Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet

I generally like books about all the misery in the world but at least make it entertaining. "Common Wealth" gave the laundry list of environmental/social issues that I've read in other more entertaining formats. Unfortunately I didn't make it to the part where Sachs fixes all the problems.

Read 'Collapse' instead. It gives the laundry list but puts them in historical context by studying the same problems and how they cause the collapse or were overcome by societies in the past. Much more interesting in my opinion.

(Original review written for Readings, Melbourne, Australia)

Jeffrey Sachs’s much-anticipated book continues his distillation of research from The Earth Institute at Colombia University. (Associated work with Earth Institute includes Sachs’s 2002 “The End of Poverty” and the 2008 undergraduate journal “Consilience.”) Unlike popular economic writing on everyday life, like “Freakonomics” and “The Undercover Economist,” this book is a sobering report of everyday life under increasing inequalities worldwide.

The title reframes the idea of ‘commonwealth,’ asserting how global resource distribution is no longer of national importance alone. Population explosion, poverty, ecosystem strain and declining natural resources are interconnected global problems with serious implications for world stability. Yet global resource economics is not sufficiently viewed as a common problem for humanity. Symbolic alliances aside, its economics is viewed as a divided problem varying between nations, even between urban and rural areas, of importance only for sovereign authorities.

Sachs provides extensive multi-disciplinary facts from developed and developing nations, proposing how national and local leaders can cooperate across resource jealousies and ideological differences. His is a controversial proposal of dire importance, an ambitious roadmap redirecting popular economics towards global economic concerns.

This book is a wonderful look at the economics of our overpopulated planet. Sachs shows examples of how we cannot solely rely on the free market to solve all our problems. The new industrialized, interconnected world we live in demands smart government regulation, global cooperation, and public awareness.

Don't let economics intimidate you! In this book Sachs explains his ideas very simply. His math is easy to follow and makes a lot of sense. I would recommend this book to anyone no matter how strong their understanding of economics.

Sachs is an amazing intelligent man who cannot be underestimated for his macro economic understanding. This books begins well informed with the introductions from E.O. Wilson and the fact that the environment remains our global limiting factor. Sachs continues after acknowledging that the Environment will be a difficult obstacle completely dismisses it and says that Technology will provide us the tools to overcome resource depletion, lack of raw material input, energy to produce all the technology, and a safe, effective way to discard the massive waste produced.

While the aim of global improvement and development is readily assessable if we shift our resources from war to peace activities - It seems that if we put our full faith in technology we may wake up one day without the resources or biodiversity to adapt to our altered climate.

Sachs also continues to provide us all a vision and reasons to support a global vision of cooperation through the UN. We must support him and demand participation in multi-lateral talks and support of the global treaties, declarations, and especially the MDG's.

THIS is a true eye opener. I have changed many things that I do and ways that I think due to this book.
There are a few chapters that get pretty deep - But this is a MUST read.

awesome book which makes u believe in eradicating poverty very soon from the world. amazing to see an american leash out so much at the failure of his government in fulfilling its promises. led me to know so much about africa and the plight of the africans.

This is one of my new favorites. This is a well-written economic analysis that is accessible to the layperson. Discusses such issues as poverty, foreign aid, overpopulation and climate change and how those are at the roots of many of our current global woes. Highly recommended.

The book attempts to show that many economic problems facing the World today are connected to social & environmental ones. The main argument is that current economic model is unsustainable. And unless we make some serious changes, there will be cataclysmic disasters on the horizon.

Some highlights include the shortage of water due to Global Warming. Apparently higher temperature is melting glaciers around the world. In coming decades, the rivers will be ironically flood at first, and then eventually dry up. This will cause unimaginable human suffering, and potentially a world war over natural resources. Already many rivers such as the Yellow River in China are over used and abused to the point of that they no longer reaches the ocean.

The book also emphasize the need for more foreign aids to Third World counties around the world. It maintains that many of the programs prevents or significantly reduces poverty, disease, and even terrorism. However given the $56.4 Trillion of National Obligations & the recent financial crisis, United States will find it increasingly difficult to be generous, even if it does reduce its budget from area such as Defense.

It also list overpopulation as a source for many of the problems facing the world today, and heavily criticize the Bush administration for failing to solve the problems, and in many cases actually contribute to the cause.

Overall the book provides a diagnosis for various issues facing the world, and prescribe a plan of action for remedy. However it tends to lean ideologically strongly to the left, so if you're a conservative, you will likely find many points for disagreement.

I found nothing to argue with in this book...but just couldn't get engaged in it. It's not badly written, just didn't light me up. Perhaps Sachs's ideas are exactly what we should do. When I stop yawning, I'll think more about that.

I struggled with this book, not sure that the Millenium Development Goals only require a "little money" to solve the world's poverty problems, not sure that socialist policy is ever the answer, definitely not sure that money is all it needs - surely political ideologies and cultural norms interfere more than a lack of policy and other people's money. I want to believe that the solutions are this easy and that the only obstacle to ending world poverty, population growth, species extinction and environmental degradation is an injection of cash. Hasn't this been tried? I just wasn't convinced and I'm not all that hard to fool.