Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet - Softcover

Sachs, Jeffrey

Softcover

ISBN 10: 184614048X ISBN 13: 9781846140488

Publisher: Allen Lane, 2008

Synopsis

From one of the world's greatest economic minds, author of The New York Times bestseller The End of Poverty, a clear and vivid map of the road to sustainable and equitable global prosperity and an augury of the global economic collapse that lies ahead if we don't follow it

The global economic system now faces a sustainability crisis, Jeffrey Sachs argues, one that will overturn many of our basic assumptions about economic life. The changes will be deeper than a rebalancing of economics and politics among different parts of the world; the very idea of competing nation-states scrambling for power, resources, and markets will in some crucial respects become passŽ. The only question is how bad it will have to get before we face the unavoidable. We will have to learn on a global scale some of the hard lessons that successful societies have gradually and grudgingly learned within national borders: that there must be common ground between rich and poor, among competing ethnic groups, and between society and nature.

The central theme of Jeffrey Sachs's new book is that we need a new economic paradigm-global, inclusive, cooperative, environmentally aware, science-based-because we are running up against the realities of a crowded planet. The alternative is a worldwide economic collapse of unprecedented severity. Prosperity will have to be sustained through more cooperative processes, relying as much on public policy as on market forces to spread technology, address the needs of the poor, and to husband threatened resources of water, air, energy, land, and biodiversity. The "soft issues" of the environment, public health, and population will become the hard issues of geopolitics. New forms of global politics will in important ways replace capital-city-dominated national diplomacy and intrigue. National governments, even the U.S., will become much weaker actors as scientific networks and socially responsible investors and foundations become the more powerful actors.

If we do the right things, there is room for all on the planet. We can achieve the four key goals of a global society: prosperity for all, the end of extreme poverty, stabilization of the global population, and environmental sustainability. These are not utopian goals or pipedreams, yet they are far from automatic. Indeed, we are not on a successful trajectory now to achieve these goals. Common Wealth points the way to the course correction we must embrace for the sake of our common future.

About this title

About the Author

Jeffrey D. Sachs is the Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University and Special Advisor to United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan on the Millennium Development Goals. He is internationally renowned for his work as an economic adviser to governments around the world.

From AudioFile

Sachs is an economist who sees overpopulation as the heart of the planet's problems. To solve those problems will require global cooperation. Nations must understand the need to go beyond parochial differences to avoid the destruction of our species. Malcolm Hillgartner is solid as narrator. He treats the material seriously, in the manner of a documentary narrator, but without the basso profundo voice that could quickly devolve into caricature. He varies his tone enough to keep the book interesting but not so much that it becomes distracting. The complexity of the book requires concentration on the part of the listener, so it's not for casual listening--but its message is worth the effort. R.C.G. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Edition details

• Publisher: Allen Lane
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 184614048X
• ISBN 13: 9781846140488
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 386