This was a hard book to read and rate. I skimmed and jumped around after a certain point. Some of the things Schumacher touches on is eerily prescientThis was a hard book to read and rate. I skimmed and jumped around after a certain point. Some of the things Schumacher touches on is eerily prescient (remember, this was written in the 1970s) and spot on, like when he talks about natural resources and our evolving attitude to it.
I mostly agreed on his critique about capitalism and its systems, but a lot of what he writes is through a Western-centric, not to mention sexist, point of view. Early on in the book, he mentions the value and purpose of work and mentions the ideal of work and how women would be better staying at home taking care of children if all work was valued equally. Which uh...nope. Yes, childrearing and home-management should be valued as much as "going into the office" work, but why delegate that to only women? The book definitely lost me there and never gained me back.
Reading this requires a critical eye to decide what things to take in and what to throw away because the ideas are just dated or wrong....more