Books: Learning the Three Es

(2 of 2)

This bald summary scants Commoner's enviable skill at explaining complicated technical issues in lucid and lively terms. The reader rides as easily on Commoner's prose as on one of his favorite electric trains. Then, suddenly, the author's destination looms up. He blames America's energy, environmental and economic troubles squarely on the baneful evolution of the once effective capitalistic system because it aims to emphasize "private profit rather than social value." The solution, "at least in principle," Commoner insists, is some form of socialism.

This solution appears only in the last seven pages of the book. It is presented, not argued. Commoner obviously feels that his economic conclusion inevitably flows from his previous demonstrations that present ways of using energy do not work and cannot be changed enough within the system.

Well, it is not quite so simple as that. No matter where socialism has been tried, it has not yet solved the interlocking problems of the three Es — energy, environment and economy. Capitalism surely is capable of taking more benign forms. Beyond that, many of Commoner's "facts" are dubious. Capital does not seem to be unavailable and corporate profits, while they have not kept up with inflation, show little sign of drying up either. In other words, the author's logic is far less airtight than it seems. Commoner is a much better gadfly than economist. Philip Herrera