Peak Everything by Richard Heinberg - Book Review #305

Narrated by Edward Dalmas

To be honest I felt like there was no hope for humanity after hearing this book.

The world is a big giant mess, I already knew this.  It's why I picked it up.

I've said it before, with a lot of these books they are heavy on problems and light on solutions.  Heinberg simply made me feel like everything was hopeless and I just wanted to give up.

But as the eternal optimist, Peter Diamandis, often says - "The world's biggest problems are the world's biggest market opportunities."  Keep that in mind.

A book like Peak Everything will shine the light on the problems.  It will be up to you to decide which ones you'd like to tackle and to go out to find the solutions yourself.

To be fair, Heinberg does have some solutions, but they mostly revolve about returning to an agrarian life.  Who knows, maybe he's right.

Do I recommend it?  Sure.  Why not?  Just be warned that it's a very one-sided read.

Richard Heinberg's website - https://richardheinberg.com/

Richard Heinberg

Nudge by Richard H Thaler and Cass R Sunstein - Book Report #297

Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness

This was an excellent book about the power of suggestion, default choices and inertia.

The basis for the whole theory of nudging is called Libertarian Paternalism, an oxymoron to me but well enough developed and explained that I bought into it.

Now I see examples of nudges everywhere and it makes me smile.

There is nothing more rewarding to me than reading a book (audiobook in this case) and having it fundamentally change the way I see the world.

Excellent stuff.

Richard H Thaler's Wiki Page - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Thaler#External_links

Cass R Sunstein's Wiki Page - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cass_Sunstein#External_links

Cass R Sunstein

Richard H Thaler

Curing Affluenza by Richard Denniss - Book Review #265

Like Enough is Enough this book takes a look at our current capitalist system and suggests changes to allow humanity to live in harmony with the Earth's ecosystem.

In both books, it is stressed that it is the ecosystem that has allowed us to create our current economic system.  One of the ideas that really gave me pause was money; it was invented by humans and has no relationship to the environment, it only has value because we've all agreed to it.  If we continue to destroy resources in pursuit of money there will be consequences.  But we already know that.

Curing Affluenza takes a closer look at needed changes to our current capitalist system and points to the benefit of the service industries, how government services are not as bad as the press and private industry claim and how the pursuit of more stuff is part of the problem.

Dennis claims that we must change how we identify ourselves from "consumers" to "citizens" that are part of a larger whole.

Changes are needed and coming but it doesn't mean it's the end of the world.  It has happened many times before, think of how society radically changed after WWII.  The only lingering worry is whether we've done too much damage to our planet already.

I highly recommend this book.

Richard Denniss

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Enough is Enough by Rob Dietz and Dan O’Neill - Book Review #263

Doesn't it seem like the world is broken?  Climate Change and the growing gap between the rich and the poor are symptoms of capitalism reaching its limit.

There are some fundamental shortcomings in the GDP formula and the pursuit of profit above all else.

In this book, Dietz & O'Neill take a 10,000 ft look at our economic systems and offer adjustments that could make powerful changes in the way we work, measure prosperity and co-exist with the environment.

Some of their ideas seemed nearly impossible to contemplate to me.  But it is a powerful read that made me see the world in a differently.

The book pointed me to two very interesting organizations that trying to find a way for people and the environment to exist in harmony.

Take a look at the Post Carbon Institue and the Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy.

Rob Dietz is also a host of the Crazy Town podcast.

I recommend the book if you are convinced that the problems of the world stem from how our economies work.

Rob Dietz

Dan O'Neill

Waking Dragon by Prof. Peter Navarro - Book Report #235

This was a comprehensive look at the influence and future impact of a rising China.

The audiobook was part of the Modern Scholar Series which are recorded lectures taught by university professors.

It was primarily a course on the economics of a modern China.  But it also looked deeply into environmental and social impacts the country's role as the world's factory floor.

Let's face it, the world is a big, complicated and messy place.  So is China.

I liked the course, in that it illuminated the inner realities of the country and, if things are not managed carefully, how conflicts can arise.

I found it sobering.

The only downside to the series were the questions at the end of each lecture.  Which were not questions at all but a terrible way to recap the salient points the professor wanted to make. 

Prof. Navarro's Wiki page - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Navarro

PostCapitalism by Paul Mason - Book Report #215

I had a difficult time with this book.

It was mostly me, I just could not penetrate Mason's writing.  I found myself reading a passage and having to re-read it again to understand what he was saying.  It was like that for most of the book.

The subtitle was certainly a bit misleading - A Guide to Our Future it hardly was.  3/4 of the book was spent on describing capitalism's long history.  Over and over again the author would take us on a tour of the past.

Finally, in the last section, he began to apply theory to a new economic model.  It is interesting to contemplate the effect the digital realm is having on the economy.  It was also a challenge to imagine how a society would work without money.  Try it.  Every single aspect of our way of life relies on it.  It's like water.  We need it.

I found the book a difficult read but that has only spurred me on to wanting to learn more about it.  It is a curious notion to think that we are in the first decades of this very transformation.  Like everything else, I believe a solution will be found.  You have to believe that otherwise living is just too bleak.

I am not so sure I would recommend this book as I had such a difficult time with it.  But, without it, I wouldn't know where else to look to try to get a better understanding of a world without money.

I a search for more understanding on the subject I found The Postcapitalist Future website.  Try reading the manifesto first and see if that sparks any new insights.  -  http://postcapfuture.com/manifesto/

Paul Mason's website - http://www.paulmasonnews.com/

Paul Mason

This Changes Everything by Naomi Klein - Book Report #214

Here is another terrifying book that may well make you throw up your hands in the hopelessness of it all.  Humanity is polluting itself right out of existence and it seems there is no way to stop ourselves.

But Klein pulls back, just in time, at the very end of the book, to show us that there is a way out, that things can be done and there is a strong grass-roots movement underfoot that can lead us out of our mess.

Klein is a heavy-handed author but she does do her job by injecting some balance into her book.  Nothing frustrates me more than an author that will only write about the problems without offering solutions as inspiration to make things better.  Klein at least makes an attempt to show us alternatives.

One thing she touched on that caught my attention is the notion that there is a way of life that does not involve capitalism.  Post-capitalism, because it's such a new idea that capitalism's replacement has no name and barley a framework.  But if you can imagine a society without money, then you can see where this kind of structure could lead us out of our current mindset of resource based extraction economies.

It was one of those moments where an author gave me an entire new avenue of thinking that I find intriguing.

I do recommend the book but, be warned, it can be a bit of a slog.

Naomi Klein's website - http://www.naomiklein.org/main