56 pages • 1 hour read
Michael J. SandelWhat Money Can’t Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2012A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Immorality of Over-Commodification
Michael Sandel aims to establish that there is an inherent immorality in market values entering nonmarket spaces, which is occurring through the over-commodification of an increasingly market-driven world. As is suggested in the title of his work, What Money Can’t Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets, Sandel believes that there are some objects, institutions, and ideas that should not be able to be bought and sold.
Sandel suggests that market values don’t merely enter spaces as well as existing civic values, but instead that market values “crowd out” existing values. He provides the example of a Swiss town feeling less inclined to support the nuclear waste plant near their homes when they were offered financial incentives for allowing it, as well as lawyers preferring to give free advice to pensioners rather than for a dramatically reduced fee. In both cases, “the intrusion of market norms crowded out [a] sense of civic duty” (140). Sandel thus argues that free-market values corrode important societal value systems, such as civic goodness and altruism.
Sandel also suggests that the market cannot regulate morally righteous behavior, but that it instead tends to result in the opposite, as ethics are abandoned in favor of making money. In the case of the “bribe for sterilization” offered by Barbara Harris, Sandel questions the ethics of impoverished addicts being paid off for sacrificing their ability to reproduce, adding that, “from the standpoint of market reasoning, it’s not clear why the program should provoke outrage” (51). Sandel also cites the example of life insurance to elucidate his point that market logic has crowded out moral righteousness through emphasizing “the dehumanizing attitudes” (177) that underpin the purchasing of life insurance purely for individual or corporate gain rather than personal connection.
Sandel argues that market values are also crowding out civic values in the political sphere. He points to the paid line-standers outside of Congress, who had been hired by a company to exclude a rival group of environmentalists from the floor of congress, thereby stifling free debate and meaningful civic engagement by ordinary citizens. He also details how public spaces are being renamed, such as stadiums and subway stations, through corporate sponsorship and advertisements. Often, the replaced names held local historical and cultural significance, but the temptation of corporate funding is too large to resist.
Overt commercialization is an even greater concern, Sandel suggests, in terms of advertising and commercial brandings increasingly entering schools, jails, and hospitals. Sandel urges readers to consider whether there are some spaces that should remain free from the motives of profit and free marketing.
Free-Market Values and Social Inequality
Sandel suggests that the numerous disadvantages, losses, and hardships that emerge due to the infiltration of market values into nonmarket spaces are disproportionately impacting middle- and lower-class individuals. In the past, the main advantage of wealth was allowing individuals to buy more luxurious material possessions; however, the wealthy can now increasingly access a greater quality of life and more opportunities, increasing social inequality: “the commodification of everything has sharpened the sting of inequality by making money matter more” (11).
One justification of free markets is that goods will be allocated to those who value them the most, based on the principles of supply and demand. Sandel argues that this explanation fails to account for the fact that people have unequal access to financial means, meaning that “market prices reflect the ability as well as the willingness to pay” (37, emphasis added). Those at the front rows of sporting events, musical performances, or plays may be more of a reflection of who can afford to pay the most, rather than who values the event most. Furthermore, when goods are distributed via markets rather than lines, those with fewer resources are crowded out, as was illustrated by the exclusion of less-wealthy individuals from the free Shakespeare in the Park performances when ticket scalpers and paid line-standers emerged. This spoiled the egalitarian mission underpinning the event.
Similarly, Sandel suggests that emissions trading and carbon footprint taxes unequally disadvantage less-wealthy countries and individuals. Sandel believes that these schemes simply allow rich countries and individuals to “buy their way out of meaningful changes in their own wasteful habits,” reinforcing the belief “that nature is a dumping ground for those who can afford it” (91). He argues that since issues like climate change and environmental destruction are of global concern, countries should work together to resolve these issues equitably instead of forcing more impoverished countries to disproportionately shoulder the effects of these crises.
Lastly, Sandel argues that the voluntary nature of free-market participation is a misnomer, as the pressures of poverty can distort or limit an individual’s choices. In many instances, individuals participating in commercial schemes are coerced through poverty or financial hardship, such as advertising on people’s houses, cars, or bodies. Sandel presents the example of Cari Smith, an American mother who had her forehead tattooed with the website of a casino in return for $10,000, which she used for her son’s education. He thus stresses that individuals’ choices are not entirely voluntary, and that market relations are not free, as some groups will be under the pressure of economic necessity.
The Importance of Debate on Market Values
Sandel’s obvious agenda throughout What Money Can’t Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets is create societal agitation and discussion around the commodification of our world, rather than seeing commercialization flourish through a lack of awareness or open discussion. He thus repeatedly emphasizes that these free-market values should be carefully examined and evaluated instead of being passively accepted as if inevitable.
Sandel intentionally selects examples of market values in nonmarket spaces designed to expose the ethical dilemmas at the heart of free-market values. Through these examples, such as the use of surrogate mothers in poorer countries for wealthy American couples, advertising in schools, and the sale of advertising space in national parks and beaches, Sandel prompts his readers to “ask whether we want to live this way” (8, emphasis added).
Sandel draws attention to the failure of the free market values in the Global Financial Crisis of 2008. Sandel had hoped that the Crisis would prompt “a time of moral reckoning, a season of sober second thoughts about the market faith” (15). He believes that the failure of the market in this instance illustrates that the trust in free markets to regulate themselves was misplaced. However, despite the fact that economies were devastated, fortunes were lost, and millions were left unemployed, there was no “fundamental rethinking of markets” (16). In fact, many of the movements that sought political reform in the wake of the GFC espoused the very values that Sandel believes led to the collapse in the first place.
According to Sandel, robust societal and political conversation should include a consideration of the moral foundations of how a good life can be achieved, and that such debate is especially important for protecting the wellbeing of lower- and middle-class individuals. Sandel suggests that the debates that need to be taking place are confounded by the fact that the current political sphere is fractious and unproductive, leading to an erosion of civic values more generally: “[T]he era of market triumphalism has coincided with a time when public discourse has been largely empty of moral and spiritual substance” (250). Sandel suggests that it is a critical moment to engage in substantive political discussion to resist the increasing commodification that is threatening every institution and space, insisting, “our only hope of keeping markets in their place is to deliberate openly and publicly about the meaning of the goods and social practices we prize” (250, emphasis added).
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