Ernst friedrich schumacher biography of christopher powell

Schumacher was an economist who argued that Earth could not afford the cultural and environmental costs accompanying large-scale capitalism. It also made Schumacher a folk hero on the political left. Although Schumacher died in the s, his opposition to excessive consumption, corporate domination, and growth for its own sake is echoed in the "simple living" movement of the late s.

Schumacher, called Fritz by those who knew him, was born on August 16, , in Bonn, Germany, into an academic family. In , appalled by the rise of Nazism in Germany, he settled in England. For three months he was confined to a detention camp, where he occupied himself with improving the sanitation and the food. Back on the farm, he began writing on the economic requirements for peace in Europe.

This brought him to the attention of William Henry Beveridge and other prominent people, and he was able to assist with British plans for full-employment policies and the post-war welfare state. He became a British citizen in , and he studied the restructuring of Germany's economy as a member of the British Control Commission there. For 20 years beginning in , Schumacher served as an advisor to Britain's nationalized coal industry.

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In that capacity he advocated continuing British coal production while encouraging conservation, as alternatives either to depending upon Middle Eastern oil or increasing the use of nuclear energy , with its intractable problem of radioactive waste disposal. During this period he bought a house with a large backyard and became an enthusiastic proponent of organic gardening.

Chemical agriculture, he wrote, worked against nature rather than in harmony with it. Schumacher visited Burma now Myanmar in on an assignment for the United Nations. His time there led him to the conclusion that advanced technology was not the answer for poor countries, because it would increase productivity but not employment. Instead, he advocated intermediate technology that would allow the rural poor to improve their living conditions.

This approach is often called appropriate technology because it must be tailored to the needs of each developing country.