[UrUROFlS]

An Amazon Review by Tony Theil
In my college days I struggled with economics and barely passed. My economic professors and the course material were dull, ambiguous, and non-stimulating. None of these adjectives could be used to describe Schumacher's Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered.

Schumacher makes economics come alive with wit, humor, and practicality. His approach is qualitative, not quantitative. A recurring statement throughout the book epitomizes his philosophy, "Why use the computer if you can make the calculation on the back of an envelope"? He gives the science a personality when identifying the disparities between the rich and poor, the educated and uneducated, and the gap between city people and country-folk.

Small is Beautiful created a humanistic economics movement. It's a wholistic approach containing ethical, ecological, and metaphysical components that are missing from the statistical models that solely measure GNP. Schumacher sounded the alarm regarding globalization when asking "how much further 'growth' will be possible, since infinate growth in a finite environment is an obvious impossibility". He was critical of a society that generates unbounded materialism, and motivated by greed and envy.

Some of the more interesting of the 20 essays are: "Peace and Permanence", "The Role of Economics", "Buddhist Economics", "The Greatest Resource - Education", "Technology with a Human Face", "Development of Intermediate Technology", and "Two Million Villages".

Although the book was written in 1973, it is as timely now as it was then. The 25th anniversary edition contains provocative updates provided as sidebars by contributors such as Hazel Henderson, Peter Warshall, Amory Lovins, Godric Bader, et al. My Capsule
The book Small is Beautiful

(1) Collection of 13 essays (20 in later edition) by British economist, E.F.Schumacher, who had worked with John Maynard Keynes and John Kenneth Galbraith, was published in 1973.
(2) The Times Literary Supplement ranked Small Is Beautiful among the 100 most influential books published since World War II.
(3) Single-minded concentration on output and technology is dehumanizing.
(4) Infinite economic growth is impossible within a finite system.
(5) Subtitle of the book - a Study of Economics as if People Mattered.
(6) Another Book by him: Good Work
(7) Good Work: The effects of modern economics on the individual.
(8) Yet another book by him : A Guide for the Perplexed
(9) Its Subject Matter : the philosophical and spiritual underpinnings of his work.
(10) Work coincided with ecological concerns and environmental movement.
(11) Concluded that government effort must be concentrated on sustainable development.
(12) Ideas grow out of study of village economics later termed Buddhist economics.
(13) Blasted bigger is better and growth is good slogans.
(14) Man is small, and, therefore, small is beautiful.
(15) First to question GNP as a measure of human well being.
(16) A professor's advice to student: Read the book but do not quote it to protect your reputation - he will also turn out to be right in the end.
(17) Critic : Messy, digressive writing. Point does not become clear by the end of the chapter. Vague and worthless solutions without any idea about implementation.
(18) Critic's summary of ideas: Intermediate technology, think locally, value people, distinguish between renewable and non-renewable resources