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"Productivity and Value" takes a critical look at the generic
concepts of productivity as they are used in most of the
conventional literature. In this compelling book, the author
challenges the concept of total-factor productivity as a valid
indicator of successes or failures in economic policy and in the
economy generally. Unique to this book is the consistent
distinction made between economic and physical expressions. The
author examines the difficulties when physical and economic
measures are mixed. Instead, he proposes that productivity, as a
measure of progress in production, should be limited to
single-factor of key commodities, such as land, labor, energy, and
capital. Such a measure, he claims, will be more realistic and will
also come closer to being understood by the public.
A worsening economic crisis due to the shift in wealth over the
past decade is the central concern of this carefully documented
study. It profiles the current status of income inequality in the
United States and discerns disturbing trends for the future. A
wealth of data are collected, evaluated, and simplified into a
straightforward look at both the economic changes brought on by
misguided reforms of the 1980s and a proposed system for measuring
income inequality which may help clarify the issues pertinent to
the debate.
Folke Dovring perceives the current U.S. economy as an imminent
threat to our democratic system, and urges increased awareness of
the variables which will effect its return to a healthy state of
balance where income inequality, necessary to a certain degree,
sustains productivity and individual incentives. A general overview
of the facts and problems associated with income distribution,
viewed from historical, geographical, and sociological
perspectives, establishes the study's priorities, and is followed
by the development of criteria which can more accurately estimate
the nature and extent of income inequality, moving the study closer
to recommendations for systematic public policy which may promote
continued economic growth. The urgency with which Dovring addresses
this topic and the thoroughness of his presentation will compel
scholars and policymakers, especially those interested in poverty
economics, to give immediate attention to the issue of economic
inequality through informed, meaningful discussion.
Dovring explores the limits of science as causes of ignorance.
Some topics examined in these essays are problems with our ways of
knowing and the impact of emotion on objectivity. He argues that
reality consists of designs--of things and processes. While most
designs we might think of cannot exist, those that can exist add up
to a tool box of creation which contains the detailed laws of
nature, many of them synergisms. Reality must conform to this web
of necessities, hence the danger of unchecked virtual reality.
These lines of thought are then applied to evolution as creation
and history. In a final essay, Dovring explores topics upon which
science should concentrate. This book will be of interest to
scientists as well as the lay public interested in the theory of
science and questions of truth and faith.
As domestic and worldwide petroleum reserves dwindle, America's
energy situation continues to worsen. Farming for Fuel offers a
major investigation into producing methanol from biomass to replace
reliance on petroleum fuels. Dovring's treatment of the topic is
thorough and well-reasoned. He suggests that current problems
facing the U.S.--vulnerable oil imports, farm surplus production,
soil erosion, and air polution--could be eradicated by methanol
production on a large scale. The proposed solution, if adopted,
would also bring about profound changes in the national economy,
including more decentralized industrial location. Dovring's
conclusions are revolutionary, challenging general agreement on
methanol use, future energy supplies, and energy policy. His
innovative work will supply policy-makers and academics with a
unified perspective on energy problems and an up-to-date summary of
recent data.
Development is necessary in all countries, not only the so
called underdeveloped' or developed' countries. So begins this
comparative analysis of agricultural growth and development around
the world, not just in developing countries. Unique to this volume
is its comprehensive coverage of numerous countries around the
world and its in-depth comparison of economic change in relation to
historical and geographic diversity. These features, along with
ground-breaking conclusions put forth by the author, will interest
not only economists, economic journalists, politicians, and
business leaders seeking to understand the workings of the
international community, but also scholars and students of
development, agricultural economic, and comparative economics.
Long before today's electronic media made us aware of articulate
"world opinions" across the globe, there were other dramatic
international com munications. One current of opinion was expressed
by the many gener ations of different nationalities who "voted with
their feet" and settled down in North America. To them and to many
others, the hallmark of the United States since the beginning of
the republic was the freedom of choice for common people. This
image was inspiring enough to build up the free institutions which
together with the country's open frontiers broke the hold of mass
poverty. So, options brought to the masses are America's trademark
in human civilization. Nowadays, when advanced industrialization
and electronic media are penetrating the world and opening new
frontiers everywhere, the chal lenge from the optional society -
often called "Americanization" - be comes a source of global
competition, imitation or opposition and shapes the profile of our
time. What is the character of this new optional society so early
displayed in the United States but today emerging in many other
countries and com municated wherever nations confront
socio-economic problems of their own? Can analysis of its economics
and communications reveal its inter national message? More than two
decades of research in those fields and our experience as Americans
by choice have made us try.
Long before today's electronic media made us aware of articulate
"world opinions" across the globe, there were other dramatic
international com munications. One current of opinion was expressed
by the many gener ations of different nationalities who "voted with
their feet" and settled down in North America. To them and to many
others, the hallmark of the United States since the beginning of
the republic was the freedom of choice for common people. This
image was inspiring enough to build up the free institutions which
together with the country's open frontiers broke the hold of mass
poverty. So, options brought to the masses are America's trademark
in human civilization. Nowadays, when advanced industrialization
and electronic media are penetrating the world and opening new
frontiers everywhere, the chal lenge from the optional society -
often called "Americanization" - be comes a source of global
competition, imitation or opposition and shapes the profile of our
time. What is the character of this new optional society so early
displayed in the United States but today emerging in many other
countries and com municated wherever nations confront
socio-economic problems of their own? Can analysis of its economics
and communications reveal its inter national message? More than two
decades of research in those fields and our experience as Americans
by choice have made us try.
This essay has grown out of an attempt to find the answers to
problems basically inherent in the making of historical re search.
Widespread among humanists is a vagueness of con cepts which many
times makes it difficult or impossible to translate our way of
thinking into the terms of natural science or vice versa. It
sounds, sometimes, as if humanistic studies were a world of its
own, rather than a part of the natural world we all1ive in. How
long can we go on believing that there are different kinds of
knowledge ~ To this conflict of theory, another is added: a feeling
of urgency about cultural problems that are too often left to the
future to solve. History is not, as some natural scientists tend to
believe, a matter of no practical consequence. It is a virulent
factor in political and social conflicts and a basic substance in
the structure of our personalities. The present dynamic epoch
raises with particular stress the problem of understanding the
conditioning influence which the past exercises upon the present in
each particular community. Such a substance is neither a toy for
pastime hobbies nor an innocent weapon in the hands of dictators.
Which is, then, the responsibility of the historian, both for what
he does and for what he abstains from doing ~ The necessity to stay
independent in order to approach objectivity makes for no easy
answer.
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