cover image For the Common Good

For the Common Good

Herman E. Daly, John Cobb. Beacon Press (MA), $24.95 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-8070-4702-6

Pushing for economic growth above all else, industrial nations ignore the damage done to the biosphere by the profligate use of energy and scarce resources. Daly, a World Bank economist, and Cobb, a philosopher-theologian, set forth a detailed, far-reaching blueprint for a highly decentralized economy built around small communities, scaled to human needs and stewardship of the planet. Their important, radical critique of contemporary economic thinking in the book's dry first half leads to specific proposals in the second. These include a tax on industrial polluters, worker participation in management and ownership, reduced military expenditures and a self-sufficient national economy that relies less on imports. In place of gross national product, they put forth an ``index of sustainable economic welfare'' as a yardstick of true growth. (Jan.)