The Value of Nothing

Worried about the meaning of existence? You might turn to Raj Patel's book The Value of Nothing. It comes from an Oscar Wilde quote: "Nowadays people know the price of everything but the value of nothing."

Patel's message about how we value -- and misvalue -- the world and ourselves isn't entirely new. Citing Buddhist economist E.F. Schumacher, he says what we need to strive for is a middle path: one where our financial and economic choices aren't dominated by Big Brother or big corporations. And he feels the viability of our future depends on us organizing and fighting for a society in which we value meeting people's basic needs over greed.

http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/raj-patel-value-of-nothing-interview-buddhist-economics/19827037/

LightCommodore's picture

Thank you, Noa for an uplifting, eye-opening pointer to a new economic reality just now being envisioned by forward-thinking economists like Raj Patel.

In many ways, science and spirituality are converging as science discovers that the mind of the observer is a significant force in the creation of reality observed during scientific experiments, and this ability of consciousness to control reality is designed into the universe, apparently by the Source of Consciousness. This is the new model: Source Consciousness apparently designed everything so that we can individually participate in co-creating reality. (Read The Intention Experiment by Lynne McTaggert for information on this science/spirituality convergence.)

Now economics comes into the picture and spirituality takes its place in the new economic reality too. We are apparently on the verge of transcending self-centered economics and moving instead toward a model in which all have a part in co-creating the whole economic picture. Trickle-down economics has apparently played an important role in revealing the ugliness of self-centered, winner-take-all capitalism, and we are now moving toward a higher level of consciousness in which all systems are kinder, gentler, and more inclusive, including economic ones. I hope we can make this transition successfully. It will require that democratic social and economic thinking reach a certain critical mass so that we can co-create this new reality together.
Those are my thoughts after reading about Patel's ideas. Looking forward to how others view his approach.
Chuck

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