Image source: Fodor & AssociatesA post here about Eben Fodor’s book, Better NOT Bigger, is long overdue. If you were to read just one book about the problem of the American growth obsession, and alternatives to it, Better NOT Bigger would be an excellent choice. It’s clear and readable, and provides a nice overview of the issues, including plenty of viable solutions.
Fodor details the problem – the degradation of the natural environment and the the economic woes and loss of quality of life in communities around the country. He examines the way the “growth machine” works and debunks many of its common myths about growth. He looks in some depth at how growth relates to jobs and housing, and at the problems with conventional economic development. He outlines key points about the costs of growth and the often hidden ways by which taxpayers subsidize it. He provides scores of methods for slowing or stopping growth. These range from development impact fees designed to ensure that growth pays for itself, to growth boundaries and greenbelts. Finally, Fodor provides an introduction to ideas which, unlike the usual growth imperative, can promote sustainable communities.
The late Donella Meadows, lead author of the landmark text, Limits to Growth, offers a fuller review. Her last sentence cuts to the chase: “Since we can’t grow forever, where should we stop?”
Our fixation on growth has created problems, the impacts of which are accelerating. I would guess that without major changes soon, growth issues which today occupy a few books and outposts on the Web will, 20 years from now, be major and constant media stories. One easy way anyone can help prevent that is to get informed now, if only by reading Better NOT Bigger.
For ambitious readers I’ll devote a future post to a more complete, though still compact reading list. No need to create a list which “sprawls.” 