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People today know the price of everything and the value of nothing.
Oscar Wilde
Raj Patel has written The Value of Nothing a new book inspired by this Oscar Wilde quote. I like to slightly rephrase this as the value of no thing. The basic idea in the book, is that the free market economy has failed us by shifting our thinking to believe that considering price is the only determining factor of value. Yet, there is value in other things that a price cannot be attached to. For example, a hamburger that has a price of $4 really should be priced at $200 if you factor in the environmental costs of producing the hamburger, but the markets work in a way to exclude things like the value of the air we breathe, the safety of the water we drink, and the damage caused by a junk food diet. Unfortunately we have learned that if we can’t or don’t attach a price to something it is valueless and, therefore unimportant.
Since the economic collapse we are discovering that the free market centric model of thinking is, in Alan Greenspan’s [former chairman of the Federal Reserve] own words, flawed. Those things to which a price cannot be attached have the highest value. Unfortunately, the flawed model of how things work has been dominating the USA, if not the world since the end of World War II. That means that one change in crisis of consciousness must be that we begin to understand what we really value and act accordingly. Free market thinking may have brought us lots of material prosperity at the cost of our fundamental values. The truth is that free market thinking is only one world view. There are others, and the shift in consciousness begins when you reassess your own values and begin to act on what your true values are. For example, is it more important to get a 15% pay increase that demands 20% more time or is it a higher value to spend time with your children. On a more global level, is it more value for you to get that new BMW every year or two or is more valuable to see that all Americans have reasonable health insurance.
The second example focuses on what I will call a “I’ve got mine and the hell with everyone else because I want to get more” way of thinking that has arisen out of market-centric views of the world. Suppose, instead, that we think in terms of “I’ve got mine now how can I help others” way of thinking, not at a billionaire philanthropic level, but at a day to day personal level. The best example of this that I can think of are Buddhist Bodhisattvas and the Bodhisattva Vow. In Mahayana Buddhism a Bodhisattva is sort of like a Christian saint. They are people who have achieved a considerable degree of enlightenment who but forgo their ultimate enlightenment to help others achieve liberation. In Christian terms they give up immediate rewards of heaven in order that other people might achieve heaven. The Bodhisattvas understand the interconnectedness of all human beings and that they will not be fully enlightened until everyone else is. The Bodhisattva Vow is simply the commitment that a monk may take to work as a Bodhisattva as his/her own wisdom increases.
Putting this in another context, are you willing to have a Chevy instead of a BMW so that everyone can have a car?
Today brings home the point because of the huge earthquake in Haiti. People are suffering unbelievably. So, what are your values? You can begin to restructure your life to fit your values using The Warriors Time Management System. Get it free by clicking here.
Posted in 4 Responses to “The Value of Nothing and The Wisdom of the Bodhisattvas”
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You should be discussing how illegal it is to bribe congressmen and unions to get a “deal” signed for the health care bill. There is actually Federal Statute against bribing, both domestically…and internationally, in the United States. The Democrats got away with federal crime. Instead, you talk of how a hamburger should cost $200.00 in your… “post-free enterprise” world. I would rather pay the $4.00 for my hamburger and be AMUSED at the extreme misfortune of your wasted education. (Oh! and Oscar Wilde actually wrote fiction, and he was so rich and under-experienced…that he was useless. All he could do was write. You should go back to India or Sri Lanka, since you don’t know ANOTHER kind of value…the value of being a free person in the United States. We value each other, and we experience (that means we perform, and have provided the world with the single greatest middle-class and buying power the world has ever seen) the wealth of each others’ contributions…something Socialists haven’t got a clue to…they are too busy being less than average…like…you wouldn’t buy a car made by a union…would you? It’s quality is that of the worst performing employee, and breaks down…often…because of the…”mistakes” that employee makes.). Hmmm?!
I am totally with you on the bribery issue, but it’s a problem on both sides of the aisle. Please don’t criticize those “bad Democrats”. I haven’t seen any evidence that the Republicans are any different. The issue is that there are values other than free market values… and they are important. If you think not, sell your children or wife. I certainly am not against an entrepreneurial society since I am an entrepreneur, and I’ve read Adam Smith, Milton Friedman, and Alan Greenspan too. However, the free market is really a mythology because the so-called free market companies actually leverage the power of government so they can derive the benefits of a “free market” and force people to consume their products while dodging the responsibilities of a free market. Remember the bank bailout by Paulson? Not very free market. If you want to throw labels around, that is Fascism, and it is extremely interesting that the Friedman crowd were the first people to go in and rebuild the economy under Pinochet. In addition, I suspect that the millions of Americans who have lost their jobs and lost their homes to the shenanigans of these free marketers would question your notions of being a free person in the United States. Sure, there is freedom to choose paper or plastic, but try not wearing your seatbelt sometime… historically, a law passed because of the lobby of the insurance industry… or try to find a true free market economy. The whole point is that quality of life is more than the coolest toys at the cheapest price. Try reading the Declaration of Independence. One of government’s responsibilities is the safety and happiness of the people. The last 50 years has seen a dramatic shift to corporatism. That, on the other hand is not mentioned in the Declaration. The point of Raj Patel’s book is that it’s time to restore the traditional values the founding fathers had in their regard for human beings… seems to me that’s called Democracy.
This country was FOUNDED on “corporatism.” That IS the free enterprise system. You seem to want “statism,” something our U.S. Constitution rejects. Obama is a statist, with the government in charge of everything. Have you ever seen a lawyer try to run just a pizza parlor? And then they want to run health care? Nope. The Democrats want to tax “cadillac health care” plans…yet they gave a huge break to the unions who have about the biggest cadillac health plan of all! Wow! Then, of course, the congress has THE GREATEST cadillac health plan in history. What a whopper! And they are tax exempt. Corruption!!!
It is against the law to bribe in this country. The laws are CLEAR on this point. Yet, no one has been arrested on felony bribery charges…not the preseident, nor any democrats…Hmmmmm…and we are not talking relativism just because ‘everybody’ sins. If we are talking relativism, the go ahead and let everyone out of jail. But let me move somewhere else first. Okay? Relativism is for dummies. I would rather have the constitution and the bill of rights…and the federalist papers, et al. No, not Saul Alinski, nor Bill Ayers…or James van Jones….not even George Soros. I stand for something.
Actually, you are historically incorrect. First, there is the simple fact that while the peoople are repeatedly mentioned in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, corporations are not mentioned one single time. Beyond that obvious fact, the history is that the founders not only wanted to free themselves from the political rule of the British monarchy, but also from the British corporations that dominated trade and extracted the wealth of the colonies. The Boston Tea Party, for example, was not a protest against politics or taxes, but against the Tea Act of 1773, which essentially gave the East India Company a monopoly on the tea trade. Many British corporations managed to get this type of monopolistic advantage from the British crown, and the colonists resisted it because it negatively influenced their own ability to do trade. So, after the American Revolution, there was a fear of the influence of corporate power not a movement embracing it. To that end, Corporations were prohibited from attempting to influence elections, public policy, and other parts of society. And in the beginning, incorporation was granted only to enable activities that BENEFITED THE PUBLIC. Corporation capitalization, debts, land holdings, profits, and interlocking directorates were limited by laws within the states.
American corporations were specifically not given the shield of limited liability. That made the individual share holders personally responsibility for the activities of the corporations.
In other words government at the federal and state levels viewed its role as controlling the potential of corporate abuses in order to protect the people.
From 1819, American corporations fought for more and more rights and privliges under the law. Finally, in 1886, a Supreme Court ruling was made that was later interpreted as giving corporations the rights of “personhood.” Under the law they had the same \rights as individual citizens. Since that time corporations have sought more and more control over the lives of citizens by influencing both the legislative and judical processes of our country. And the simple fact is that corporatons have developed a system of legal bribery of federal and state officials to get more and more benefits refrom government at the expense of the citizens.
Those influences became most blatant under the Bush/Cheney administration when industry advocates were appointed the heads of the agencies that were supposed to regulate corporations for the benefit of the citizenry as a whole.
The heart of the issue is not getting rid of the free market system. It is catching the trend toward state supported Business (Fascism) and returning democracy to the citizens of the United States by imposing reasonable sanctions of the allowable abuses of business in this country.