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Schwundgeld, Freiwirtschaft und Rassenwahn, Kapitalismuskritik von rechts: Der Fall Silvio Gesell
252 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2012
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July 24, 2025
An interesting treatment of a very particular and mostly forgotten tendency in economics. A lot of the ideas of these people were batshit, but then again at the end of the 19th century who wasn't?
Given how bad a lot of the takes are of Gesell and his accomplices, there's not that much reason to put them in an even worse light. Bierl can't resist loading up and over and then effectively throwing out the baby with the bathwater just to make this or that Marxist point.
I'd say that that is not only unnecessary but also there are a bunch of ideas in Gesell's thinking that have merit and that have survived in one way or another. Rent seeking, accumulation and land parasitism are definitely issues that have been addressed outside of Marxist thought, whether it's by George, Keynes or other economists who we would now often call heterodox.
As such the book is more than a bit unbalanced, but all in all not terrible.
Given how bad a lot of the takes are of Gesell and his accomplices, there's not that much reason to put them in an even worse light. Bierl can't resist loading up and over and then effectively throwing out the baby with the bathwater just to make this or that Marxist point.
I'd say that that is not only unnecessary but also there are a bunch of ideas in Gesell's thinking that have merit and that have survived in one way or another. Rent seeking, accumulation and land parasitism are definitely issues that have been addressed outside of Marxist thought, whether it's by George, Keynes or other economists who we would now often call heterodox.
As such the book is more than a bit unbalanced, but all in all not terrible.
Displaying 1 of 1 review