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The Value Of Nothing: How To Reshape Market Society And Redefine Democracy (2010)

by Raj Patel(Favorite Author)

3.75 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

031242924X (ISBN13: 9780312429249)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Picador

review 1: Patel, an activist, shows that the free market isn’t exactly free. There are hidden costs everywhere—some that can be given a price tag, others that can’t. The overarching premise is that the cheap goods we enjoy aren’t actually cheap. His most famous example is that a $1 hamburger should really be $200, once we factor in the farming subsidies, the health problems created, etc. Patel is a much better interviewer—I’ve seen him interviewed on several occasions, and he comes across as passionate and clearly states his case. This book felt like the opposite. It seemed unorganized and also written to an audience with a better-than-average understanding of economics. I admire Patel and his work, and I tend to agree with him on most things, but this book was a ... morestruggle to get through.• No language issues
review 2: Another good case of “don’t judge a book by it’s cover.” With it’s title and bio I assumed this book would have been a bit more about the actual costs and data of externalities, and using alternatives to the current financial and monetary systems. Looking back I can see how the title fits, but without having read the book it certainly alludes to different content and expectations.Patel focuses on the history of the market system - how it came to be and the limitations it grew up with and still has. The book is separated into two parts, the first covering the history of the market and the second was said to be about responses to the current market system. I found the first part interesting, although more aligned with economic principles of value in use and value in exchange than value in dollar amounts - as I said, in hindsight the title fits. The chapters are simple and straightforward in structure - “The Flaw” covers the flaws in original economic and market thinking, how leaving the market to be governed by the invisible hand was never the intent of the original thinkers on economics or the market; “Becoming Homo Economicus” goes through how as part of the market people became consumers and the theory of rational man became an integral part of market theory to the point (like the idea of the market) that it was infallable; “The Corporation” discusses how corporations are in fact the actual rational economic players and the lynchpin to market society; “On Diamonds and Water” reviews value in exchange and value in use differences to explain why things are priced so differently in a market society; “Anti-Economic Man” pursues the idea that men aren’t rational beings and therefore rely on government regulation to reign in the market (and how government now being a slave to corporations means that the market no longer serves the best interest of people); while the final “We Are All Commoners” addresses the “tragedy of the commons” and proposes that really it was the enclosure of commons (and turning most things into private property - a hazaa for me as I'm always ranting about private property!) that was the real issue. So while there is some focus on externatlities it is more within the context of the history of the market system itself and how it was not always seen as a perfect force with a magical invisible hand to create things in peoples’ best interests.The second part supplies some case studies that are supposedly countermovements against the market society. I guess they are, but they primarily seem like countermovements to dysfunctional democracy. I guess the market and democracy are symbiotic and developed in an intertwining way which would mean that yes, these countermovements are also in reaction to a market society. But they really primarily seem to be counter to the current democratic system and are ways in which groups have created a more active and participatory (better functioning) democracy.Overall, while still an interesting read (with some good history on economics and the development of our current market society), it wasn’t quite what I expected and the case studies, while also interesting, did not seem to have strong results, making them weak alternatives or solutions to the problems our market (and its externalities) have for us, the planet or our society. Motivating maybe, and certainly I appreciate the efforts and only want more of them, but the hard data was not there (at least in this book) to back them up. And while I’m all for logic and common sense, when it comes to change, I really need hard evidence. less

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