[Lokutus]

Okeedokes, I tried doing a search here on both name and book title but nothing came up.

I also decided not to post this in the book section because it's not a book review and, besides, that forum has cobwebs.

So I'll ask here if anyone has read this classic and recommends it. It's been on and off my "Must Read List" for at least two decades. I keep wanting to read it but then balk at blowing $20 on something that doesn't seem all that practical for the real world.

Anyone familiar with old EF and his ideas?

[Liamj]

Hell yes. Maybe not for exactly what to do right now (33 yrs after published), but for original and whole system thinking, written at least partly in language related to the gibberish current economic pundits speak, its priceless. Book falls open at Chapter 8, with EFS getting stuck into the infinite-earth delusion for industrial resources, making points v.familiar to any regular on these boards (first published 1973). He narrates in an exasperated-professor style, not unpleasing:
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'C')ountless are the learned studies, from national and international agencies, committees, research institutes, and so forth, which purport to demonstrate, with a vast aray of subtle calculation, that the demand for western European coal is declining and will continue to decline so quickly that the only problem is how to get rid of coal miners quickly enough.

[lyrl]

There are plenty of reviews of his books, and biographies of the man.

If a person read only one book on economics, or politics, or philosophy, I would definitely recommend Small is Beautiful. It will give you plenty to think about, and could make you a better person. It is an inexpensive book, and is an engaging and relatively easy read. However, it is of little practical PO utility in the sense that it won’t help your odds against die-off. His book could be useful toward pursuing a soft landing, but not much of what he addresses is directly actionable by the average Joe. I do wish I could force every politician, businessman, and economist in the world to read it. I definitely recommend you buy it now, and save it for a rainy day. In the meantime to summarize and quote, “Go plant a tree."

Schumacher was aware of coal and oil depletion. From Part II, Chapter 3: $this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'E')very new discovery of oil, or of natural gas … was hailed as a major event which “fundamentally challenged all future prospects,” as if the type of analysis given above [Hubbert-type projection] had not already <i>assumed</i> that enormous new discoveries would be made every year.