Forum Network

Activist Raj Patel discusses his new book, The Value of Nothing: How to Reshape Market Society and Redefine Democracy, with radio's On Point producer, John Wihbey.

In The Value of Nothing, Raj Patel, a long-time visionary in issues of global development, points to the inadequecy of price as a measure of value, and urges us to look at the larger environmental, political, and social cost of the goods we consume. The book reveals that our current crisis is not simply the result of too much of the wrong kind of economics. While we need to rethink our economic model, Patel argues that the larger failure beneath the food, climate, and economic crises is a political one. If economics is about choices, Patel writes, it isn't often said who gets to make them. The Value of Nothing offers an accessible way to think about economics and the choices we will all need to make in order to create a sustainable economy and society.