The Other Road to Serfdom and the Path to Sustainable Democracy

by Eric Zencey

Our planet is finite. Our political and economic systems were designed for an infinite planet. These difficult truths anchor the perceptive analysis offered in The Other Road to Serfdom and the Path to Sustainable Democracy. With wit, energy, and a lucid prose style, Eric Zencey identifies the key elements of “infinite planet” thinking that underlie our economics and our politics―and shows how they must change. Zencey’s title evokes F. A. Hayek, who argued that any attempt to set overall limits to free markets―any attempt at centralized planning―is “the road to serfdom.” But Hayek’s argument works only if the planet is infinite. If Hayek is right that planning and democracy are irreducibly in conflict, Zencey argues, then on a finite planet, “free markets operated on infinite planet principles are just the other road to serfdom.” The alternative is ecological economics, an emergent field that accepts limits to what humans can accomplish economically on a finite planet. Zencey explains this new school of thought and applies it to current political and economic the financial collapse, terrorism, population growth, hunger, the energy and oil industry’s social control, and the deeply rooted dissatisfactions felt by conservative “values” voters who have been encouraged to see smaller government and freer markets as the universal antidote. What emerges is a coherent vision, a progressive and hopeful alternative to neoconservative economic and political theory―a foundation for an economy that meets the needs of the 99% and just might help save civilization from ecological and political collapse.

340 pages, Hardcover

First published October 8, 2012

Reviews

[Stuart · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finally!

When I was a kid and learned about the laws of thermodynamics I almost immediately applied to them to the surrounding world in a structural way--most specifically with capitalism. I couldn't, for the life of me, figure out why economists ignored the laws of entropy. Knowing that we live in a finite world and applying the laws of diminishing returns and substitution at the margins, you can very quickly paint a very nasty picture of the future of the natural world--of our world.

Though I read widely, only New Institutional Economics even came close to factoring the value of "ecosystem services" and even then with reference to the Kusznets curve. Legal and economic regimes often refer to pollution as an "externality" but don't offer any sort of treatment on a structure level--and don't even think of bringing up global warming. It gives neoclassical economics (and the associated economists) a terrible headache.

Imagine my surprise, then, when I began talking to an economist while manning a booth at St. Louis Earth Day and he started talking about the need to include systemically include environmental costs and values in our economic models! He introduced himself as Eric Zencey and said "I teach ecological economics. You should find my book, it's called 'The Other Road to Serfdom'. Read it and email me."

Having finished the book last night I will most certainly email him. Not only does he expertly make the case for rethinking economics away from a system that assumes limitless inputs and substitutability (I challenge anyone to find a meaningful substitute for clean air or clean water), he then proceeds to lay open the cultural institutions built on "infinite planet theory" AND THEN ends on an optimistic note. I'll lay each out concisely below, in quote form. Steal them for your book report or whatever.

First: Mr. Zencey lays open the fallacies inherent in neoclassical economics and the relationship between economic systems and totalitarianism. He then runs through the fallacies of the Environmental Kuzsnets Curve as well as exploring the troubling patterns of international development.

Second: Mr. Zencey explores "American" notions of happiness and prosperity (with the GDP being a prime target) and discusses progressive and neoconservative responses to our decline in economic security and happiness with some truly excellent analysis on the politics of the "Culture Wars" and neoconservative ideology.

Third: Mr. Zencey details the history of the perception of the environmental movement (much different than the actual history of the movement) and sets forth a plan for developing a new, economically grounded, finite-planet environmental movement, ending with a statement that armed with all the facts, Americans will choose sustainability.

I'm sold entirely on his first two points, and such is the force of Mr. Zencey's argument that I, a lifelong despairing eco-anarchist, am finding ways to buy into his third point.

Overall, an excellent primer on ecological economics and a captivating read. It gets 4 stars because its a collection of essays/other writings and I think it would work better as a full-on integrated text.

[Ray Johns · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a most valuable and timely book about the present economy and the future economy which must be built on the finite resources of our planet. In the second chapter, "Friedich Hayek, socialist,and his fallacy of the excluded middle",Eric Zencey accurately shows how today's mainstream economists mistakenly view economics through the errant vision of FA Hayek's faulty theories based on his work, 'The Road To Serfdom. "Hayek's book is not only tedious, tendentious, smug, prolix, and obscure (all of which are just writing flaws); it's got conceptual and logical errors that make it a deeply flawed work. This has not kept it from being influential, unfortunately."- Eric Zencey. Hayek's theories were formed during the scary Cold War 50's and is more ideology than science.FA Hayek's slippery slope theory is fallacious to suppose that any form of government central planning , especially on economics, must lead to fascism or worse to Soviet -style command economies. I'll be giving more update reviews on this outstanding, timely book so stay-tuned.

[Ryan Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Other Road to Serfdom

43/2023.

Another one I missed when it came out but glad I finally got to. Brooks calls for economics to play a role in “getting our relationship to the planet right.” A stunning link between climate change and civil liberties and how macroeconomics needs to consider changeable natural conditions. “The lack of ecological sustainability is what threatens to bring our civilization, with its civil liberties and enormous capacity for wealth generation, to a crashing halt.” So he calls for the negative externalities of energy use to be taxed appropriately so as to “internalize the externalities.” This would bring “ecological rationality” and “economic rationality” into harmony.

The chapters “industrial civilization as pyramid scheme” and “abortion laws, suvs, and climate justice” are particularly worthwhile.

He, along with other authors calling for rapid green change, says that unlimited growth is an illusion and it’s time to account for the costs of what we’ve created. He cites our fixation on endless economic growth and frames his arguments around this, anticipating (back in 2012) changing dynamics that cause population growth to stagnate and could bring respite to stressed ecosystems. He makes a compelling argument that our legal systems have already started changing away from a liberty-maximizing mindset allowing private exploitation of property to a recourse-allocation mindset to preserve fisheries, woodlands etc. So why not embrace it and go a step further?

He pins his hopes entirely on earth, and makes the case that extraplanetary resources will never be economically feasible (let’s hope he’s mistaken on that account; plenty has changed since 2012).

One thing I think is very valuable here: capitalism is very bad at pricing in external costs. That is: “an ecologically true price for the use of carbon fuel is a price high enough to ensure that the sum total of all CO2 emissions would fall under the cap implied by the planet’s finite capacity to absorb and recycle those glasses without producing climate change.”