Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet
by: Jeffrey D. Sachs
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From one of the world's greatest economic minds, author of TheNew York Times bestseller The End of Poverty, a clear and vivid map of the road to sustainable and equitable global prosperity and an augury of the global economic collapse that lies ahead if we don't follow it
The global economic system now faces a sustainability crisis, Jeffrey Sachs argues, one that will overturn many of our basic assumptions about economic life. The changes will be deeper than a rebalancing of economics and politics among different parts of the world; the very idea of competing nation-states scrambling for power, resources, and markets will in some crucial respects become passĀ. The only question is how bad it will have to get before we face the unavoidable. We will have to learn on a global scale some of the hard lessons that successful societies have gradually and grudgingly learned within national borders: that there must be common ground between rich and poor, among competing ethnic groups, and between society and nature.
The central theme of Jeffrey Sachs's new book is that we need a new economic paradigm-global, inclusive, cooperative, environmentally aware, science-based-because we are running up against the realities of a crowded planet. The alternative is a worldwide economic collapse of unprecedented severity. Prosperity will have to be sustained through more cooperative processes, relying as much on public policy as on market forces to spread technology, address the needs of the poor, and to husband threatened resources of water, air, energy, land, and biodiversity. The "soft issues" of the environment, public health, and population will become the hard issues of geopolitics. New forms of global politics will in important ways replace capital-city-dominated national diplomacy and intrigue. National governments, even the U.S., will become much weaker actors as scientific networks and socially responsible investors and foundations become the more powerful actors.
If we do the right things, there is room for all on the planet. We can achieve the four key goals of a global society: prosperity for all, the end of extreme poverty, stabilization of the global population, and environmental sustainability. These are not utopian goals or pipedreams, yet they are far from automatic. Indeed, we are not on a successful trajectory now to achieve these goals. Common Wealth points the way to the course correction we must embrace for the sake of our common future.
From one of the world's greatest economic minds, author of TheNew York Times bestseller The End of Poverty, a clear and vivid map of the road to sustainable and equitable global prosperity and an augury of the global economic collapse that lies ahead if we don't follow it
The global economic system now faces a sustainability crisis, Jeffrey Sachs argues, one that will overturn many of our basic assumptions about economic life. The changes will be deeper than a rebalancing of economics and politics among different parts of the world; the very idea of competing nation-states scrambling for power, resources, and markets will in some crucial respects become passĀ. The only question is how bad it will have to get before we face the unavoidable. We will have to learn on a global scale some of the hard lessons that successful societies have gradually and grudgingly learned within national borders: that there must be common ground between rich and poor, among competing ethnic groups, and between society and nature.
The central theme of Jeffrey Sachs's new book is that we need a new economic paradigm-global, inclusive, cooperative, environmentally aware, science-based-because we are running up against the realities of a crowded planet. The alternative is a worldwide economic collapse of unprecedented severity. Prosperity will have to be sustained through more cooperative processes, relying as much on public policy as on market forces to spread technology, address the needs of the poor, and to husband threatened resources of water, air, energy, land, and biodiversity. The "soft issues" of the environment, public health, and population will become the hard issues of geopolitics. New forms of global politics will in important ways replace capital-city-dominated national diplomacy and intrigue. National governments, even the U.S., will become much weaker actors as scientific networks and socially responsible investors and foundations become the more powerful actors.
If we do the right things, there is room for all on the planet. We can achieve the four key goals of a global society: prosperity for all, the end of extreme poverty, stabilization of the global population, and environmental sustainability. These are not utopian goals or pipedreams, yet they are far from automatic. Indeed, we are not on a successful trajectory now to achieve these goals. Common Wealth points the way to the course correction we must embrace for the sake of our common future.
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Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - Very Informative but Lacking Some Details
No doubt that the author is well schooled in the politics and economics surrounding the sustainable and stable growth of the World's economy. He brings up some very key points, such as the basis for controlling population growth should be to decrease infant mortality rates. Once those populations realize that they can have just one or two children with a very high probability of them surviving to adulthood, they will opt to greatly reduce their fetility rate and invest more in each child. The author ... Read More
Rating: 
- Humane and hopeful
Jeffrey Sachs is special adviser on the UN's Millennium Development Goals to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon. He urges that the principles of social justice should guide economic forces, not profit, and he argues that problems need diplomacy and development, not war, sanctions and threats. Development brings security, not vice versa.
As he notes, "A world of untrammelled market forces and competing nation-states offer no automatic solutions." "Market forces by themselves do not optimally ... Read More
Rating: 
- Jeffrey Sachs is the Paris Hilton of Economists
Yeah, I said it.And I meant it.J.Sachs is the Paris Hilton of Economists, all sex and no substance.Don't believe me, buy this book and read it.The first two chapters are spent paraphrasing a lot of William Easterly's Leaks, Matches and Traps observations, as well as Easterly's emphasis on technology; and yet no credit is given to Easterly.The only time he mentions Easterly is when he dogs him, and his book (the Ellusive Quest for Growth).
I suffered through the first three chapters enduring ... Read More
Rating: - The higher level solution that is needed
I feel many of the reviewers have missed some of the points of this book. They are dissapointed by the "lack" of detail.
Many point to their "own" research being more detailed than Mr. Sachs and why he doesn't get down to specifics.
The book is two fold...1) To convince the reader that we have 4 fundamental problems that are going to massively change the landscape of the earth in our lifetime and our childrens...2) The show the reader that despite how shattered the world is currently (globally ... Read More
Rating: 
- I need more
Right off the bat, I'm an easy audience for Sachs: I believe (and have for the last twenty years) that we need to reverse our course of environmental degradation and that the majority- if not all- of the world's conflicts are based in the inequities of the distribution of resources.I also believe that the (finally!) outgoing Bush administration has set us back in both environmental stewardship and developmental aid.I don't just want to believe, I do believe, and I picked this up because I wanted more information to back ... Read More
- Very Informative but Lacking Some DetailsNo doubt that the author is well schooled in the politics and economics surrounding the sustainable and stable growth of the World's economy. He brings up some very key points, such as the basis for controlling population growth should be to decrease infant mortality rates. Once those populations realize that they can have just one or two children with a very high probability of them surviving to adulthood, they will opt to greatly reduce their fetility rate and invest more in each child. The author ... Read More
- Humane and hopefulJeffrey Sachs is special adviser on the UN's Millennium Development Goals to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon. He urges that the principles of social justice should guide economic forces, not profit, and he argues that problems need diplomacy and development, not war, sanctions and threats. Development brings security, not vice versa.
As he notes, "A world of untrammelled market forces and competing nation-states offer no automatic solutions." "Market forces by themselves do not optimally ... Read More
- Jeffrey Sachs is the Paris Hilton of EconomistsYeah, I said it.And I meant it.J.Sachs is the Paris Hilton of Economists, all sex and no substance.Don't believe me, buy this book and read it.The first two chapters are spent paraphrasing a lot of William Easterly's Leaks, Matches and Traps observations, as well as Easterly's emphasis on technology; and yet no credit is given to Easterly.The only time he mentions Easterly is when he dogs him, and his book (the Ellusive Quest for Growth).
I suffered through the first three chapters enduring ... Read More
- The higher level solution that is neededI feel many of the reviewers have missed some of the points of this book. They are dissapointed by the "lack" of detail.
Many point to their "own" research being more detailed than Mr. Sachs and why he doesn't get down to specifics.
The book is two fold...1) To convince the reader that we have 4 fundamental problems that are going to massively change the landscape of the earth in our lifetime and our childrens...2) The show the reader that despite how shattered the world is currently (globally ... Read More
- I need moreRight off the bat, I'm an easy audience for Sachs: I believe (and have for the last twenty years) that we need to reverse our course of environmental degradation and that the majority- if not all- of the world's conflicts are based in the inequities of the distribution of resources.I also believe that the (finally!) outgoing Bush administration has set us back in both environmental stewardship and developmental aid.I don't just want to believe, I do believe, and I picked this up because I wanted more information to back ... Read More
