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

by Michael J. Sandel

in order to know whether a market choice is a free choice, we have to ask what inequalities in the background conditions of society undermine meaningful consent.

markets are not mere mechanisms; they embody certain values.

Altruism, generosity, solidarity, and civic spirit are not like commodities that are depleted with use. They are more like muscles that develop and grow stronger with exercise.

making markets more efficient is no virtue in itself. The real question is whether introducing this or that market mechanism will improve or impair the good of the game.

At a time of rising inequality, the marketization of everything means that people of affluence and people of modest means lead increasingly separate lives.