Subject: Book Review - The Case Against the Global Economy

From: eric + michiko <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 15 Dec 1997 08:38:48 -0800

I just finished reading The Case Against the Global Economy: and For a Turn
Toward the Local.  (Edited by Jerry Mander and Edward Goldsmith, Sierra Club
Books, 1996, ISBN 0-87156-865-9).

  I found it very readable and informative, not because the idea that the
global economy is detrimental to society is new, but because it is filled
with specific information about what the global enonomy is doing to the
world and why it is happening.  All of which is a touch on the "gloom and
doom" side , but the last section of the book is about solutions (i.e.
moving toward local economies).  It's got a lot of the facts and figures
that can be sprinkled into conversations, courses and writings to support
the conclusion that Permaculture, sustainability, local economy,
bio-regionalism, etc. is the way to go.

The list of contributing writers is impressive and says a lot about the
book, so I will list some of them below for those who are interested.  It
seems like a book that Pc teachers, especially, should be familiar with, and
it should be on Pc Design Course book lists (I believe ALL Pc Design Courses
should hand out book/resource lists to students.) 

It has prompted me to get on the Internet and find out what these
trans-national corporations are up to.  I've already begun to collect a long
list of common brand names and companies owned by those few large
corporations.  Scarry.  It might be just the thing to help persuade some
people that we are headed the wrong way.  (Leads appreciated.)  Don't get me
wrong; I'm all for the positivism that Permaculture represents, but some
people need an answer to the question, "What's wrong with the way things are
(i.e. the way I do things)?  I'm also going to spend more time promoting our
local economy.

Live Well & Enjoy!

Eric Storm
Sebastopol, California

PARTIAL LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS

Wendell Berry, Vandana Shiva, Ralph Nader, William Grieder, Jeremy Rifkin,
Helena Norberg-Hodge, David Korten, Kirkpatrick Sale, Herman, E. Daly,
Richard Barnet, John Cavanagh, Maude Barlow, Andrew Kimbrell and, of course,
Jerry Mander and Edward Goldsmith. (+31 others!)