Bionomics: Economy As Ecosystem

by Michael L. Rothschild

Depicting economic history as an unstoppable evolutionary process that drives social change, the author theorizes that capitalism is the inevitable way in which human society organizes itself for survival in a world of limited resources

Genres: Economics, Business, Science, Nonfiction, History

Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

Reviews

[Marshall · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a good book with interesting ideas. The only caveat is that Rothschild is not an economist and does not back his points with rigor. I recommend reading more Hayek for further study. I think it's a great book for people who do not understand the bottom up nature of social organization. Those who have groked this concept can probably pass.

[Stephanie Petersen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I re-read parts of this book every year... one of my favorites.

[Brian Beckner · Rating 5 out of 5]

A truly under appreciated book if you have any interest in Consilience or a unified theory of science by method. Fantastic book.

[Riley Pelisek · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading in 2017, I feel some of the awe he would evoke from discussion of genomics in readers during the time it was written would compensate for the poorly developed economic arguments. Unfortunately, now that level of knowledge comes with an 8th grade course, and while there are some interesting anecdotes about ecology, I did not find the book particular insightful as a whole.

[Torsten Sewing · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's something eery about this. As is with most things to do around Virginia Postrel and "Reason". However, lots of drilled-down, complex thoughts here. As if a right-winger would try to get Ed Freeman's model of "stakeholder capitalism" - if you can accept for arguments' sake the notion of social-darwinism that is hanging in here.

What you get is an indeed "dynamic" (cf Postrel) understanding of economics, something beyond the mechanical mainstream WSJ-stuff, pointing to the ecological dimension of economy. I'd be interested what the guy is doing today... (he wrote that in 1992, so it's interesting to read all the industry stories before anything like CSR hit).

[Nick Woodall · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting parallel and analogies between business and biology.

[Luminous Scratchoff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it!!! Made me rethink my ideas of what economics are and can be.