The Value of Nothing: How to Reshape Market Society and Redefine Democracy
Jan 2010 · Macmillan + ORM
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About this ebook
New York Times Bestseller: "A deeply thought-provoking book about the dramatic changes we must make to save the planet from financial madness." —Naomi Klein, New York Times–bestselling author
Opening with Oscar Wilde's observation that "nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing," Patel shows how our faith in prices as a way of valuing the world is misplaced. He reveals the hidden ecological and social costs of a hamburger (as much as $200), and asks how we came to have markets in the first place. Both the corporate capture of government and our current financial crisis, Patel argues, are a result of our democratically bankrupt political system.
If part one asks how we can rebalance society and limit markets, part two answers by showing how social organizations, in America and around the globe, are finding new ways to describe the world's worth. If we don't want the market to price every aspect of our lives, we need to learn how such organizations have discovered democratic ways in which people, and not simply governments, can play a crucial role in deciding how we might share our world and its resources in common.
While we need to rethink our economic model, Patel argues that the larger failure beneath the food, climate and economic crises is a political one. If economics is about choices, Patel writes, it isn't often said who gets to make them. The Value of Nothing offers a fresh and accessible way to think about economics and the choices we will all need to make in order to create a sustainable economy and society.
Opening with Oscar Wilde's observation that "nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing," Patel shows how our faith in prices as a way of valuing the world is misplaced. He reveals the hidden ecological and social costs of a hamburger (as much as $200), and asks how we came to have markets in the first place. Both the corporate capture of government and our current financial crisis, Patel argues, are a result of our democratically bankrupt political system.
If part one asks how we can rebalance society and limit markets, part two answers by showing how social organizations, in America and around the globe, are finding new ways to describe the world's worth. If we don't want the market to price every aspect of our lives, we need to learn how such organizations have discovered democratic ways in which people, and not simply governments, can play a crucial role in deciding how we might share our world and its resources in common.
While we need to rethink our economic model, Patel argues that the larger failure beneath the food, climate and economic crises is a political one. If economics is about choices, Patel writes, it isn't often said who gets to make them. The Value of Nothing offers a fresh and accessible way to think about economics and the choices we will all need to make in order to create a sustainable economy and society.
New York Times Bestseller: "A deeply thought-provoking book about the dramatic changes we must make to save the planet from financial madness." —Naomi Klein, New York Times–bestselling author
Opening with Oscar Wilde's observation that "nowadays people know the price of everything and the value ...
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Ratings and reviews
6 reviews
A Google user
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August 3, 2010
I enjoyed reading this book. Raj Patel makes a very good case for why we need to reshape market society away from greed and profit as primary motivators. The monetary profit motive of capitalism is often not the best metric to use to a define successful economy as the last 30 years of Reaganomics has proven. The rich get richer and the planet and the rest of the people suffer tremendously for it. We need to get back to a functional democracy that works for the people.
A Google user
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April 8, 2011
The essence of change and reform has been brought to us by the pragmatic pedagogy research of Raj Patel . This is a Doctrine of Real Democracy , the collectivist approach to solve Global suffering !
About the author
Raj Patel, the author of Stuffed and Starved, is an activist and academic who has been hailed as "a visionary" for his prescience about the food crisis. Raj has worked for the World Bank and the World Trade Organization and has protested against them on four continents. He is currently a visiting scholar at UC Berkeley's Center for African Studies, an Honorary Research Fellow at the School of Development Studies at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and a fellow at the Institute for Food and Development Policy, also known as Food First.
Raj Patel, the author of Stuffed and Starved, is an activist and academic who has been hailed as "a visionary" for his prescience about the food crisis. Raj has worked for the World Bank and the World Trade Organization and has protested against them on four continents. He is currently a visiting...
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