Environmental Book Club discussion

Hello, I'm Donald from the UK. I have a long-standing interest and involvement in the environment as well as in social justice, and have just published a rather unusual book about economics which may interest some in the group.

What is unusual about my book? For starters I'm not an economist but a professional engineer whose career depends on designing systems and getting them to work. I’ve been employed mainly in the private sector, apart from 5 years teaching at the National Engineering University of Nicaragua.

The book provides a coherent alternative explanation of economics and how the economy affects livelihoods, the environment and society. Along the way it exposes some of the fallacies found in mainstream economics texts. While an analytical book, it is also a humane one which cares about ‘how we live and how we might live’ (a reference to William Morris's political writings).

The book is called 'An Economy of Want' ISBN: 978-1-3999-8588-8 and is available on Amazon.

It’s also described (in English & Spanish) at: www.economyofwant.uk


Apart from the book, I'm the coordinator of a local Friends of the Earth group in London. I look forward to sharing ideas with the rest of the group.

An Economy of Want

"How the economy works, and why it is damaging lives & trashing the planet."

The Kindle edition of my book will be available FREE on Amazon from 00:01am PDT* (8:01am in the UK) Saturday 21st September 2024, to 11:59pm PDT* Sunday 22nd September (7:59am on Monday in the UK).

* PDT = Pacific Daylight Time. In case of any mix up over times zones etc.; do please check that you are getting the free offer, before purchase.

More details about the book, this and any further offers, plus tasters in English and Spanish, are to be found on the website: https://sites.google.com/view/economy...

The whole e-book edition of my book An Economy of Want is FREE today Weds 11th Dec for 24 hours from 00:00 PST (8am GMT).

Recently I've been re-reading Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist and comparing it with what I have written.

Naturally I like Doughnut Economics - its heart is in the same place. The focus feels slightly different ... more centered on the discipline of economics and on where we'd like/need the economy to be.

My approach is more that typical of an engineer ... "if it isn't doing what we want then how does it work and why is it broken?" ... so more like a user's manual. If you read an engineering textbook, there may be the occasional reference to the person who came up with a theory, but other than that it's pretty much "this is how it is". When I read economics texts the feel is very different - lots of details of who said what and when and how they disagreed with each other.

Perhaps the two approaches are complementary. I'd like to think so.