Includes bibliographical references (p. [207]-232) and index.
Contents:
Introduction : Markets and morals : Market triumphalism ; Everything for sale ; The role of markets ; Our rancorous politics -- 1. Jumping the queue : Airports, amusement parks, car pool lanes ; Hired line standers ; Ticket scalpers ; Concierge doctors ; Markets versus queues ; Yosemite campsites ; Papal masses ; Springsteen concerts -- 2. Incentives : Cash for sterilization ; The economic approach to life ; Paying kids for good grades ; Bribes to lose weight ; Selling the right to immigrate ; A market in refugees ; Speeding tickets and subway cheats ; Tradable procreation permits ; Tradable pollution permits ; Carbon offsets ; Paying to kill an endangered rhino ; Ethics and economics -- 3. How markets crowd out morals : Hired friends ; Bought apologies and wedding toasts ; The case against gifts ; Auctioning college admission ; Coercion and corruption ; Nuclear waste sites ; Donation days and day-care pickups ; Blood for sale ; Economizing love -- 4. Markets in life and death : Janitors insurance ; Betting on death ; Internet death pools ; Insurance versus gambling ; The terrorism futures market ; The lives of strangers ; Death bonds -- 5. Naming rights : Autographs for sale ; Corporate-sponsored home runs ; Luxury skyboxes ; Moneyball ; Bathroom advertising ; Ads in books ; Body billboards ; Branding the public square ; Branded lifeguards and nature trails ; Police cars and fire hydrants ; Commercials in the classroom ; Ads in jails ; The skyboxification of everyday life.
Summary:
"Should we pay children to read books or to get good grades? Should we allow corporations to pay for the right to pollute the atmosphere? Is it ethical to pay people to test risky new drugs or to donate their organs? What about hiring mercenaries to fight our wars? Auctioning admission to elite universities? Selling citizenship to immigrants willing to pay? In What Money Can't Buy, Michael J. Sandel takes on one of the biggest ethical questions of our time: Is there something wrong with a world in which everything is for sale? If so, how can we prevent market values from reaching into spheres of life where they don't belong? What are the moral limits of markets? In recent decades, market values have crowded out nonmarket norms in almost every aspect of life---medicine, education, government, law, art, sports, even family life and personal relations. Without quite realizing it, Sandel argues, we have drifted from having a market economy to being a market society. Is this where we want to be? ... What is the proper role of markets in a democratic society---and how can we protect the moral and civic goods that markets don't honor and that money can't buy?"--Back cover.
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