What Money Can't Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets

I was a reluctant initial reader. The framework of “markets” and “incentives” explains so much about human behavior, and the language of markets pervades our discourse. So I thought Sandel was probably tilting at windmills, like a modern day Don Quixote. But Sandel thoughtfully (and persuasively) pulls the threads at the edges of the contemporary “market” mindset: if market economics are so powerful, if “everything has a price,” then why do we not buy and sell human beings, legalize prostitution, or even let potential jurors pay someone else to take their spots on the jury? Sandel does not spoon feed us simplistic answers. And his humility is refreshing in this age of absolutist thinking. He then turns to the corrosive effect that market-based discourse has wrought on our democracy. He suggests a few ways of engaging in a discourse that brings values and moral judgment back into the dialogue. Definitely a read that will get you thinking, especially the next time you hear a politician or journalist or policy wonk use the term, “incentivize.”