Expansion of Needs

Posted by Hind Francis on Nov 26, 2011 in Food For Thought | 0 comments

Thoughts?

Book: Small is Beautiful

Posted by Hind Francis on Nov 20, 2011 in Book | 0 comments

Small is Beautiful

Economics as if People Mattered

By Ernst Fritz Schumacher

“Man is small, and, therefore, small is beautiful.”

Ranked among the 100 most influential books published since World War II by Time, Small is Beautiful is one of the most interesting and simple Economic-related books that I have come across.
Although it was written in 1973, it is still EXTREMELY relevant today. Economics teaches us that bigger is better; higher growth rates are favorable however now, we are seeing the negative aspects of this theory.

Ernst Fritz Schumacher was a respected economist who worked with John Maynard Keynes and John Kenneth Galbraith, and for twenty years as the Chief Economic Advisor to the National Coal Board in the United Kingdom. He was opposed to the tenets of neo-classical economics, declaring that single-minded concentration on output and technology was dehumanizing.

Schumacher’s humanistic and simple approach to Economics gives the reader a clear understanding of the issues he is discussing, whether or not that reader happens to have a background in Economics or not.

The book is divided into four parts:

I.               The Modern World

This part covers issues such as the problem of production and economies of scale.

II.             Resources

Consists of the issue of education, nuclear energy, use of land, technology and a few other topics.

III.           The Third World

My personal favourite part of the book as it discusses development and social and economic problems.

IV.           Organisation and Ownership

One of my favourite quotes in the book is:

“The cultivation and expansion of needs is the antithesis of wisdom. It is also the antithesis of freedom and peace. Every increase of needs tends to increase one’s dependence on outside forces over which one cannot have control and therefore increases existential fear. Only by reduction of needs can one promote a genuine reduction in those tensions which are the ultimate causes of strife and war.”

Food for thought? Link