Non-Fiction Pick of the Week: The Value of Nothing

The Value of Nothing by Raj Patel 2009

For the last 30 or 40 years, we have been given the message that the free market economy with constantly expanding consumption is the only way to go. Wealth will grow and the forces of the market will ensure equitable distribution of resources and income and any government interference only disrupts this natural process. This has guided politicians both in Canada and the United States, and, to a lesser extent, in Europe and Asia. The consequences of this philosophy are as follows: global warming, a vast gulf between the few rich and the many poor, and finally, the economic meltdown in the fall of 2008.

In his book The Value of Nothing, Raj Patel shows that the free market economy is not the only one. For one thing, the market does not reflect the true costs of goods. When social and ecological costs are taken into account, a $2.00 hamburger’s true cost is closer to $400.00! He traces economic thought from Adam Smith to present times, noting that some of the assumptions have been proven to be wrong by actual events. He speaks of some grassroots organizations such as the Via Campesina that use a different economic model with results that are kinder to Mother Earth and her inhabitants.

His message is summed up in the following quote:

“What needs to be plucked out of the markets is the perpetual and overriding hunger for expansion and profit that has brought us to the brink of ecological catastrophe ; what needs to plucked out of us is the belief that markets are the only way to value our world.”