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

by Michael J. Sandel

The most fateful change that unfolded during the past three decades was not an increase in greed. It was the expansion of markets, and of market values, into spheres of life where they don’t belong.

when we decide that certain goods may be bought and sold, we decide, at least implicitly, that it is appropriate to treat them as commodities, as instruments of profit and use.

But not all goods are properly valued in this way.

The great missing debate in contemporary politics is about the role and reach of markets. Do we want a market economy, or a market society?