Sachs Ch. 1-2

Jeffrey D. Sachs is what I might refer to as an idealist. He is at least hopefully optimistic. Instead of prophesying that the US will fall as a world power and sweep the world into chaos, he sees a future where the world will, of necessity, learn to work together. One problem I see with this prediction is in the need for “overarching principles of social justice and environmental stewardship.” The problem with dictatorships and socialism (which this book makes me think of) is the lack of a perfect leader. Somebody has to make decisions, and unless Jesus comes down to run the world, the person will have their flaws. People aren’t perfect. Another thing that caught my attention was in the section on Kennedy and the Cold War. In one of his speeches, Kennedy said that man caused the problems, and man could fix them. Additionally, man could control his destiny. This brings up the controversy over destiny or mankind’s lack thereof, but what I thought of was humans trying to take the place of God. Sure, people can do a lot to help themselves and others. Yes, we are free to choose what we do. Without God’s intervention, however, we can’t save ourselves, and I think this includes this doomed planet and our position on it.

In the second chapter the author really starts to sound like everyone will be economically equal in the near future. In one part, he seems to encourage government control of everything, issuing taxes for pollution, and controlling what people can do on land both their own and public. Sure, some people are irresponsible, but is government control really the best answer? Might that not lead to a society where no one has any freedom except the elite few who can afford to do as they choose? That seems to me the main problem with socialism, etc. On the issue of overpopulation, no one has any incentive to fund their technological development unless they would open up a new market for goods. Why give them technology that will only serve to increase their populations even more? Also, we apparently aren’t running out of any resources any time soon... that’s good to know! I’m skeptical because the availability of alternate forms of resources, etc. is probably not certain. Scientists are always misunderstood, misinterpreted, and generally abused when their work is used to back up politicians. Overall, the author seems to want all people, be they government officials, company presidents, or activists leading NGO’s to work together to give money and technology to the poor. This may in fact be a good idea, but I don’t see that ever happening.