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 enlarge | Author: Bill Mckibben
Publisher: Holt Paperbacks
Category: Book
List Price: $14.00
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Rating:  50 reviews
Sales Rank: 2344
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 272
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.8
ISBN: 0805087222
Dewey Decimal Number: 301
EAN: 9780805087222
ASIN: 0805087222
Publication Date: March 4, 2008
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| Customer Reviews:
 Great Intro, Lacks Depth April 28, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
While Mr. McKibben brings some thought-provoking ideas to light, his book reads less like an economic template and more like a drawn out Time Magazine editorial. The accessibility of it doesn't make it any less worthwhile, but it lacks the nitty-gritty detail that economics buffs, like myself, look for. In that regard, the title of the book is a misnomer.
Still, "Deep Economy" will leave you thinking even more so about the moral and ecological shortcomings of our current economic policies--and thirsting for more knowledge on how to fix it. Just don't expect "Deep Economy" to be the green answer to "The Wealth of Nations."
 Excellent. April 27, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I read this book, then bought copies for the my mother and my sister. I want everyone I know to read it.
 Better than most April 24, 2008
1 out of 5 found this review helpful
Excellent writing. Bad title.
Bill McKibben throws the kitchen sink at us from Bill Gates to Gandhi. More time should have been spent on solutions, particularly in US communities. Eco cohousing was glossed over.
Also missed was the huge cost of US health care which is a serious drain on our resources. Missing was the fact that US universities are also building McMansions and our educational institutions are burning money while poor people can not get all day schools so they can work. I won't even get into the political waste going on.
But McKibben is totally right on - big is killing us. Growth is killing us. Small is obviously better, but right now most communities don't know that they have to take the bull by the horns. Stay home next time, Bill. It is less fun, but the real work is here.
left with wanting more April 1, 2008
8 out of 10 found this review helpful
Although I thought that "Deep Economy" was well-written and informative, I was disappointed because I think that it did not give any real solutions, nor did the book take into account the desperation of the lower classes in the U.S. due to poverty, lack of health-care, lack of security, and lack of any promising opportunities. Before the poor in our country can tackle new, sustainable economic ideals, we have to resolve their subsistence and security issues and provide hopeful, long-lasting opportunities through education and business.
I agree most heartily with Mr. McKibben's overall assessment of America's gross over-consumption, and "hyper-individualism", and that, through globalism, we are exporting these ideals in a destructive way, but I cannot share his optimism that this can change just simply through localism. His anecdotes about how alternatives work, though idyllic sounding, are elitist and not at all practical or even possible on a large scale. With our current, growing population, we cannot go back to small, local village economies. Plus, even within the types of projects that he describes in the book, hyper-individualism prevails. I have experienced and witnessed that co-housing, community radio and cooperative projects in this country are often wracked with conflict and so much personal attacks that members become disillusioned and burnt-out and eventually good-hearted souls abandon the concepts altogether. For better or worse, "hyper-individualism" is here to stay.
The only solution, that I can see, is for the U.S. to take strong action at the Federal level. We need a major restructuring of our tax code, our agricultural policy, our energy policy, our trade policies and treaties, our health-care system, etc. But I doubt that there is the necessary political leadership and will to avoid (when the grid shuts down, the gas goes away, and the Wal-Marts empty) a future of shortages, chaos, conflict and misery.
a book which can change your thinking April 1, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
A very good, well-written book on some of the most challanging topics of this era.
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