Posts Tagged ‘capitalism’

January 21st, 2010 Don’t agonize, organize: Raj Patel in Seattle

    On MLK day this week, Raj Patel captivated the audience at town hall with a lecture from the content of his latest book, “The Value of Nothing”. The title comes from Oscar Wilde who described a cynic as a man who “knows the cost of everything and the value of nothing”.

    He began by asking the simple question: How do we value the world? Then he proceeded to elaborate on how we do such a miserable job of it. For example, we are not in touch with understanding who owns the resources we use every day, such as water, oil and food production. If you take a common item such as a hamburger, and analyze the price to value, how do you reach a four dollar cost? You will need to consider the value of the land where the cows were raised. Was it once rainforest? Then include the labor. In Florida tomatoes are harvested by field workers making well below minimum wage. When you add what would be the real cost of labor and the land devoted to livestock you discover that hamburger may end up costing you $200.

    The costs to us are not only in the production of food, but also in our poor food choices that result in increased disease rates. It is estimated that one in three kids will develop diabetes in their lifetimes, and that one in five healthcare dollars are spent on treating diabetes.

    Currently, the only way we value things is to stick them in a market. Even Greenspan had to admit this ideology has flaws. But how do we react to what we see happening? Patel likened our reaction to the protagonist in Franz Kafka’s novel, “Metamorphosis”. He wakes up to find he has turned into a cockroach and he worries about his job.

    So how do we value things without markets? Do we say: “If only we had more regulation…”? The problem is free markets are very bad at being able to value things. For example, capitalist markets externalize environmental costs of the production of their goods, and drive down the cost of labor.

    Capitalism gives us liberty if you believe the following thought experiment. Imagine you live in a place where everyone is given tickets for all the things you can do: eat, travel, buy a home, and go to school. If you don’t have a ticket the police will come after you. Money is a generalized form of these tickets, and freedom is just another word for nothing you can afford. Having money is the right to have rights.

    So what are the alternatives to a system that produces penury? There are other ways of governing our economies. In contrast to the assumption that people are selfish and greedy is the awareness that to survive as a species we’ve learned to cooperate and have robust ways to do this. There are ways to manage our resources in common. Patel cites La Via Campesina, a huge movement of landless workers reclaiming the right to have rights around food and farming.

    In closing he urged the audience not to agonize, but organize, and reminded us democracy doesn’t trickle down, it bubbles up. We can’t sit back and wait. Obama was supposed to be our pizza delivery man of change, and deliver what we wanted all hot and steamy as we waited for arrival. Now we must relearn the art of citizenship so that we create an economy where everyone gets to eat.