Raj Patel on "The Value of Nothing: How to Reshape Market Society and Redefine Democracy"

by via Democracy Now

Tue, Jan 12, 2010 8:32AM

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 :Author and activist Raj Patel joins us to discuss his new book, The Value of Nothing: How to Reshape Market Society and Redefine Democracy. "We've come to believe that the only way we can value things is by sticking them in a market," Patel says. "The trouble is, as we've seen through this recession, that markets are a tremendously bad way of valuing things, tremendously fickle."

We speak with author and activist Raj Patel, who has just come out with a brand-new book, “The Value of Nothing: How to Reshape Market Society and Redefine Democracy.” The title comes from Oscar Wilde, who wrote: “Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing.” Raj Patel’s previous book is widely considered the authoritative work on the global food crisis, “Stuffed and Starved: Markets, Power and the Hidden Battle for the World’s Food System.” He has formerly worked for the World Bank, the World Trade Organization and the United Nations, and has also protested them on four continents. Raj Patel joins us now from Boston.

Raj Patel, author of The Value of Nothing: How to Reshape Market Society and Redefine Democracy.