What Money Can't buy : : the Moral Limits of Markets

Locations
Call Number: 174 Sa
On Shelf At: Downtown Library

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	174 Sa	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	174 Sa	4-week checkout	On Shelf

Jumping the queue -- Incentives -- How markets crowd out morals -- Markets in life and death.

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COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Highly recommended submitted by Susan4Pax -prev. sueij- on August 14, 2013, 8:08pm What an incredibly cool book! A highly readable look at how markets and market-driven viewpoints have seeped into areas of life and society that used to be understood as separate from traditional "economics," and how morals must be considered as we move forward.

The author argues that economics cannot, as it is understood and used in the modern world, be separated from the question of morality. He uses readily accessible examples ranging from line-cutting (is it different if it's scalping tickets to a Bruce Springsteen concert in NJ or a doctor's office in China?) to donating vs. selling blood to buying out people's life insurance policies (does it matter if they already HAD the policy or if you got them to TAKE OUT the policy just so you could buy it from them?). He traces the history of changing views of economics, when the word "incentivize" came into the lexicon, and how pervasive market-driven thinking is.

And he does it brilliantly. Should you pay your child to read? Does it WORK? Or does it depend what the goals are? Are there goals beyond the simple numbers of books read or standardized test scores at the end of the school year? Because if building an intrinsic love of reading is a goal of getting a child to read, then paying them to read involves a MORAL question!

He doesn't have the answers, but for the first time in a long time, he states as clearly as anyone I've EVER heard that (a) there ARE moral questions inherent to economics and (b) we MUST address these as markets pervade every aspect of our lives, and he frames what those moral questions are in clear and concise ways.

Well worth your time and highly recommended.