Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 11-15 of 46
 It was more enjoyable when it was free... March 6, 2009
Ian T. Eichenlaub
2 out of 6 found this review helpful
I'll start off by saying that the material is thought provoking and entertaining, although it is more of books of questions than answers.
His theories/predictions are interesting but are not presented with enough depth to be more than cynical observations. This in itself is not bad when you consider almost all if not all of this material can be found online for free. I am halfway through the book and have not seen anything that he hasn't written on his blog or other websites.
I give the content 3 stars, but subtract one over all because if you can get the book from amazon.com, you have internet access, and therefore you can get it online for free.
I would like to read the authors opinions about how well Russians in mono-towns are dealing with and will deal with the current economic crisis. But I will look for it online and not buy any of his books again.
Misses the Key Points of a Free Society January 31, 2009
Charles John Gervasi (Madison, WI)
7 out of 19 found this review helpful
This book misses the point about the United States. Many times he talks about how the powers that be in the USSR managed to manipulate the Soviet people into accepting certain conditions. Then he talks about how the powers that be do the same in the US but in way that makes the US more vulnerable to an economic catastrophe. In fact, Americas live, work, eat, etc the way we do because of a free market of ideas, products, and services in which suppliers compete to provide consumers exactly what they want. There are no powers that be running the whole thing.
Orlov rightly points out that sometimes Americans demand things that aren't good for us, such as a diet of highly processed food. But he is completely wrong when he implies that the planners conspired to work out how much processed food people would Americans would accept similarly to how he says the Kremlin worked out if they provided people good bread they would accept other bad conditions. He misses the huge difference: the American diet is a result of people's individual choices and suppliers doing the utmost to give them exactly what they demand.
He makes a valid point that Americans sometimes have a worse quality of life because they outsource things such as childcare that in poorer countries ARE done by friends and family. I wholeheartedly agree. He points out how the US economy does not provide a job with a living wage for all citizens. Again, I agree. The problem is Orlov sees this as a failure of the US grand-plan, as it were. There is no grand plan. If you see people in need, you have to get out there and help them. You can't wait for a strong central government to solve all problems. The government should attempt to alleviate poverty and other problems, but if it doesn't completely solve them that's just par for the course as nation-states go.
I give the book two stars for rightly pointing out that the entire economy runs on oil and we don't have a solid plan in place for how it will run once the oil runs out. I also agree that we've planned our cities and society in general in such a way that isolates us from our neighbors and families, which leaves some people without a personal support network. I agree we're sometimes consumerist, viewing the world from a marketing perspective instead of the nuts-and-bolts reality.
Washington didn't create these problems, and Washington won't solve them. Contrary to Orlov's thesis, the US is better equipped to handle a catastrophe precisely because there is no master plan. We're a bunch of people jumping onto the task of solving problems when we see them without waiting for a chain of command. He says we're decadent because we're dependent on a complex supply chain of goods and services to provide for our every need. He misses the point that we created that complex supply chain through hard work, and we'll create it again if necessary. We will not, as Orlov says, devolve into a society of loosely affiliated bands of people subsisting on what they can produce in small groups.
 SURVIVE AND THRIVE! January 26, 2009
Bruce Graham (Storrs, CT USA)
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
If you want to know what is really going on, REINVENTING COLLAPSE is one of three books you should read. The author Dmitry Orlov is a Russian immigrant to the United States. As such, he has an outsiders interesting, informed, well researched, and clearly intelligent point of view. I do not suggest that his view is perfect but it is very realistic. He discusses the similarities of collapsing economies and of corrupt and inefective political systems. He uses these to provide information to enable you to survive and maybe thrive a social and economic collapse.
One flawed view for example is on page 55. He states that Americans pretend that their (economic) failures are their own making. NO! NO! NO! Modern Americans blame anyone and everyone else for their failures. There is little or no responsibility shown by big business, government or by individuals. That is part of what got us where we are and also tells us where we are headed. That lack of responsibility is in addition to our other very real flaws detailed in this book.
WAKE UP!! Read this book! Also read: THE LONG EMERGENCY by Howard Kunstler and INTERNAL COMBUSTION (really) by Baker. SURVIVE AND THRIVE!
It's happend before, it's happening again... January 2, 2009
M. Ashworth (Cold white north)
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
I read this book before the collapse in America started and saw it coming and recognized what was happening as result of the book's contents.
This book was a warning when it was published and is still relevant as there is more to come. If you want to know what to expect in the future for the USA, and abroad, read the comparison of what has already happend in the USSR. - Buy the book.
Look for more on the author: www.cluborlov.blogspot.com
Reinventing Collapse: The Soviet Example and American Prospects December 20, 2008
S. Geller (Washington)
4 out of 11 found this review helpful
I was very disappointed with Orlov's comparison of the crises that the Soviets endured with our forthcoming collapse. I thought the book might offer helpful advice (it could have) for those in the U.S. who have their eyes open to the changes that are happening. Instead Orlov chose to weave an ever so slight at times comparison, between none such phrases and filler statements that anyone could have written. Orlov is a man who could have really been helpful to people wanting to make it through this incoming crises.
Showing reviews 11-15 of 46
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