Leigh Phillips

Great introduction to thinking about how a socialist economy could work. I wish there were references because some of the information didn't seem very accurate. For example, Target predicting pregnancies before the pregnant person knew themselves they were pregnant - pretty sure this is in reference to an incident where a pregnant teenager was sent baby coupons based on her informed pregnancy purchases (e.g. prenatal vitamins), which revealed her pregnancy to her father, but not to herself. I felt the book could be structured better. There's a lot of repetition and too much time spent on history, in my opinion. Also I'm not a fan of how much they unnecessarily use Latin terminology.… (meer)

The book starts out well. The first chapters are quite interesting. But eventually the authors become more interested in their ideology than in how to make planning work. Their plan for a better future is based on

taxing the rich
lots of nuclear energy and hydroelectric energy
no fossil fuels
global planning

Even they admit that this not going to suddenly just happen. I'm not sure how they get the view that nuclear and hydroelectric energy are cheap and clean and carbon neutral. This does not agree with other opinions I have read. Nuclear isn't viable until uranium mining is cleaned up and long term storage of radioactive materials has been solved. Hydroelectricity in its current form is very disruptive of the river ecosystems. Sunken forests also release large amounts of CO2 and methane. Just calling these technologies clean and ignoring the problems involved is irresponsible.

What would be interesting would be a study of what could actually work now. This book doesn't do it.… (meer)