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

by Michael J. Sandel

The “common assumption, almost always hidden, is that the commercialization process does not affect the product.” Hirsch observes that this mistaken assumption loomed large in the rising “economic imperialism” of the time, including attempts, by Becker and others, to extend economic analysis into neighboring realms of social and political life.

market approach everywhere. causes one to be more calculative

While a market-based system does not prevent anyone from donating blood if he or she wants to, the market values that suffuse the system exert a corrosive effect on the norm of giving.

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. One of the defects of a market-driven society is that it lets these virtues languish.