Recommened Reading :: Deep Economy

Measured in purely economic standards, a cancer patient on his way to his divorce lawyer who gets in a car accident is great for the economy.

Obviously, no sane person would want to be that man, but as Bill McKibben's book shows, our economy and our government's hand in directing in it are just as detached as the above example.

McKibben points to some sobering long term statistics we're not facing, that obviously we can't keep driving the economy based on oil, new housing starts and suburbanizing the landscape - but we are doing just that and like social security - no politician wants to face it. So Chuck Schumer in his flag-waving for Atlantic Yards, tells us we must 'Grow or Die'. Or in other words, pass the buck to future generations.

I am not surprised that greedy, corrupt jerks like Bruce Ratner lack imagination and foresight, nor politicians like 'Chuck' Schumer, but it should be plainly obvious to those that don't have their hand in the cookie jar that continuing to base the NY economy on massive soviet style projects, ignoring real infrastructure, putting up useless soon to be obsolete space like arena's (and in other cases, getting rid of shipping docks for luxury cruise liners) is a recipe for disaster. Future generations, the ones who would be paying for Ratner's greed, should he succeed, will probably wonder in bewilderment how we could be so selfish and short-sighted.

Anyway the book provides many positive examples of new approaches to economics and food growing and what look like genuinely better ways to live. Summary here.