基本信息出版社：Holt Paperbacks
页码：272 页
出版日期：2008年03月
ISBN：0805087222
International Standard Book Number：0805087222
条形码：9780805087222
EAN：9780805087222
装帧：平装
正文语种：英语

内容简介 “Masterfully crafted, deeply thoughtful and mind-expanding.”—Los Angeles Times In this powerful and provocative manifesto, Bill McKibben offers the biggest challenge in a generation to the prevailing view of our economy. Deep Economy makes the compelling case for moving beyond “growth” as the paramount economic ideal and pursuing prosperity in a more local direction, with regions producing more of their own food, generating more of their own energy, and even creating more of their own culture and entertainment. Our purchases need not be at odds with the things we truly value, McKibben argues, and the more we nurture the essential humanity of our economy, the more we will recapture our own. Bill McKibben is the author of ten books, including The End of Nature, The Age of Missing Information, and Enough: Staying Human in an Engineered Age. A former staff writer for The New Yorker, he writes regularly for Harper's, The Atlantic Monthly, and The New York Review of Books, among other publications. He is a scholar in residence at Middlebury College and lives in Vermont with his wife, the writer Sue Halpern, and their daughter. In this manifesto, Bill McKibben offers the biggest challenge in a generation to the prevailing view of our economy. For the first time in human history, he observes, "more" is no longer synonymous with "better"—indeed, for many of us, they have become almost opposites. McKibben puts forward a new way to think about the things we buy, the food we eat, the energy we use, and the money that pays for it all. The animating idea of Deep Economy is that we need to move beyond "growth" as the paramount economic ideal and pursue prosperity in a more local direction, with cities, suburbs, and regions producing more of their own food, generating more of their own energy, and even creating more of their own culture and entertainment. McKibben shows this concept blossoming around the world with striking results, from the burgeoning economies of India and China to the more mature societies of Europe and New England. For those who worry about environmental threats, he offers a route out of the worst of those problems; for those who wonder if there isn't something more to life than buying, he provides the insight to think about one's life as an individual and as a member of a larger community. A generation ago, many environmentalists advocated "deep ecology," through which they sought to move beyond short-term, piecemeal reforms by asking profound questions about the choices people make in their daily lives. McKibben demonstrates that we need a similar shift in our thinking about economics—we need to think about the "deep economy" that takes human satisfaction and societal durability more seriously. As he shows, the more we nurture the essential humanity of our economy, the more we will recapture our own. "It would be unwise to dismiss McKibben's ideas as pipe dreams or Luddism. He makes his case on anecdotal, environmental, moral and, as it were, aesthetic grounds. An attentive, widely traveled writer and environmentalist, McKibben cites the success of local projects around the world, from a rabbit-raising academy in China to a Guatemalan cooperative that manufactures farm machinery from old bicycles."—Lance Morrow, The New York Times Book Review "Masterfully crafted, deeply thoughtful and mind-expanding . . . An incisive critique of the unintended consequences of our growth-oriented economy."—Los Angeles Times "It would be unwise to dismiss McKibben's ideas as pipe dreams or Luddism. He makes his case on anecdotal, environmental, moral and, as it were, aesthetic grounds. An attentive, widely traveled writer and environmentalist, McKibben cites the success of local projects around the world, from a rabbit-raising academy in China to a Guatemalan cooperative that manufactures farm machinery from old bicycles."—Lance Morrow, The New York Times Book Review "Deep Economy is about far more than food. At its heart is a marvelous exposition of Joel Salatin's belief that everything has an appropriate scale. For McKibben, the appropriate scale for a sustainable and fulfilling life is the community . . . McKibben provides a wonderful example of how the expansion of radio-networks in America—at the expense of truly local radio stations—has cost the communities dear . . . In one aspect of life after another McKibben shows us show us how globalization has destroyed communities and the detracted from the quality of life of Americans."—The New York Review of Books

"McKibben, author of The End of Nature, suggests that there is a basic question haunting our moment on earth: 'Is more better?' For thousands of years, the standard of living for human society remained relatively static, with the majority of people existing in a condition of general scarcity. But when living conditions began to improve, thanks to the power of industrialization and modern capitalism, the obvious conclusion was that 'more' could only be better. Today, argues McKibben, this belief warrants revision. Measured in terms of growing inequalities within and across nations, a wealth of evidence suggests that 'more' is no longer better—indeed, 'more' may be very bad for us and our world. McKibben claims that the antidote for many global economic problems can be found locally. To this end, he argues that attention should be redirected towards more traditional means of pursuing prosperity within our communities, such as farmers' markets, community-supported agriculture farms (CSAs), community-based radio stations, and mercantile cooperatives. While a turn to the local may not be fast, cheap, or easy, it may very well prove necessary if we are to secure the thriving of human beings in the decades ahead."—Josh Yates, Virginia Quarterly Review

“Up-front disclosure: Bill’s a friend and sometime collaborator. But if his book weren’t terrific I wouldn’t mention it. He takes on a question that hardly anyone, no matter his or her political persuasion, is willing to ask: Is economic growth a good thing? Dave Brower used to say that economic is a sophisticated device for stealing from our children. And Ed Abbey famously quipped that growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell. But nearly everyone else, left, right, and center, insists that perpetual growth is possible and necessary. McKibben blows this assumption out of the water, making an irresistible argument, buttressed with impressive logic and authority, that not only is unending economic growth causing catastrophic damage to the earth, the atmosphere, and human equality, the sheer fact of getting more and more stuff is not making people happier. It’s hard to do his thesis justice in a short space: I urge you to read it for yourself. A very important book.”—Earth Justice “If you fancy yourself on the cutting edge of things you keep up with the trends, stay abreast of the news you’ll want to read Deep Economy by Bill McKibben . . . McKibben’s prose is pithy and approachable, e.g., when writing of what will happen if our carbon emissions go uncheck
作者简介 Bill McKibben is the author of a dozen books, including The End of Nature, Enough: Staying Human in an Engineered Age, and Deep Economy. A former staff writer for The New Yorker, he writes regularly for Harper’s, The Atlantic Monthly, and The New York Review of Books, among other publications. He is a scholar in residence at Middlebury College and lives in Vermont with his wife, the writer Sue Halpern, and their daughter.
文摘 Introduction
For most of human history, the two birds More and Better roosted on the same branch. You could toss one stone and hope to hit them both. That’s why the centuries since Adam Smith have been devoted to the dogged pursuit of maximum economic production. The idea that individuals, pursuing their own individual interests in a market society, make one another richer and the idea that increasing efficiency, usually by increasing scale, is the key to increasing wealth has indisputably produced More. It has built the unprecedented prosperity and ease that distinguish the lives of most of the people reading this book. It is no wonder and no accident that they dominate our politics, our outlook, even our personalities.
But the distinguishing feature of our moment is this: Better has flown a few trees over to make her nest. That changes everything. Now, if you’ve got the stone of your own life, or your own society, gripped in your hand, you have to choose between them. It’s More or Better.
Some of the argument I’ll make in these pages will seem familiar: growth is no longer making most people wealthier, but instead generating inequality and insecurity. And growth is bumping against physical limits so profound—like climate change and peak oil—that continuing to expand the economy may be impossible; the very attempt may be dangerous. But there’s something else too, a wild card we’re just now beginning to understand: new research from many quarters has started to show that even when growth does make us wealthier, the greater wealth no longer makes us happier.
Taken together, these facts show that we need to make a basic shift. Given all that we now know about topics ranging from the molecular structure of carbon dioxide to the psychology of human satisfaction, we need to move decisively to rebuild our local economies. These may well yield less stuff, but t
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