Jeffrey Sachs talks about Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet.
Economist Sachs offers a clear and vivid map of the road to sustainable and equitable global prosperity and a warning of the economic collapse that lies ahead if we don't follow it. Sachs is the author of the acclaimed book The End of Poverty- Book Passage
Bio
Jeffrey Sachs
Jeffrey Sachs is the Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University. Since 2010 he has also served as a Commissioner for the Broadband Commission for Digital Development which leverages broadband technologies as a key enabler for social and economic development. He has authored Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet.
Originally one of the youngest economics professors in the history of Harvard University, Sachs became renowned for implementing economic shock therapy throughout the developing world, and subsequently for his work on the challenges of economic development, environmental sustainability, poverty alleviation, debt cancellation, and globalization.
Advocacy of the preservation or improvement of the natural environment, especially the social and political movement to control environmental pollution. Other specific goals of environmentalism include control of human population growth, conservation of natural resources, restriction of the negative effects of modern technology, and the adoption of environmentally benign forms of political and economic organization. Environmental advocacy at the international level by nongovernmental organizations and some states has resulted in treaties, conventions, and other instruments of environmental law addressing problems such as global warming, the depletion of the ozone layer, and the danger of transboundary pollution from nuclear accidents. Influential U.S. and British environmentalists have included Thomas Robert Malthus, John Muir, Rachel Carson, Barry Commoner, Paul R. Ehrlich, and Edward O. Wilson. In the social sciences, the term refers to any theory that emphasizes the importance of environmental factors in the development of culture and society.
24 minutes into the video Sachs talks about Harvard not teaching economics that takes resources into account. That is not the only thing missing from their equations.
When those resources are used to make cars for consumers they are added to GDP when they are sold. But cars wear out, therefore they depreciate. Shouldn't they then be subtracted from somewhere? Economists don't mention NDP very much. They only subtract the depreciation of CAPITAL GOODS.
Economists can't do algebra. Americans must lose at least $300 BILLION in depreciation on cars every year, but economists say nothing about that.
What has planned obsolescence contributed to global warming over the last 50 years? But economists don't use that term either.
Where does the DEPRECIATION of Consumer Goods fit into economic theory.
Double entry accounting is 700 years old. Why can't everyone do it with today's computers? I haven't heard economists suggest mandatory accounting in the schools.
Having followed Sachs for a few years i can't help but notice his major change in demeanor. The optimism of 'the end of poverty' is gone. he looks and speaks like a man who knows and has seen too much.