Happy birthday, Fritz Schumacher!

[azalaisdep]

Fritz Schumacher, the radical economist whose ideas inspired sustainable, community-based development all over the world and whose work is today carried on by the charity Practical Action, would have been 100 today.

I'm a great admirer of Practical Action's work and much of Schumacher's philosophy; the charity very much works on the basis of

Comments

[azalaisdep]

I thought that second quote in particular might resonate with you. It was the first one that really struck me, because so much of conventional economics treats "the economy" or "the market" as a system which almost has independent life of its own, which behaves independently of human control, which exists entirely on its own terms. The idea that it might actually have a purpose, and that societies might be able to decide to steer their economies in different directions depending on the societies they want, is an unfashionable but, in some ways, a heady notion...

[curiouswombat]

Practical Action is one of 'my' charities - friends and relatives often get 'Practical Gifts'.

[azalaisdep]

That's good :-) - I have been known to give Nepali vegetable dryers, or wind-up radios, myself...