The Value of Nothing
Why Everything Costs So Much More Than We Think
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Price:
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$26.99
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On Sale:
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21/12/2009
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Formats:
Hardcover
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As retirement funds shrink, savings disappear and houses are foreclosed on, now is a good time to ask a question for which every human civilization has had an answer: why do things cost what they do? The Value of Nothing tracks down the reasons through history, philosophy, neuroscience and sociology, showing why prices are always at odds with the true value of the things that matter most to us.
Damien Hirst’s diamond-encrusted skull sold for a record $100 million at auction. But if we account for the possibility that blood diamonds were used (as many suspect), the human cost is even greater. A Big Mac might seem like the best deal in these economic times, but after analyzing the energy to produce each burger, from field to Happy Meal, Patel argues the real price tag is a whopping $200. But it is easiest to see the gap between price and value by looking at things that are so-called free. Examining everything from Google to TV, from love to thoughts, The Value of Nothing reveals the hidden social consequences of our global culture of “freedom.”
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Author Extras
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Critical Praise for
The Value of Nothing
“As we confront the crisis in the worldview of orthodox economics, Raj Patel offers us a whole new way to think about price and value. Bracingly written and full of surprises, The Value of Nothing is itself invaluable, showing us a path out of the darkness of the economics woods.”
—Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defense of Food
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“Expanding on his analysis and recommendations in Stuffed and Starved, which located the horrifying imbalance in the world's food system in its profit-driven framework, activist and academic Patel critiques ‘free market culture’ at a moment of universal crisis, both economic and environmental. Beginning with a historically grounded account of market society's operative assumptions, ‘the way capitalism sets the terms of value,’ Patel takes aim at the notion of ‘Homo economicus’: a vision of human beings as self-interested utility-maximizers integral to market society's dollar-valuation of everything. Through a shrewd and absorbing discussion, Patel exposes the flaws in the ‘model of the world in which people are... prepared to override their own better judgment in service of their selfish natures’ and the nominal separation of the economy and the state, describing the relationship as compromised but also more ‘plastic’ then we are often led to believe. With due attention to the developing world as well as Europe and North America, the author offers examples of the ‘countermovement’ underway and urges us to build on a vision of ourselves far more extensive, generous and hopeful than that confined to market society's Homo economicus.” (Jan.)
—Publishers Weekly
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“With great lucidity and confidence in a dazzling array of fields, Patel reveals how we inflate the cost of things we can (and often should) live without, while assigning absolutely no value to the resources we all need to survive. This is a deeply thought-provoking book about the dramatic changes we must make to save the planet from financial madness -- argued with so much humor and humanity that the enormous tasks ahead feel both doable and desirable. This is Raj Patel’s great gift: he makes even the most radical ideas seem not only reasonable, but inevitable. A brilliant book.”
—Naomi Klein, author The Shock Doctrine
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Stuffed and Starved
For those with enough money—and that’s most of us in wealthier countries—life is good. We can eat almost anything we want, regardless of where it comes from, what season it is or how much it costs. The world is our dish, laden with more foods than we’ve ever seen in history and...
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Stuffed and Starved
At no other time in history have people in wealthy countries had so much choice and so much abundance in what to eat. But in countries locked in a vicious cycle of poverty, there is no choice. There is no food. Raj Patel shows us that these two extremes are deeply and...
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