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

Do you believe that the entrances to more expensive, shortcut lines should be visible to the public, or intentionally separate? Are lines without any financial shortcuts inherently fairer, as Sandel suggests, or do they simply reflect one’s access to another valuable commodity (e.g., disposable time)?

Research some of the ideas of Greg Mankiw. How do his economic theories compare to Sandel’s? In what ways are the two thinkers different or similar to one another in their analytical approaches, values, and/or assumptions?

Sandel argues that free-market values now exercise a wider reach beyond that of economics. How do free-market values influence social, cultural, and/or political values? What are the advantages and disadvantages of this influence?

Sandel details examples where markets replacing lines is disadvantageous. Can you think of examples of the opposite, where market norms are preferable? How and why?

How has the game of baseball been affected by the infiltration of market norms? Do you believe that these changes are by and large advantageous, or disadvantageous? Consider all of the parties involved in the game in your answer, including players, staff, fans, and investors.

Sandel emphasizes that goods and services that go to the highest bidder do not necessarily end up with the person who deserves or will value them the most. What are the strengths and weaknesses of Sandel’s argument in discussing the allocation of goods and services? In your view, which system of allocation would be the fairest?

Research the history of free-market ideologies from the 1980s to the present day. What are some of the differences between how such ideologies were conceived of and implemented in the early days compared to now? What remains the same? Is further evolution in free-market ideology possible or desirable, or are these ideologies fundamentally flawed, as Sandel argues?

Sandel discusses the complex issue of the relationship between socioeconomic status and individual agency. How is one’s degree of agency affected by one’s financial resources, or lack thereof? In what way, if any, can true agency be guaranteed to the poor and disadvantaged in a free-market society?