What Money Can't Buy

What should be for sale, and what shouldn't? Is there something morally troubling about the growing practice of turning nearly everything into a commodity?

1. Markets Have Gone Beyond Economics

Market practices have expanded far beyond their economic roots, creeping into aspects of everyday life like education, healthcare, and personal relationships. The concept of market thinking assumes everything has a price and can be bought or sold. While it helps drive economic growth, it risks dominating areas of life where moral considerations should prevail instead.

For example, the free market approach in healthcare presents dilemmas, such as paying doctors to be more accessible, with personal cell phone numbers sometimes sold for $1,500 annually. This commodifies medical care and can create disparities in access. Similarly, Dallas schoolchildren are paid $2 for every book they read, reducing learning to a transaction. Ultimately, these practices erode non-market values, like equitable public services and intrinsic motivation to learn.

The gradual normalization of market thinking can blind people to its long-term effects. We risk undervaluing societal goods like solidarity, communal spirit, and fairness. The question then arises: Are these transactions worth the moral price?

Examples

• Doctors offering private access to their phone numbers for a fee.
• Monetary incentives in education, such as paying students for grades or reading books.
• Privatization of public services like prisons and police forces.

2. Market Thinking Exacerbates Inequality

One of the significant effects of market thinking is the widening gap between the rich and the poor. Those with money gain access to premium goods and services, while those without are left behind or become part of exploitative practices for survival.

In certain airports, for instance, people can buy tickets to skip lines at security checkpoints. Although efficient for some, this divides individuals into “haves” and “have-nots” based solely on wealth. Likewise, the financially destitute are pressured into degrading agreements, like renting their bodies as advertising spaces or participating in risky medical trials for substantial payouts.

These examples reveal a troubling pattern. The more market thinking advances into social life, the greater the risk of exploiting the vulnerable and accepting practices that undermine human dignity.

Examples

• Wealthy people skipping security lines at airports by paying extra.
• Poor individuals renting forehead space for tattoos or advertisements.
• Payment to human test subjects in potentially hazardous drug trials.

3. Moral Values Can Be Corrupted

Not all things in life are meant to have a price tag. Many practices that are turned into commodities lose their moral significance as a result. This commodification shifts people’s perceptions and emotions toward things they previously held dear.

Consider the hypothetical example of charging fees for watching Fourth of July fireworks. What is intended to symbolize freedom and unity becomes a commercialized event, stripping it of inclusivity and shared tradition. On a more troubling note, Project Prevention pays female drug addicts to get sterilized, reducing reproductive rights to a mere transaction. Though the program aims to limit harm to newborns, it starkly underscores the commodification of human bodies and dignity.

When market norms supersede cultural or ethical standards, core societal values are at risk of erosion—values that define the essence of communities and their shared principles.

Examples

• Paying for traditional events like Fourth of July fireworks.
• Project Prevention offering financial incentives for sterilization.
• Devaluing cultural ceremonies and public celebrations by monetizing access.

4. Market Norms Replace Social Norms

Once market norms become embedded, they often displace existing social norms. Worse, the changes they bring are sometimes irreversible.

Take the example of an Israeli child-care center that fined parents for arriving late to pick up their children. Instead of discouraging tardiness, the fines actually increased late pickups. Parents began seeing the penalty as a price rather than as a moral obligation to respect others’ time. Even after the fines were removed, the earlier norm of punctuality did not return.

This phenomenon demonstrates how pricing mechanisms can reshuffle the way people value social responsibilities. It highlights the risk of permanently losing ethical norms to market-driven behavior.

Examples

• Fines at an Israeli child-care center unintentionally increasing lateness.
• Paying kids for wedding thank-you cards teaching the wrong lesson about gratitude.
• Using monetary rewards to replace intrinsic motivations in civic activities.

5. Economists Overlook Moral Implications

Economists often advocate free-market mechanisms based on assumptions that humans are driven by self-interest and behave rationally. However, this approach typically ignores ethics and fairness.

For instance, market systems allow desperate individuals to take extreme measures, such as volunteering for risky medical experiments, due to financial need. Critics argue that such transactions exploit the vulnerable and reduce human dignity to a commodity. Despite these ethical quandaries, economists tend to prioritize efficiency above all, leaving society to wrestle with these deeper questions.

This behavior leaves society with unanswered moral dilemmas regarding practices that sacrifice people’s well-being for economic gains. Economics often fails to address the bigger picture of fairness and humanity.

Examples

• Market-based access to experimental medical procedures.
• Economic theory’s reliance on utilitarianism to measure societal benefits.
• Supply-and-demand logic applied without regard for human equity.

6. Altruism Deserves Cultivation

Economics assumes that altruism is finite and that financial incentives are always a better motivator. Yet, evidence suggests altruism grows the more we practice it.

Rousseau and Aristotle emphasize that virtues, like generosity or collective solidarity, deepen with use. For example, people might donate blood out of a sense of civic duty and feel more inclined to continue helping others after the experience. Supplying monetary incentives can undermine this growth, converting noble deeds into mere transactions.

Encouraging altruistic behavior strengthens community bond and moral capacity. Societies should promote intrinsic motivations, nurturing human connectedness rather than financial exchanges.

Examples

• Blood donation appeals based on civic duty versus monetary compensation.
• Parents encouraging kids to share toys without reward.
• Community meals fostering goodwill and participation without profit.

7. Decisions Require Case-by-Case Debates

There are no universal answers to whether market thinking should be applied in specific areas—it requires thoughtful evaluation of each case's costs and benefits.

For example, paying kids to read books generates mixed feelings. While it incentivizes poor children to gain essential education, the practice could teach the wrong message about learning’s value. Similarly, while selling advertising space on one’s body may provide much-needed income, it also raises moral concerns about personal dignity.

Society must engage with these debates openly and weigh all considerations to determine what benefits justify the trade-offs of market thinking.

Examples

• Paying children to read books for education.
• "Selling" personal space for advertising.
• Allocating tax dollars to market-driven government services.

8. Public Discussion on Market Boundaries Is Essential

The unchecked expansion of market thinking into every aspect of life needs to stop, and the best way to do so is through public debate. A society should openly deliberate about what should be for sale and what shouldn’t.

For debates to be democratic and effective, people must contribute their views about values and dignity. For instance, discussing whether commodifying healthcare leads to better outcomes or harms society could open doors to alternative arrangements.

This kind of open, national dialogue ensures society agrees on boundaries and steers its development collectively.

Examples

• Debates on private access versus universal healthcare.
• Task forces examining the role of markets in public education.
• Citizen panels deciding guideline ethics for advertising in public spaces.

9. What Sort of Society Do We Want?

This book pushes us to consider one of philosophy’s oldest questions: what defines a good life? Arriving at this answer helps people decide which values are worth preserving.

Reflection highlights whether social solidarity, fairness, and equality are higher priorities than economic efficiency. For example, many people don’t want their healthcare to depend entirely on their wallet. Others may decide certain traditions or relationships, like friendships, shouldn’t rely on financial exchange.

Breaking down these moral quandaries will allow societies to pursue fairness without undermining their core values.

Examples

• Healthcare systems valuing public good over private wealth.
• Free cultural events to promote shared values.
• Prioritizing intrinsic motivation in classrooms over monetary rewards.

Takeaways

1. Reflect on areas of life where market practices might undermine moral or social values.
2. Participate in public debates about what ought to be commodified to develop a shared societal vision.
3. Promote altruism by practicing and encouraging it actively in communities, rather than replacing it with financial incentives.