The Value of Nothing: How to Reshape Market Society and Redefine Democracy

Mr. Patel has assembled a number of factoids, statistics, stories, and anecdotes into a treatise.A number of the ideas and points that he discusses are very important and pertinent, however his writing style at times seems to be too random for my taste.He selectively chooses facts or history that supports his main theme: that local communities must take back how they value property and commons from the profit-driven market. I think most readers would find this compelling. Also, communities must be more participatory at the citizen level, rather than just voting in an election every 4 years for legislators and politicians to do their dirty work, which often breeds corruption with the concentration of power in a representative government. I can agree.Rather than a serious examination of how these goals can be achieved that would appeal to a wide audience of socioeconomic groups, Mr. Patel's personal Leftist slant diminishes his arguments.He portrays Alan Greenspan, Ayn Rand, George W. Bush, and all large corporations as evil. However, Keynes and Obama and Clinton are praised, or at least treated with much less contempt. Patel also seems to especially hate American politics, American markets, and generally anything American (noted exceptions are American Marxists and Al Gore).If you consider yourself Hard Left, you will love the book and wish it even went further in its criticisms.If you consider yourself a conservative or moderate, you will probably dislike the political commentary.If you think through issues yourself, and don't subscribe to a neatly defined political box, this book may be one of the resources to add to your understanding of current social and economic affairs, although you will need to do further investigation on your own to develop an understanding of the Big Picture.For anybody who has read the Rob Bell book "Love Wins", I think of The Value of Nothing in a similar vein. Both books brought up questions and issues that need to be publicly discussed and debated. However, no serious theological scholar would call Bell's book much more than a simple book for the layman masses. And I don't think any serious economist would say that Patel adequately delved into the societal status of corporations. He rightly says that their profit-seeking and non-human nature is often destructive. However, he does not offer much of an alternative, he just demonizes them. Maybe agriculture should return to some centuries-old local low-tech techniques, but without a business entity like a corporation, there will be no iPods or computers or smartphones either.Even if Patel has worked at the World Bank, etc., this book is more of a "lite" introduction to large economic issues.

Raj Patel's book, The Value of Nothing, is a fresh look at modern-day social and economic problems. Patel's worldview is expansive and insightful and The Value of Nothing clearly proves that corporations can only put prices on things and never value. The book builds from "enclosure", the establishment of private property, to show how the masses of people have been transformed from free agents into consumers, debt-holders, and employees with only the illusion of democracy in return. Patel asserts, and I'm sure he's correct, that real democracy is almost nonexistent in the world today because of the marriage of corporate interests with government control. Nowdays the interest of the common people (or possibly people in general) takes a back seat to what's good for the economy and for corporate profit.Patel builds heavily on Garret Hardin's concept of the commons in the latter part of the book. Here I take exception with some of Patel's ideas. It appears Patel looks at the commons only in a macroscopic view and he seems to claim the only cheaters in a commons are corporations. Patel labels those who see the commons as something more than this as Mathusians and followers of Ayn Rand's extremism. It seems to me that each person (and possibly all individuals of all species) can act as cheaters in a commons and, at one time or another, each of us has encroached on others or been encroached upon. I deal with this idea in Chapter 6 of my book,  Thinking Green: Ethics for a Small Planet  ([...]), where I use Earth's oceans as a key modern example of an important human life support system that is being destroyed by "The Tragedy of the Commons". Patel is correct, however, that the monoculture (blanket the earth with my product) thinking of modern corporations around the globe is a key factor causing vital commons to collapse.The Value of Nothing is an excellent book, a must read for any person who seeks to understand the world from outside of the American cultural bubble. I enjoyed the book thoroughly and recommend it highly!

Raj Patel's "The Value of Nothing" provides a wide-ranging and accessible introduction to some of the key assumptions implicit in modern "market-based" economics -- and a call to the reader to evaluate the costs and benefits of those assumptions en route to considering alternate ways of thinking about our economy. His central idea is that the notion of the economy as a realm distinct from the rest of society is a harmful myth that damages us through its selective allocation of property and rights (when we fail to preserve the commons) as well as its selective association of responsibility (when we fail to understand externalities).The first half of the book, which focuses on history and key concepts, seems slightly stronger to me, though I think even some examples here (such as approximating the full ecological cost of a Big Mac at $200) could be even more compelling with more detail. The second half of the book, in which Patel touches on case studies where societies are attempting to redefine how groups allocate resources and declare various rights, is kind of all over the place, but I suspect Patel would argue that such messiness is largely a function of the extensive and decentralized work society will need to undertake in order to effect meaningful change. Patel is under no illusions about the scope of effort required to tackle the social, economic and ecological issues facing us, and he avoids giving any easy answers; in the end, he is arguing for nothing less than a complete overhaul of how we approach our daily lives and orient ourselves to be more engaged members of a community.

He's done it agagin.I read The Value of Nothing because I desperately sought more of Raj Patel's genius writing, his well-researched and balanced arguments. His first popular book "Stuffed & Starved" was a delight to read despite its serious content, so I was excited that Patel's clear and insightful analyses also ruffled up the world of economics.I have a background in food security but none in economics, yet neither book, I felt, was too demanding a read, or in need of further explanation or depth. So if you are looking for a book that fills you in on the mechanics of the global economy, globalisation at large and its implications for development, food security and the climate, this should be yours.Patel shines a critical light on capitalism's impact on the above issues as well, however, he does so in a well-thought through manner devoid of the common polemics.If you wonder how McDonalds and Walmart can get away with paying next to nothing to their staff, read this. Want to know who's paying for this paso doble of politics and corporations? Read this.Want proof that the Dalai Lama is a Marxist Buddhist. Read this.It is delightful how Patel takes you through the history of economics to show you how we got to our system of globalised, politically sanctioned economic injustice that today causes poverty, food riots and governments to fall.The contents of this book are as topical as ever, all the more relevant are the examples and lessons presented by Patel.But I'm not going to give those away, you should get to them in no time once you've started reading this book.

Raj Patel researches his subject thoroughly and deeply and presents the astounding information in an engaging manner. I would like to see this book as compulsory reading in all schools. Essential reading for everyone.

わたしたちが今まであたりまえと思って生きたことが、実は今後の時代には通用しないということがよくわかります。持続可能性のある状態でこの地球で暮らしていくためには、どんなことが必要なのかがわかります。