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

REFLECTION 

How does Michael Sandel support the thesis that "over the past three decades we have drifted from having a market economy to becoming a market society?"

He defined a market economy as “a tool, a valuable and effective tool for organizing productive activity”. Its means having a balance economy. But a Market society  as Sandel said “it’s a way of life where market values and market thinking reach in two spheres of life previously governed by other values” It means that everything it is a society where just about everything is up for sale, everybody wants to buy everything.

What sorts of arguments are offered for and against the assumed proposal of paying young children two dollars for every book they read?

Against:

The first one is that students just for getting the money will read “stupid books”, they will read bad books which are not going to help them.

Another important one, and for me, the strongest one, was about developing passion and love for things. As the teacher who gave this comment said “you cannot buy those things”, love for reading is developing by good parenting, good values and more in the society, good teachers and principals.

Someone complained, that being paid could become students addicted to the money. They will not care about reading, instead about the money.

The final one said, that the money will teach the wrong lesson, and will cultivate the wrong attitudes toward reading, they will learn to love getting money, and not loving reading.

Offered:

The first one was about considering cash as something valuable. A physical prize could help children read more.

Another one, was about getting paid for something you like to do. It means, that for those people who love reading being paid for reading, will be a very good things.

Also, it was consider money as a Jumpstart which help students to grow. And there was someone who said that being paid will be a good for developing a passion for start to read.

Now, what is your standpoint about cash incentives at school or at home to encourage students to read more books?

I think that loving to read is a personal achievement. Even though, it is something that will be developed if we get meaningful stimulus. Parents have to approach children to read, carrying on activities where the child enjoy reading, and of course, teaching to love reading, it is a challenge for teacher, they have to find strategies for showing students how interesting is reading. That’s why, I think that money is a wrong incentive. Because you can’t buy the love for something, and as the girl of the video said, if you start to love something, it will be the love about the money you get for reading, not the reading love.

When Michael Sandel contends that "this tendency of markets and cash incentives of crowding out nonmarket goods, higher goods, can be seen in may spheres of social life, what sort of "higher goods" do you think he is referring to?

It means the intrinsic love about something. Everything is up on sale now, but even when you could buy too much things, there are some that are impossible to get by paying for them.

What kind of nonmaterial goods do you think have been crowded out by market transactions in Colombia?

I think there are many nonmaterial goods that has been crowded out, the love is one of them. Many people is ambitious. And more than that one, in this society there is a lack of values that are the product of social problems, all of them caused by money. There is not respect, or conscience about many circumstances. 

What should be the role of money and markets in our Colombian society?

Firstly, I think it is not only an issue that Colombia deals. It is a global issue. And it is a controversial topic, because money is the center of everything, is the ending of any economical or non-economic activity.

But I think money has to be more invested in improving life conditions, giving educational opportunities to people, guarantying well public services. It is necessary to teach people to be aware about it.