By Michael J. Sandel
Markets, morality, and their proper boundaries
Subject
Themes
Over the past three decades, markets have expanded into spheres of life traditionally governed by nonmarket norms. Prison cell upgrades, access to carpool lanes, the right to pollute, and even admission to prestigious universities now come with price tags. This marketisation of everything raises fundamental questions about what role markets should play in a good society and whether some goods should not be for sale at any price.
Over the past three decades, markets have expanded into spheres of life traditionally governed by nonmarket norms. Prison cell upgrades, access to carpool lanes, the right to pollute, and even admission to prestigious universities now come with price tags. This marketisation of everything raises…
What Money Can't Buy represents Michael Sandel's intervention into debates about the proper role of markets in contemporary society, positioned at the intersection of political philosophy, moral theory, and economic criticism. The book extends Sandel's broader philosophical project, which emphasizes…
The fundamental question concerns whether putting a price on everything corrupts or degrades certain goods. Market reasoning treats all goods as commodities that can be valued according to supply and demand. Yet not all goods are properly valued this way. Slavery was appalling not because it was…
The proliferation of paid queue jumping exemplifies how market logic has expanded into domains traditionally governed by nonmarket norms. Airport security checkpoints, amusement parks, congressional hearings, and even free Shakespeare performances in Central Park now offer fast-track options to…
Market-based incentive schemes have proliferated in recent decades, extending into domains once governed by ethical norms, civic obligations, and intrinsic motivations. Cash payments to encourage reading, weight loss, drug treatment compliance, and even sterilisation represent attempts to change…
The expansion of market logic into matters of life and death reveals fundamental questions about human dignity and the proper scope of commodification. Corporate-owned life insurance on ordinary workers, viatical investments in the policies of terminally ill patients, and markets in human organs…
The expansion of commercial advertising and naming rights into public spaces and civic institutions represents a profound shift in how society values shared goods. Ballparks, universities, public transport systems, and even natural landmarks now bear corporate names in exchange for sponsorship…
Almost everything can be bought and sold today. Prison cell upgrades cost $82 per night in Santa Ana, California, where nonviolent offenders can pay for better accommodations away from nonpaying prisoners. Solo drivers can access carpool lanes for $8 during rush hour in Minneapolis. Indian surrogate…
Nobody likes waiting in line, but increasingly people can pay to skip queues. At airports, passengers buying first-class or business-class tickets use priority lanes at security checkpoints. British Airways calls this Fast Track. Most passengers cannot afford first-class tickets, so airlines now…
Barbara Harris offers drug-addicted women $300 to undergo sterilisation or long-term birth control through her North Carolina charity, Project Prevention. More than three thousand women have accepted since 1997. Critics call the programme morally reprehensible bribery targeting vulnerable women in…
Are there some things that money cannot buy? Consider friendship. Hiring people to do things friends typically do (picking up mail, looking after children, listening to woes) remains possible, but you cannot actually buy a friend. The money that buys the friendship dissolves it or turns it into…
Michael Rice, forty-eight, an assistant manager at Walmart in Tilton, New Hampshire, had a heart attack whilst helping a customer and died a week later. An insurance policy on his life paid out about $300,000, but the money went to Walmart, which had purchased the policy and named itself…
By Michael J. Sandel
Subject
Themes
Over the past three decades, markets have expanded into spheres of life traditionally governed by nonmarket norms. Prison cell upgrades, access to carpool lanes, the right to pollute, and even admission to prestigious universities now come with price tags. This marketisation of everything raises fundamental questions about what role markets should play in a good society and whether some goods should not be for sale at any price.