kevin reviewed Slow Down by Brian Bergstrom
Why, in our affluent society, do so many people live in poverty, without access to …
Not a strong thinker
2 stars
Enjoyed this light read. Saito comes off as extraordinarily delusional and dumb when he ends the book with "this is meant to be a version of Capital for this new era." This book is an airport read. The ideas in even the first few chapters of Capital are far deeper and more important than anything you'll find here. Saito's arguments are paper thin at best. That said, I agree with some of them, and do find the vision of degrowth communism invigorating. But we'll need much stronger thinkers to build the real strategy to achieve it, thinkers who are not afraid to learn positive lessons from Lenin, Mao, and other successful revolutionaries. Saito is unfortunately a severe anticommunist who believes himself to be the first person to understand Marx and who seemingly wants to throw out all Marxist thought other than his own.
