E. F. Schumacher (1911–1977)

It must be so frustrating to be ahead of your time: to know that you have an important message only to find that the world is not ready to listen. Schumacher's book is so foresighted that, even now, many people have not awoken to the problems which he foresaw.

When I introduce some of the concepts discussed by Schumacher, you will be forgiven for thinking that this would be a difficult read. You would, however, be wrong in that supposition. He has a remarkable ability to express his vies in show more plain language, open to all and the text draws you along.

With the election of Jeremy Corbyn to the Labour leadership, I have read many people questioning the need for a Green Party. They should read this book. Even on monetary issues, Schumacher defines the error of both right and traditional left: the right give money to the 'haves' and hope for trickle down to sustain the poor, the left value labour but both consider the material worked upon by the labour to be free. If there is one thing that is blindingly obvious today, it is the potentially fatal error in this belief. Schumacher says that the standard of living is covered by capitalism but we need to look at the quality of life, culture, etc.

Schumacher proves, admittedly with 1970's figures, that Capitalism as we currently pursue it, is unsustainable (USA with 5.6% of the world population consumes 40% of world resources). You will not find these figures improving.

The book, written before Climate Change was an issue, argues for localisation where ever possible. The only uncomfortable view that he expresses is that every race needs its own homeland. This sounds a little racist to 21st century ears, but when you consider that Malcolm X argued a similar view in the '70's, I think that one has to accept that this was not meant in the 'foreigners go home' insularism of present day right wing groups. It was more concerned with people having a base, a homeland.

EF. Schumacher is the Green Philosopher. show less

Despite being originally published nearly 50 years ago in 1973 (wow), this non-fiction book re-imagining what people-first economics could look like is only a bit dated. It's quite interesting to notice what has and hasn't drifted into public discourse. The key here is a different set of starting assumptions from traditional economics that lead us different conclusions -- most especially the idea that there are different planes of existence, humans are indeed near the top, and we hold a show more responsibility to each other and to the rest of the world to not screw it up. This stands far apart from underlying tenants of modernism -- especially the positivist idea that the only real truths are scientific truths, and the economic idea that greed is a virtue as long as you re-invest the proceeds. It's all rather traditionally religious.

The parts that especially stood out to me were about work and education:

• Schumacher argues that work itself is humanizing. Not all work -- just the work that involves the right amount of brain challenge and outcomes where improvement is tangible. That's a core Buddhist tenet, but it's also one that we find in Catholicism and even in political science (we know social instability is severely aggravated when most of a society's young men lack both work and families). Now I'm thinking this is pretty universal.
• In contrast to the idea of work being valuable in itself, today's economics treat work as entirely problematic. From the employer's perspective, labor is a cost that should be minimized. From the employee's perspective, it would be ideal to be paid without having to work. This insightful framing explains to me the rise of interest in UBI from rich folks (most recent and vocally Andrew Yang) -- it's a way to "make things more even" for workers while still working within the system that made them rich. A fundamental need of humans to work on tasks that challenge them and show them rewards is also an intriguing and new-to-me argument against UBI.
• A focus on STEM and on education as a vehicle for making more money means insufficient focus on the higher calling of education: knowing oneself, one's moral duties, and what you will bring to the world.
• The type of work that modern tech is most successful at reducing is skillful, productive work done by human hands -- the kind of work that human beings enjoy and need the most. Some people are still able to engage in tasks like woodworking, gardening, sewing, small engine repair and cooking, but they tend to be richer people who have the space and tools and teachers to create humanizing value through their "spare time" work.

There's a bunch more in the book too (like the illogic of treating $1 of a renewable good like corn as equivalent to $1 of a non-renewable good like oil as equivalent to $1 of a manufactured good like cloth as equivalent to $1 of a service like a haircut, environmentalist thoughts on how we're living in a rather large but still limited planet which left me thinking about Easter Island and Biosphere 2, and exposition on the value of intermediate technologies that are labor-intensive and capital-limited as being better positioned for humanizing and effective international development work than shipping abroad major machinery that requires only a handful of low skill workers). Some parts vary pretty far from my ideology (like a strong recommendation for England to burn coal now and forever), but even reasoning through those was fruitful for me. I do suspect this book will continue to stand up to reads for years to come.

Dense, but a very worthy read for anyone wondering what alternatives to our current economics might look like. show less

Frankly depressing to read this eminently sane, eloquent, well-defended, ethical book 40 years after its original publication and look at how all of the ills it describes are still with us. In the last 40 years our economic system has gone on galloping at breakneck speed in exactly the opposite direction from the one Schumacher endorses, with precisely the consequences he describes. It's like reading a book about the danger of runaway trains from the compartment of a runaway train.

Schumacher ha tenido una evolución interesante en su filosofía, no solo económica, sino personal y religiosa. “Lo pequeño es hermoso” refleja un proceso de estudio interior en el que el autor, economista de profesión, evalúa el coste de confiar en un capital que no es propio y que no se regenera. Una bella transición de lo macro a lo micro que sin duda hará replantearse a todo el que lo lea el propio impacto en su entorno inmediato y planetario.