Book Club Questions: The Value of Nothing by Raj Patel

To get our conversation going:

Introductions/ Answer the question: "What's the most expensive object you own, and what's the most valuable object you own?"

Patel uses many international groups/communities as case studies in this book. Did any resonate particularly strongly with you?

Do you agree with the statement: "There's nothing natural about ownership-- it's the result of a negotiation, and modern social change has always questioned the boundaries of public and private ownership." (p. 155)

Are money and GDP poor indicators of happiness? (p. 37)

What’s the opposite of consumption? Is it thrift or generosity? [Think about the story of white and Native American boys being given two lollipops, and what they chose to do with them (p.29)].

Patel calls corporations “artificial people” throughout the book. Are corporations psychopathic? (p. 41-42)

What do you think about his estimate that a Big Mac "really" costs ~$200

Should higher-priced organic/sustainably-grown products be an optional “ethical consumer” choice as they are now? [Patel: "If prices really reflected environmental and social costs, then prices really could telegraph the relative abundance and scarcity of things" (p. 49)].

What do you think about the free software movement? (p. 154) How has free software (Wikipedia, Twitter, etc.) affected democratic process in your own life or work?

Patel suggests that in place of our current market system of valuation, "...we can train ourselves to use our other senses, to know the world in different ways" (p. 192). How do you think we can do that, either as individuals or as a society?