Shoveling Fuel for a Runaway Train: Errant Economists, Shameful Spenders, and a Plan to Stop them All

Rating:
Summary: This book does more harm than good
Review: While the first part of the book provides compelling reasons for re-examining how we view economic policy, you can find all the same arguments better explained within the introduction of Herman Daly's excellent book Beyond Growth. Czech adds nothing to Daly in repeating him, and the second part of Czech's book is dangerous in its ignorance. Czech basically says that the more something costs, the more it wastes; and therefore the best thing to do to stop waste is to villify spending. He gives several extravagant examples of luxury by members of the upper classes as proof that they waste far more per capita than normal people and thus (psychological) class warfare (though he doesn't call it that) is the answer to our environmental problems.

There are SO many things wrong with this view. First, a $100 bottle of wine doesn't waste any more or less than a $6 bottle of wine, nor does more expensive organic produce cause more environmental damage than cheaper conventional produce (quite the opposite). Did Czech entirely miss Daly's explanation of the difference between quantity/growth and quality/development? Second, if the large estates that Czech chides the upper classes for saves trees and land from cookie-cutter suburban housing developments, I for one am all for them (i.e. the large estates). Third, villifying *anyone* as part of the ecological economics revolution is counter-productive, particularly in that blaming the rich for their waste ignores the hideous waste of the lower classes themselves. (So richer people have more boats, perhaps, but what classes are more likely to have a beat-up car that leaves trails of grey exhaust?) Taking personal responsibility for the greater good is key to reaching a solution -- not passing blame on others. If, for instance, ecological damage (in production, use, and disposal) is taken into account in pricing goods and services (with the proper funds going toward mitigation of the damages rather than general government coffers), then it doesn't matter WHO is doing the purchasing. Czech presents good arguments for fundamental economic reforms; but these arguments are better presented elsewhere, and Czech's proposed solutions are quite awful indeed.