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declaun's review against another edition
3.0
A decent read but lacking in hindsight and contemporary context. 3/5
Likes:
+ Simple explanations of macroeconomics
+ Illustrates discrimination against women and minorities ignored by textbook economics
+ retrospective look at the economic devastation after 2008
Dislikes:
- Prescriptions to the social ills are ideologized
Likes:
+ Simple explanations of macroeconomics
+ Illustrates discrimination against women and minorities ignored by textbook economics
+ retrospective look at the economic devastation after 2008
Dislikes:
- Prescriptions to the social ills are ideologized
epersonae's review against another edition
3.0
It hit a raw nerve for me about where I am in life and society, and I'm still trying to figure out how to describe that experience. I'd like to read it again and maybe make some notes as I go. Left with a vague sense of wanting to do something, but not enough of a strong direction of what exactly that ought to be. (That may just be about me.) Recommended with that reservation.
pldean's review against another edition
3.0
I enjoyed this book, most especially for its critique of the limits of market pricing and reexamination of some of the more famous Western economists, from Adam Smith to Keynes. It's another contribution to the growing refutation of the idea of homo economicus, the idea that humans make enlightened and rational economic choices as a matter of course.
snarkmeister's review against another edition
2.0
I quit reading about a third of the way through. It may be a great book, but every time I picked it up I started dozing off. Too much like homework. ;-)
unisonlibrarian's review against another edition
4.0
In his second book, Raj Patel turns his attention from the food industry focus of his previous book, Stuffed and Starved, to the wider world of inequality and turbo-capitalism we inhabit. Patel is a master of the simple explanation of seemingly complex global problems. The theme of book is to take issue with the modern theory that price and value are one and the same. Human value is eminently different from exchange and cost value, as Marx explained 150 years ago. The mechanism on which these prices are created, and their value explained is the same mechanism and computer models on which the financial markets were run on up to the crash of 2009, to the detriment of everybody. Is it not inconceivable that the societal indexes of cost and value also contain the same basic fundamental flaw of confusing consumers with rationality? Events seem to overtake theories which is what has happened to the world, and people/governments don’t know where to turn so the same system is becoming powerful again and gearing us up for an even bigger conflict, either between rival markets or between rich and poor. The first half of the book is dedicated to exploring the issues while the latter half provides some stirring, moving examples of collectives and societies that are fighting back to reclaim value over price to the benefit of their people. As is stands now we value things the unnecessary things higher than things we need such as fossil fuels over sustainable food production and distribution, the gross national product over income disparities etc. Alan Greenspan said he had discovered a “flaw” in the sytem when recriminations over the most recent crash were taking place but the flaw he found was not the major flaw – the entire system itself which is geared towards exploitation, private wealth, warfare and the ignorance of global warming and climate change. I suppose this book tells us nothing new and that the people who will read it will already be converted to the ideas within. However our attention spans are shorter now than they ever have been, we must keep these humane principles in the forefront of our minds and the minds of those who apparently lead us, this book does that. We must also start demanding what we, as citizens of the world want and get governments to act on it, rather than seeing governments act and then persuading us that what they have done is right.
boureemusique's review against another edition
4.0
"Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing." ~ Oscar Wilde
I give this book 3 stars for me and 4 stars for everybody else. I give it fewer stars for me because I've read Derrick Jensen's "Endgame," and while Patel does some new and important things in this book, it's a lot of the same information I was presented in Jensen, only less forcefully. Patel is much more interested in convincing a broader audience. On to the book:
1. The economic assumptions we (capitalists; Americans; economists in power; Greenspan) have made for the last 30+ years have been wrong. Even Greenspan acknowledges this, though people who "quote" him try to soften the blow so as not to hurt the fragile ego that is our economic system.
2. Human life is priceless - literally. It should not be part of the economic or financial market. "There is nothing natural about buying and selling things for profit, and allowing markets to determine their value...."
3. Patel does use some incomplete logic to argue that humans are not always self-serving. He's very anti-Randian, and I wholeheartedly agree with that, but I think he could have taken more time and space to walk the reader through his assertions.
4. We need to rethink of ourselves as humans, as citizens, and not (only) as consumers.
5. Patel explores many real-world examples of power struggles, different ways democracies look around the world, food sovereignty, guerilla democracy, etc. He freely acknowledges that some of the nascent and very radical ways people are governing themselves in places like Central and South America are not perfect, but they are at least based in better ways of thinking, and they are self-correcting because their processes are more just.
6. Patel explores and partially explains (and cites) real science that technology cannot save us food-wise. Popular arguments that Malthus's numbers haven't come true yet are shattered by logic, reason, and real numbers in Patel's work here and in the work of many other learned, respected, and moral thinkers today.
There are so many quotations from this book I'd like to share that I just recommend you all pick up a copy at your local library. If you get bored, at least skip to Chapter 10.
I give this book 3 stars for me and 4 stars for everybody else. I give it fewer stars for me because I've read Derrick Jensen's "Endgame," and while Patel does some new and important things in this book, it's a lot of the same information I was presented in Jensen, only less forcefully. Patel is much more interested in convincing a broader audience. On to the book:
1. The economic assumptions we (capitalists; Americans; economists in power; Greenspan) have made for the last 30+ years have been wrong. Even Greenspan acknowledges this, though people who "quote" him try to soften the blow so as not to hurt the fragile ego that is our economic system.
2. Human life is priceless - literally. It should not be part of the economic or financial market. "There is nothing natural about buying and selling things for profit, and allowing markets to determine their value...."
3. Patel does use some incomplete logic to argue that humans are not always self-serving. He's very anti-Randian, and I wholeheartedly agree with that, but I think he could have taken more time and space to walk the reader through his assertions.
4. We need to rethink of ourselves as humans, as citizens, and not (only) as consumers.
5. Patel explores many real-world examples of power struggles, different ways democracies look around the world, food sovereignty, guerilla democracy, etc. He freely acknowledges that some of the nascent and very radical ways people are governing themselves in places like Central and South America are not perfect, but they are at least based in better ways of thinking, and they are self-correcting because their processes are more just.
6. Patel explores and partially explains (and cites) real science that technology cannot save us food-wise. Popular arguments that Malthus's numbers haven't come true yet are shattered by logic, reason, and real numbers in Patel's work here and in the work of many other learned, respected, and moral thinkers today.
There are so many quotations from this book I'd like to share that I just recommend you all pick up a copy at your local library. If you get bored, at least skip to Chapter 10.