MORE FROM RAJ PATEL’S BOOK–THE VALUE OF NOTHING

Patel has the perfect analogy to illustrate the continued adherence of some to “free” markets, in the face of all concrete evidence to the contrary.

Anton’s Blindness is a rare medical condition that usually happens after a stroke or traumatic brain injury in which its sufferers are blind, but possessed of a feverent belief that they can see.  Patients see unexplained phenomena–one reported seeing a new village outside her window that she couldn’t recall having been built.

Insisting that free markets can light up our world and then make excuses when they fail spectacularly is no less a confabulation than pretending to see when you are blind.

What characterizes today’s markets are exchanges that are driven not by needs, but by profit. The terms on which markets operate are set by the powerful.  Our tragedy is to have allowed this to happen.

Before Americans can overcome their current blindness, they need to overcome their ignorance.  They need to understand more clearly how the culture of the “free” market affect them.  They need to learn how things become stuff to be bought and sold.  They need to learn how they have become the blind seers of modern market society that we call “consumers.”

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My wish for the USA is that every member of Congress would read THE VALUE OF NOTHING by Raj Patel and take his message to heart.