Economics is about choices, but who gets to make them? Patel shows how free market fundamentalism has distorted how consumers value their world.

Reviews

“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
""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 economic woods."--Michael Pollan, author of "In Defense of Food" and "The Omnivore