Author Archives: Alexandria Comstock

Creating a World Without Poverty Book Review

Title of Book – Creating a World Without Poverty

Author – Muhammad Yunus

Publisher – PublicAffairs

Publishing Date – 2007

Want more info on Muhammad Yunus? Go here > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_Yunus

What is this book about? – In this novel Yunus focuses primarily on the multiple aspects of human nature, problems with capitalism, society’s point of view concerning the poor, definition of Microfinancing, definition of Social Business, challenges faced while opening the Grameen Bank, success of the Grameen Organizations. He also talks about his trips all around the world and how he hopes to someday lock away the past of poverty in museum, because it wont be existent.

Yunus argues that the traditional capitalism or current market-oriented economy exists for the sole mission of profit maximisation. While it cannot solve human misery, it may actually increase poverty, diseases, pollution and inequality. Therefore, he outlines his vision for a new business model-a social business model-which he believes will be an avenue to poverty alleviation. Yunus estimates that in the future these businesses will increase because human beings, he believes, are more than money making machines. They have many other drives and passions in life.

MY opinion? – honestly, the words in this book make complete sense. It is really hard for me to explain but I fully stand behind Yunus and his ideas.

Want more info still?

http://www.getabstract.com/en/summary/strategy/creating-a-world-without-poverty/9413/

http://books.google.com/books/about/Creating_a_World_Without_Poverty.html?id=YYH7ugbNDqQC

http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/review_creating_a_world_without_poverty

Deep Economy Summary

Title of Book – Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and The Durable Future

Author – Bill McKibben

Publisher – Times Books

Publishing Date – 2007

Want more about Bill McKibben? Go here > http://www.billmckibben.com/

What is the book about? – In this novel, McKibben goes through our everyday lives (such as the food we eat, the energy we use, our culture, and our entertainment) and explains ways that we could create more of a sustainable economy in our everyday activities.  He also talks about how ‘more’ and ‘better’ do not exactly go hand in hand anymore. He talks about how money can only buy happiness up to $10,000 per capita income, explaining why America is so often looking for something more then we have now, and therefore explains why we are turning ourselves into this economic downfall.

The author looks at each subject individually and goes into detail. He explains firstly that the food we eat everyday has traveled hundreds of miles before it has even touched our lips, we don’t eat locally grown food anymore but instead we trade those local foods for foods that have been grown in huge, industrial farms. This is bad in a lot of ways because this means that local, smaller farms are going out of business because the big farms are taking over. This also means that we are using a crazy amount of oil (that we will never get back) just to get this food. Instead of man or animal power, we are now depending on power that comes from the earth; oil. It also means that we are turning our bodies into useless, lazy objects by eating the junk that is mass produced to feed the over whelming number of people needing more and more food everyday. He goes into each subject with this kind of detail and looks into every aspect.

The points that McKibben is trying to make is simple; we need to chance our ways or else. We do not know what is coming next and we need to start preparing. Small changes will help our economy but we just have to know where to start.

He also states that the richer America and the World in general gets, the sadder we get. He admits that it is true that happiness does in fact come from wealth but only to an extent, and that extent is about $10,000 per capita income. He constantly relates back to the fact that we need to ‘back up’ it seems to get back to where we were because we are not headed in the right direction,.

MY opinion? – I have always believed the way that McKibben does so I often agreed with his arguments. Often times i feel like we are constantly being clouded by this sort of ‘ doom’ and we need to make immense changes if we would like to see our society continue on a better path.

All together, I love the points he made and the way that he could so accurately describe the complex ideas that he was writing about. It was a fantastic read and very interesting!

Want more info still?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Economy

http://www.billmckibben.com/deep-economy.html

http://www.billmckibben.com/deep-economy-excerpt.html