Page 6 RAIN November 1981 -----------·------- ECONOMICS The Politics of the Solar Age: Alternatives to Economics, by Hazel Henderson, 1981, $5.95 from: Anchor Doubleday 501 Franklin Avenue Garden City, NY 11530 This is an exciting book. At last someone has articulated so many of the concerns I've been trying to grapple with and done so in a holistic, encompassing way. In fact, I passed up my first opportunity for a high peak climb in the Cascades to write this review.... Henderson examines such phenomena in our society as increasing rates of inflation, structural unemployment, the failure of macroeconomic management, growing tax revolts, unsustainable resource-intensive pathologies of material abundance and waste, and the forces pushing toward greater energy and capital intensity, yet still concludes that "we do.not know enough to be pessimistic." Indeed, in this social, ecological, and spiritual critique of industrialism she convinces us that those who have the greatest interest in maintaining the status quo are the ones who have most cause to cry that the sky is falling. The rest of us need to get on with the job of reconceptualizing our situation and redefining our problems. She reminds us that value systems and ethics, far from being peripheral, are the motivating forces in all economic and technological systems. Industrial societies must face up to the unsustainability of their value systems rather than view their "problems" as deficiencies of nature. Industrial cultures need now to restructure their knowledge by turning to the repressed, alternative ways of viewing and th.inking of their subordinated groups because it will be almost impossible to find innovative ways of handling today's crises (econon:ilc, social or ecological) from within the dominant culture. They must shift from an excessive yang-oriented value system emphasizing instrumental rationality, empirical knowledge, competition,·expansion and aggression to reviving the yin qualities and the nurturing, cooperative, cohesive patterns. Henderson sees this shift already happening at the grassroots level in the growing counter-economy, where ingenuity, improvisation, and entrepreneurial spirit flourish. Here people are bartering and cooperating with their neighbors rather than competing for dollars. One of the beauties of this monumental work is that Henderson makes no pretense that the task before us will be easy. Indeed she maintains: ACCESS The deeper dilemma in shifting out unsustainably imbalanced patriarchal societies lies in their very long traditions . ... Thi~ whole set of "masculinized" values is now deeply associated with male identity, and thus any attempt to dig deeper, to this more.fundamental level of social analysis, is extremely . threatening personally and is usually energetically resisted, denied, reversed, or repressed, with all the classic defense mechanisms described by psychologists. The question is, says Henderson, "How are we going to 'get through the '80s ?" Part of the answer for me is "With this book al-· ways close at hand." -Mary Vogel Mary Vogel works with Oregon Appropriate Technology in Eugene, OR. The Zero-Sum Society, by Lester C. Thurow, 1980, 230 pp., $4.95 from: Penguin Books · 625 Madison Ave. New York, NY 10022 A zero-sum game is any game where the losses exactly equal the winnings . ... The problem with zero-sum games is that the es.sence of problem solving is loss allocation. But this is precisely what our political process is least capable of doing. Thurow is a pr9fessor of economics and management at Massachusetss Institute of Technology, an economic columnist for the Los Angeles Times, and served for a short while on the editorial board of The New York Times. In other words, he's very credible, and his book has been well received by the . likes of Time and Business Week. It's this background that makes the book so interesting. Tackling a lineup of hairy subjects (energy shortages, environmental pollution, lagging production, rampant inflation, growing unemployment, and government regulation) Thurow claims that, in every case, we run up against the same issues of direct redistribution. "Every increase in the relative income of one group.is a decrease in the relative income of another group. The gains are exac;tly counterbalanced by an equal set of losses." People are not demanding more, says Thurow. They're demanding parity. Unless we can figure out some way to face this problem head on, "our society is going to both stagnate and be split along group lines." The goal, says Thurow, "is to change the structure of the economy so that the entire economy generates the kinds of jobs that are now open to white males and ensures that there are enough of these job opportunities to go around." Thisj s quite a challenge from someone who is a firm believer in the market mechanism. "The market efficiently adjusts, but to an inequitable set of demands. It is as if we had an efficient street sweeper who was sweeping the wrong street." Be that as it may, Thurow acknowledges that the rate of unemployment for blacks simply cannot continue to be twice that of whites, nor can the fact that women still earn oI)ly 60 percent of what men earn be tolerated for the next forty years as it has been for the last forty .. What's the next move? The time has come . . . to admit that the pursuit of equity and equal economic oppor:.. tunity demands a fundamental restructuring of the economy . ... The only solution is to create a socialized sector of the economy designed to give work opportunities to everyo,ne who wants them but cannot find them elsewhere. Once again touting his belief in the economic system (if only it would work!), Thurow concludes with a plea for political accountability and blames the two-party system. "Our'problems arise because, in a very real sense, we do not have political parties ... somehow we have to establish a political system where someone can be held accountable for failure .... Every politician with his or her own platform is the American way, but it'is not a way that is going to be able to solve America's economic problems ~' ' It's late in the game, don't you think? Time to change the score. -MR GARDENING Growing Food in Solar Greenhouses, by Delores Wolfe, 1981, 192 pp., $10.95 from: · Doubleday & Company Inc. 245 Park Ave. · New York, NY 10067 Before you design and construct your vision of a solar greenhouse "for year round food production" read this book. It will be painless, quic;k, even pretty, and the grounding (so to speak) it will give you will either discourage you outright or provide just the balance of information you'll need. This will be just as true whether you've never gardened at all (but think it would be "fun" to raise some tomatoes in January) or if you garden extensively and think the greenhouse will be a simple addition to your spread. The thing is, greenhouse gardening is a pretty complicated, time consuming, and occasionally frustrating endeavor that is all too often viewed unrealistically. Wolfe's bonk takes you month by month through the annual cycles in greenhouse growing. The contrasts and comparisons with outdoor gardening are especially useful
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