves', areas of land where certain consumer choices would not be permitted.
A product of its time, not every suggestion here works (see his distinctly `Brave New World' predictions of robot poetry or artificial wombs.) Still, despite its shortcomings, this remains a relevant and necessary book that is ripe for rediscovery.
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