Bill Mckiibben Deep Economy Thesis
Emily Victor
HIS 1050
Dr. Francis Shor
Fall 2011
The Wise Economy of Neighborliness Bill McKibben’s book, “Deep Economy”, begins by examining the idea that ‘More is Better’. This idea has been deeply ingrained into American culture for the past hundred years. Indeed, the practice of increasing efficiency by increasing scale was the key to the wealth of many of the pioneers of American business, such as Henry Ford and Andrew Carnegie. In fact, due to the overall prosperity of American society, we enjoy a standard of life that is much higher than the majority of most of the world’s citizens. However, in the last few decades, it has become increasingly clear that in this push for increasing growth, most of the wealth being accumulated …show more content…
One of the main arguments in this book is that money only equals happiness up to a certain financial point, in other words, even when growth makes us wealthier, it doesn’t make us happier. Actually, the level of ‘happiness’, as measured by a major survey taker, peaked in the United States in the mid-1950s, and has been on a steady decline ever since, even while the amount of material possessions, hours worked, house square footage, and cars driven has …show more content…
McKibben’s main argument is that there needs to be a basic shift in American economical thinking. We need to focus on building local economies and restrengthening the agricultural infrastructure that used to be in place in every city and village before the fever of efficiency took over the United States. As an experiment while writing “Deep Economy”, McKibben and his family pledged to eat local for an entire winter. As he and his family reside in Vermont, this presented somewhat of a challenge. One his reasons for this experiment was to find out what a “truly local economy might feel like” (p.47). Through his research, and his experiences while conducting this novel experiment, McKibben discovered some interesting things. One of these things is that the rate of growth for local farmers’ markets and community-supported agriculture farms, or CSAs, is steadily increasing in every corner of the country. Indeed, farmers’ markets are the fastest-growing part of our food economy (p.3). For instance, the most urban county in Vermont had a 19% increase in the number of farms in 2005 (p.82). In fact, there are urban farms emerging in every corner of the globe. An obvious benefit to small-scale farming is that smaller farms produce more food per acre, while using far less oil. While it is true that small-scale farming is much more labor intensive, it seems like a natural progression when so many people are currently unemployed. Small-scale
HIS 1050
Dr. Francis Shor
Fall 2011
The Wise Economy of Neighborliness Bill McKibben’s book, “Deep Economy”, begins by examining the idea that ‘More is Better’. This idea has been deeply ingrained into American culture for the past hundred years. Indeed, the practice of increasing efficiency by increasing scale was the key to the wealth of many of the pioneers of American business, such as Henry Ford and Andrew Carnegie. In fact, due to the overall prosperity of American society, we enjoy a standard of life that is much higher than the majority of most of the world’s citizens. However, in the last few decades, it has become increasingly clear that in this push for increasing growth, most of the wealth being accumulated …show more content…
One of the main arguments in this book is that money only equals happiness up to a certain financial point, in other words, even when growth makes us wealthier, it doesn’t make us happier. Actually, the level of ‘happiness’, as measured by a major survey taker, peaked in the United States in the mid-1950s, and has been on a steady decline ever since, even while the amount of material possessions, hours worked, house square footage, and cars driven has …show more content…
McKibben’s main argument is that there needs to be a basic shift in American economical thinking. We need to focus on building local economies and restrengthening the agricultural infrastructure that used to be in place in every city and village before the fever of efficiency took over the United States. As an experiment while writing “Deep Economy”, McKibben and his family pledged to eat local for an entire winter. As he and his family reside in Vermont, this presented somewhat of a challenge. One his reasons for this experiment was to find out what a “truly local economy might feel like” (p.47). Through his research, and his experiences while conducting this novel experiment, McKibben discovered some interesting things. One of these things is that the rate of growth for local farmers’ markets and community-supported agriculture farms, or CSAs, is steadily increasing in every corner of the country. Indeed, farmers’ markets are the fastest-growing part of our food economy (p.3). For instance, the most urban county in Vermont had a 19% increase in the number of farms in 2005 (p.82). In fact, there are urban farms emerging in every corner of the globe. An obvious benefit to small-scale farming is that smaller farms produce more food per acre, while using far less oil. While it is true that small-scale farming is much more labor intensive, it seems like a natural progression when so many people are currently unemployed. Small-scale