Precious Nothing

The efficiency of markets has certainly been called into question in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, but British activist and author Raj Patel goes one step further, asking whether our system of assigning prices to goods and services makes many modern problems worse. His point is that refraining from consumption is often more beneficial to society than encouraging it.

Patel also explains how he went from an Oxford-educated junior capitalist to a tear-gas sucking social activist. Prior to his days of protest, he had a tour at the World Bank, where he was allowed to view classified documents. There he came to the conclusion that the organization’s loans to developing countries do more harm than good.