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Juliet B. Schor – PlenitudeThe New Economics of True WealthPublisher: Tantor MediaUnabridged CD edition (May 13, 2010)ISBN: 1400167337MP3 64KBps ABR, 44KHz, 16 Bit MonoSchor (Born to Buy) introduces her concept of plenitude as a way forward after the recent shattering of global capitalism and continued rise in CO2 emissions. Plentitude is a commitment to enjoying—not exploiting—nature’s richness, to envisioning environmental, economic, and psychological health as braided and capable of growing symbiotically and more securely than the business as usual practices that imploded in 2008. Schor pleads for avoiding planetary ecocide: even though the polar ice caps are shrinking and 38% of the 45,000 species studied by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature are under threat of extinction, the West—particularly Americans—continue to create waste and gobble up resources at unsustainable rates (in 2006, the U.S. emission of CO2 was 19.7 metric tons per capita, compared to 1.3 in India). Fortunately, the interest in alternative energy, recycling, and clean nanotechnologies is increasing, and Schor encourages readers to match it by breaking out of a work hard/spend hard cycle, thereby improving both the environment and quality of life. It might be utopian, but it’s also fresh, persuasive, and passionately argued, speaking to the individual and the collective. Product DescriptionAt a moment of ecological and financial crisis, bestselling author and economist Juliet B. Schor presents a revolutionary strategy for transitioning toward a richer, more balanced life.————————————————————————Reviewed by R. Strasser (Seattle, WA USA)This review is from: Plenitude: The New Economics of True Wealth (Hardcover)Plenitude – The New Economics of True Wealth by economist, Juliet B. Schor, said, “The next economic era needs to be devoted to restoring the capacity of the earth to support humans and other life forms.” Webster’s 11th Collegiate Dictionary defines Plenitude as completeness and abundance. So how does the definition of Plenitude square with restoring the earth? If you’re confused, don’t despair, so are Wall Street, Congress and most economists. Even for those who are talking about taxes and tea in Boston Harbor, Professor Schor of Boston College writes a plan for humanity to weather the eco and econ storms that bedevil E = ns2. She also rewrites some basic economic rules. The Professor said global capitalism shattered in 2008 and $50 trillion of wealth was erased. Though the global economy has been rescued, it hasn’t been fixed, according to the author. Rather than focus on what cannot be done, Juliet Schor points a laser at what we can do: * Less, Less, More, More – Work Less, Buy Less, Create More, and Connect More – the 4 principles of Plenitude. * Principle 1. Work Less (shorter hours). A new allocation of time outside the market (your job) – Now you have time for Principle 2. * Principle 2. Buy Less. Make, Grow – do things for oneself. And sell what you don’t use, i.e. food, energy – anything. * Principle 3. Create More. Take a slow boat to China rather than a fast tanker of goods in the opposite direction – conserve land, air, water and their resources. * Principle 4. Connect More. Like money and material goods, social capital is an economic term. Connect to each other and community. Now we can use time, knowledge and technology (TKT) to revise business as usual (BAU) and build community, said Dr. Schor. Plenitude tells the BAU story of “a truly gargantuan scale of consumption.” The book said the environmental bells first tolled in the 1970s. Then ecological economists reported in 2009 that of the nine identified safe operating zones known as planetary boundaries, we had exceeded three (climate, biodiversity and the nitrogen cycle). And we are approaching limits on four more (freshwater use, land use, ocean acidification and the phosphorous cycle). And, according to biologists, we are in the midst of a planetary sixth mass extinction. The consumption extravaganza ended in 2008, and left in its wake two crises – “financial and ecological.” Juliet Schor said that economists’ support of BAU and bullish beliefs in markets had led to financial and ecological herd behavior, irrationality, corruption and short-termism that threatens earth’s habitat for humanity and other life. America’s environmental disaster in the Gulf of Mexico is the latest victim of irrational financial and environmental economics. “Drill, baby, drill” in deep waters now is a call so shrill that only the derelict can deny the dangers. Production, distribution and consumption may have created the universe, but Economics now confronts the earth. Plenitude said, “most economists have practiced their craft as if nature did not exist.” But the Society for Ecological Economics (SEE) said that ecosystems should be at the core of economic analysis. Who is right, most economists or SEE? The complexities of economic science aside, Juliet Schor thinks SEE gets it right. Many economists believe that most countries must endure a growing concentration of income as they develop, but once they become wealthy, they can buy themselves more fairness.” A 30-year survey ranks America’s income inequality, healthcare and social problems “worse” than any advanced nation on earth (The Spirit Level – Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger by Wilkinson and Pickett). Most economists got it wrong – dead wrong. And the over value of income and under value of nature is on track for a long-term eco and econ catastrophe. An economic externality, the environmental affect (CO2, for example), means that the market is inefficient. Markets, like most economists, now get Economics wrong. Dr. Schor said, “Climate change is the most serious market failure in human history.” Our TKT from BAU to living rich on a troubled planet is at a crossroads. A debt-financed consumer boom is no longer affordable for households and the planet, said Plenitude. Juliet Schor talks about – “a better way of human being” – an extraordinarily uplifting plan to repair fractured lives, heal our souls and make us wealthy in ways that have little to do with money and consumption. For example, “The New Economics Foundation’s Happy Planet Index incorporates ecological footprints, life satisfaction measures, and life expectancy into a single metric that measures how efficiently nations are using natural resources to produce happy lives (or “happy life years”).” Plenitude said, “Costa Rica tops the list, with its 99 percent renewable energy, life expectancy of 78.5 years, and average satisfaction score of 8.5 out of 10. (It also has one of the lowest poverty rates in the developing world, is reforesting its land, and abolished its army in 1949). By contrast, the United States clocks in at a dismally inefficient 114th, largely because its ecological footprint is so high relative to “happy life year” results that are about average for wealthy countries.” From Socrates to Schor, civilization has enjoyed the counsel of wise men and women. The spirit of the Dodo bird and Easter Island also speaks to us – “conserve and change, or perish,” they said. The con in conserve is Latin for consort, which means cooperation. The serve in conserve is also derived from Latin (servus), which means servant. For too long a time, humanity has not cooperated with and served Nature; we have exploited ecosystems and resources that serve as home for humans and countless other living species. That home now is in danger of falling down under the weight of eco and econ misdeeds, which are conjoined in a combine of destruction. Humanity, on the whole, has viewed itself as outside nature rather than as a creature of nature. It also has written nature out of its economic theories, and considers natural systems as an externality to Economics. That view is myopic, in the climatic extreme. The new formula for Economics, E = ns2, is simple yet accurate. Mankind is a bipedal, primate mammal – a production of nature. Every animal and all life forms are creatures of nature, which also includes inanimate elements and resources on and off the earth. And Economics is a set of rules for production, distribution and consumption of goods and services created by a living species of nature – Humanity. Land, air, water, food, life and Economics all are productions of photosynthesis powered by sunlight. Plenitude – The New Economics of True Wealth – is lucid and prescient, and it should lead to a new definition of Economics. If not the one offered here, let’s begin the search for a definition that Harvard Economics Professor, Stephen A. Marglin, would approve – one that includes the limits of Economics growth.