What Isn 't For Sale?

Markets are not the best way to achieve a just society. They often allow the wealthy to have more freedoms and greater opportunities.

1. The first chapter in the book is about the market and its inner workings. The book briefly explains the idea of supply and demand, in which the price of a certain good or service will reach the point where all the demand is equivalent to the supply. However, the value of something is not determined by its necessity, but its desire within society, as seen by the difference in cost between a diamond and life giving water. Markets operate as they do because people try to maximize the amount of utility for themselves. Nevertheless, a strict rationalism model cannot be used for predicting all the occurrences of a market because of the ever changing behavior of people; thus economists must take precautions against

Beginning in the 1980s, political leaders believed that markets were bad for the economy. Although in the 1990s, there was a faith that presented a need for the markets and that they are the main help for the public. As of now, that faith is being challenged. The financial crisis evoked awareness that markets and morals have separated. It has become our job, as consumers, to find a way to rejoin them without any way of knowing how to.

What are the main reasons why government should take only a limited role in a market economy?

I once thought that it was a good thing that you could buy and sell just about anything, but after reading “What isn’t for Sale” by Michael Sandel, I have slightly changed my mind. In the article, he explains how the thriving market economy has started to creep into daily aspects of life, and into places it shouldn’t be, “It was the reach of markets, and of market values, into spheres of life traditionally governed by nonmarket norms” (Sandel 392). We live in a time where you can buy anything from a good education all the way to a private military. Sandel writes that this type of society is bad, but I believe that there are advantages and disadvantages to this type of society.

Money is the life force of all of society. In every aspect, money determines the value of good, services, and even people’s lives. As we breathe air to function, society relies on finances to function. And if society, the unity of humanity, relies on money, than the leaders of society want to limit and control it to withhold their power over humanity. They do this by limiting what can be bought and sold, while also controlling how much different things cost. These limitations allow our leaders to control our money and, through that, our value and influence to society.

The comparison between rich and poor people is a topic with an enormous gap. The bridge between the two is longer than most see it, and is increasing steadily. Michael Sandel wrote a book discussing his opposition to the market society in the United States. The focus of Sandel’s book lies within the title, What Money Can’t Buy. He believes that everything seems to be for sale and that we are a society that revolves around the idea of every person for themselves. Sandel also states that inequality is rising faster than ever. Even though everything is for sale in this day and age, that does not mean everyone is able to purchase whatever they want. Inequality comes in many forms like race, gender and age. Income inequality affects

Alexander and Shaler state that “at the beginning of the 21st century, for rich and poor people alike, jobs disappear on short notice, communities are weak and unstable, people routinely change lovers, families, occupations, coworkers, technical skills, languages, nationalities, therapists, spiritual beliefs, and ideologies as they navigate the shopping malls, real estate markets and employment agencies.” (4) A free market society is supposed to maximize people’s wellbeing, happiness and wealth, but the truth is people are forced to compete against each other and lose their sense of belonging, meaning and identity, eventually turning into slaves in a money-oriented society. Whether rich or poor, people become disconnected from their cultural identity and fail to fail to establish their intimate relationships with friends, communities an co-workers. According to Alexander and Shaler, this is when people “cannot achieve a reasonable degree of psychosocial integration” (5) and become dislocated from the society. Dislocation cannot simply be eliminated by food, shelter or the attainment of wealth. The poverty of spirit leads people to search for a substitute lifestyle to fill the emptiness of fast-moving life. As a result, people turn to substitute lifestyles that can be dangerous and addictive. Bruce and Shaler argue that today’s free market ignore all previously understood limits and have gone too far to the extreme.

Through its exquisite examples, and compelling tone, Michael Sandel's article "What Isn't for Sale" advises that we need to recognize that our markets are taking over our personal lives and we have become a market society. Anything and everything are for sale these days in our nation. Sandel affirms that over the past thirty years our markets have changed from market economies to market societies. In agreeing with Mr. Sandel on this issue, we must understand the message he is trying to convey. It is possible to do so with the following reasons. We can’t allow for causes such as greed to take place, the consequences of inequality and corruption to happen, and open dialogue and debate need to take place so we all can agree how far

Today’s society is very different than what it was thousands of years ago. Back then everyone shared, there was no problem with who got what, and mostly no one got more than the rest. Now everything that has any value is sold for something profitable. California for instance, we have so much production of many things and we sell all around the world. California’s soil is so good that it has been maintained in agriculture for many years. But let’s not forget that agriculture needs a lot of water, for all of the food that is being planted. Water is no longer something that California has; we are and have been in a severe drought for more than four consecutive years.

We will end up with some people who have more money they will be able to buy anything they want and some who don’t have anything. I believe there are things that we cannot measure its value by how much it’s so put it up for sale will cause it to loss that value. Examples of the good things that get corrupted because of profit/market forces are health care, education, and friendship there are many website we pay for so we can get more friends. I believe friendship is not for sale.

What also characterizes market society is the emergence of the concept of “fictitious commodities”. Fictitious commodities refer to labor, land, and money (Polanyi 72). “fictitious” implies that they are actually not commodities (Polanyi 72). They are turned into commodities for the effective operation of market society (Polanyi 72). In market society, everything is provided as a commodity. As the major elements of industry, labor, land , and money need to be provided for maintaining productivity and they can only be provided when they are on the market for sale (Polanyi 72). Differently, “Under the feudalism and the gild system land and labor formed part of the social organization itself ” (Polanyi 69). Land were crucial for feudal order, status and function of which “were determined by legal and customary

Human conception regarding value is often distorted because of prices that are driven by profit-driven markets. “Corporations are hardwired to wriggle out of paying social and environmental costs if they can possibly avoid it.” (48) This is significant because our culture is presented with cheap food, but in reality we are being given “cheat food” in the words of Raj Patel. This cheap food does not mathematically measure all expenses that it is incurring, and is in turn creating large scale problems that its price is unable to account for.

As a common misconception, society perceives entrepreneurs as revenue driven. Before currency existed, people only acted using reciprocity, a characteristic of human nature. In these situations, items would be traded and both parties would be satisfied. For example, if Ted were to have made leather shoes, and Bob were to have fresh furs from his late night hunt, the two would trade not only the items but their skills used to obtain them in order to make living easier. However, the introduction of currency changed not only the system to obtain goods, but also changed the system of reciprocity. With currency, items are sold for their projected worth. However, the person selling this item gets to determine this, which causes many products to be overpriced. This shifts the system of reciprocity by creating a new concept of worth that entails a whole list of qualifications including both labor and materials. Currency is used to benefit individuals not only by giving each one the accessibility to buy without

Despite the fact that efforts were made in the past to entrench the rights of the people, people are still born into a miserable life with no possibilities of escaping of poverty, while others may inherit fortunes and financial freedom empires. Inequality, like the gap between the rich and the poor, has never been as critical as it is a present. Unfortunately, the future does not appear to be bright if the degrading activities of the natural environment continues(7), the expanding shortage of resources, overpopulation especially in under developing countries as well as the apathy of the majority of the world brings even worse issues of poverty.