Review: The True Cost of Low Prices–The Violence of Globalization

5 Star, Banks, Fed, Money, & Concentrated Wealth, Capitalism (Good & Bad), Congress (Failure, Reform), Corruption, Crime (Corporate), Crime (Government), Economics, Environment (Problems), Executive (Partisan Failure, Reform), Peace, Poverty, & Middle Class

Amazon Page
Amazon Page

Superb Overview of True Cost of False Profits (Pun Intended),

January 4, 2007

Vincent A. Gallagher

“True Cost” has become a meme that is rapidly spreading and revealing to the public how insane and unfair many of our so-called “free trade” policies are. This book is a superb piece of informed scholarship with a strong foundation on real-world practice, and the auther is both objective and empathetic. True costs and real slaves of the global economy (who join the US prison population in slavery).

Soon Paul Hawken (see Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution) will open the World Index of Social and Environmental Responsibility (WISER) and WikiCalc will be available. I anticipate a huge outpouring of information that allows anyone with a cell phone to scan the barcode, send it to WISER or Amazon, and get back both the “true cost” of any good in terms of carbon, water, slavery, and tax avoidance, and pointers to the nearest green and local alternative products.

SUPER BOOK.

See also:
The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom
Powershift: Knowledge, Wealth, and Power at the Edge of the 21st Century
Revolutionary Wealth: How it will be created and how it will change our lives
Infinite Wealth: A New World of Collaboration and Abundance in the Knowledge Era
The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty Through Profits (Wharton School Publishing Paperbacks)

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Review: The True Cost of Conflict/Seven Recent Wars and Their Effects on Society

5 Star, Asymmetric, Cyber, Hacking, Odd War, Atrocities & Genocide, Congress (Failure, Reform), Corruption, Crime (Government), Misinformation & Propaganda, True Cost & Toxicity, War & Face of Battle

Amazon Page
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Ten Years Ahead of Its Time, Now Part of “True Cost” Meme,

January 4, 2007
Michael Cranna
This book was ten years ahead of its time in relation to the emergent “true cost” meme that is exploding as the public acquires access to more information and the tools to make sense of that information.

The author has done a first-rate job of looking at seven conflicts and their costs or (rarely) benefits. This is precisely the kind of analysis that is needed if Congresses and Parliaments are to be educated and weaned away from the bankers fondness for war and credit for war as a profit harvesting opportunity.

I recommend that in addition to this book, the reader consider General Smedley Butler's book, “War is a Racket,” and the superb book by Cees Wiebes, “Intelligence and the War in Bosnia” (see my review for lessons learned).

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Review: Blue Frontier–Dispatches from America’s Ocean Wilderness

5 Star, Capitalism (Good & Bad), Economics, Environment (Problems), Environment (Solutions), Information Society, Intelligence (Government/Secret), Intelligence (Public), Survival & Sustainment, True Cost & Toxicity, Values, Ethics, Sustainable Evolution, Water, Energy, Oil, Scarcity

Amazon Page
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Extremely Important Work,–Tsunami of Data NOT Reaching Public,

January 2, 2007

David Helvarg

There is so much solid, worthwhile information in this book, including valuable insights in why Western political interests are undermining proper representation of our national oceans, coasts, and Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in Congress, that I would urge those interested in the oceans (hugely more important to our future than the Amazon or globla forestry, just to make the point), to buy this book, suffer its limitations, and ultimately benefit from the wisdom and experience of the author, for whom my respect is unqualified and whole-hearted. In passing, it would probably be helpful if the first thing we all demanded was that EEZ stand for Exclusive Environmental Zone, rather than treating the oceans as a for-profit target area.

There is one other information-related observation I would make that emerged from reading this book: both the United Nations and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) are clearly doing heroic and deeply important work vital to the future of the oceans–and they are doing a terrible job of communicating the basic information about the oceans and their work to the larger world of voters and concerned citizens. What really came home to me as I reflected on what to emphasize in this review is that there is a very wide, almost impenetratable, barrier between what the UN and NOAA know, and what is being communicated to the citizens who have the right to know (they paid for that information with their tax dollars) and the need to know and the desire to know. From this I would say that the next big step for those who would seek to save the oceans, is to demand that all UN and US Government information paid for by the taxpayer be put online henceforth, available at no further cost to the public. It is this information, the bullets and beans of the information war between corporate and citizen interests, that will decide the future of the oceans.

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Review: Big-Box Swindle–The True Cost of Mega-Retailers and the Fight for America’s Independent Businesses

5 Star, Capitalism (Good & Bad), Economics, Misinformation & Propaganda, Peace, Poverty, & Middle Class, Power (Pathologies & Utilization), Truth & Reconciliation

Amazon Page
Amazon Page

Author has created a meme, essential part of a bigger picture,

January 2, 2007
Stacy Mitchell
The author of this book has gone way past good authorship–the business reporting in this book has achieved meme status and “Big Box Swindle” is now a term that leads to all sorts of interesting findings when one searches the web and the literature.

I recommend the other book listed above as part of the literature on “True Cost,” a meme that is resonating with the public much more than is “inconvenient truth.” True cost covers water (4000 liters in a T-Shirt), fuel (hundreds of gallons to move Wal-Wart toys from China), sweatshop and child labor (Wal Mart again), and tax avoidance as well as convictions for breaking various laws.

Although they do not appear in the list above, I recommend the varied books on Wal-Mart, especially the one focusing on the high cost of low price.

This author and the literature surrounding this author will shortly be matched by a point of sale ability for buyers to photograph any bar code, send it to Amazon or other sources, and get back the “True Cost” as well as comparable prices and alternative purchase suggestions.

This book could represent a turning point in the public mind, and is therefore of considerable importance to how we choose to react to its findings so that our children and grandchildren are not swindled–however, and the author would among the first to agree, it is not enough that we eradicate these unethical companies; we must also educate our future generations so that they do not lose sight of the “True Cost” of the “Big Box Swindle.”

See also, each with a review:
Water: The Fate of Our Most Precious Resource
The Blue Death: Disease, Disaster, and the Water We Drink

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Review: Peacekeeping Intelligence New Players, Extended Boundaries

3 Star, Intelligence (Government/Secret), Intelligence (Public), United Nations & NGOs

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Adequate Content, Disgusting Pricing,

December 31, 2006

David Carment

I am a publisher, author, and intelligence professional. I was a speaker at the conference from which most of this material is derived.

I wish to respectfully inform all prospective buyers that a book like this, in lots of 2,500, costs a US penny a page to produce. I could produce this book for $34.95, with Amazon paying me $15.75, which after cost of printing and graphics would leave me with a $10 profit.

I am–to put it mildly–outraged at the disgraceful overpricing that the publishers are attaching to this book. This kind of over-pricing urges the violation of copyright and the posting of a pirated copy of this book to the web.

I earnestly hope that Amazon will get into the business of direct publishing to Kinko's and localized delivery by Federal Express, and put such dishonorable publishers completely out of business.

SHAME!

Free peace intelligence at Earth Intelligence Network.

All OSS books, including Peacekeeping Intelligence: Emerging Concepts for the Future are free online at OSS.Net, or reasonably prices on Amazon. We are opening a new edited book on Peace Intelligence (Col Jan-Inge Svensson, SE Ret) as editor and inviting contributions from authors who are not happy having their work buried by publisher greed.

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Review: Intelligence and Statecraft–The Use and Limits of Intelligence in International Society

5 Star, Diplomacy, Intelligence (Government/Secret)

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Get Herman or Bozeman or Quiggin or Steele Instead,

December 29, 2006
Peter Jackson
I am a publisher, an author, and an intelligence professional.

This book undoubtedly has good content, but the publisher has been grotesquely irresponsible in pricing it out of reach of individual scholars and citizens and government officials seeking to continue their education.

As a publisher, I am happy to inform the prospective buyer that in lots of 2,500, hard copy books including color jackets and flaps, can be printed for a penny a page. Amazon pays publishers 40%. Hence, this book, sold at $35, would yield the publisher $15.70 or so, minus the printing cost of no more than $5, hence a $10 profit, entirely reasonable for a book.

What price knowledge? What price a lack of ethics among publishers?

See my lists and my many reviews for more honorable affordable knowledge.

All of my books are free online and prices to cover costs at Amazon.

Instead of this book, whose author is being abused, buy:
Intelligence Power in Peace and War
Strategic Intelligence & Statecraft: Selected Essays (Brassey's Intelligence and National Security Library)
Seeing the Invisible: National Security Intelligence in an Uncertain Age
The New Craft of Intelligence: Personal, Public, & Political–Citizen's Action Handbook for Fighting Terrorism, Genocide, Disease, Toxic Bombs, & Corruption

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Review: Target Iran–The Truth About the White House’s Plans for Regime Change

4 Star, Asymmetric, Cyber, Hacking, Odd War, Congress (Failure, Reform), Diplomacy, Empire, Sorrows, Hubris, Blowback, Impeachment & Treason, Intelligence (Government/Secret), Intelligence (Public), Military & Pentagon Power, Misinformation & Propaganda, Power (Pathologies & Utilization), Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy, Terrorism & Jihad, Threats (Emerging & Perennial), War & Face of Battle, Water, Energy, Oil, Scarcity

A,mazon Page
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Critical Piece of the Puzzle, Not the Whole Picture,

December 27, 2006
Scott Ritter
Scott Ritter was proven correct about Iraq not having weapons of mass destruction, and this alone demands our respectful attention to his views of the foolishness of attacking Iran.

There are other reviews of the substance of this book that are excellent, so here I just wish to contribute three supporting observations:

1) Endgame: The Blueprint for Victory in the War on Terror by LtGen Thomas McInerney and MajGen Paul Vallely, was published in 2004 and lays out the complete plan for US military domination of the Middle East, with Iran following Iraq, and then Syria etcetera. As lunatic as the plan may be (see my review for more details) it is a plan that will be carried out as long as Dick Cheney remains Vice President and George Bush Junior remains a fool who is clearly in way over his head.

2) Howard Bloom, who understood the coming Sunni versus Shi'ite world war for the soul of Islam, writing about it in The Lucifer Principle: A Scientific Expedition into the Forces of History, now warns of a likely Iranian masterplan that first used Ahmed Chalabi to lure the American neo-cons into Iraq, and now has lured four carriers, two strike groups and an amphibious group within range of the supersonic Sunburn missile that carried a nuclear warhead, can explode a carrier, and travel at 3.0 Mach straight line, or 2.2 Mach when zig-zagging.

3) In addition to Scott Ritter's excellent analysis of how Iran can turn off the oil supply in Iran, portions of Saudi Arabia and the UAE, and Kuwait, it is helpful to consider the extreme vulnerability of the US land supply route from Kuwait to Baghdad. A slide by Webster Tarpley showing this vulnerability is posted above.

Ritter gets a lot of respect from me–his integrity took him from a relatively minor position as a Marine Corps field grade officer, and elevated him to the role of speaker of truth for the public. I think he is right–the US will attack Iran, ostensibly in support of Israel–and this will be the greatest disaster of the 21st century, setting off a true world war between Sunni and Shi'ite in which the Christians are the “collateral damage” while the Jews experience a new form of genocide. I just shake my head, feeling helpless, wondering what it takes to get Scott Ritter's important knowledge in front of Congress.

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