Podcast on "What money can't buy. The moral limits on markets"

listen to ‘Blog post, what money can't buy’ on Audioboo

Should everything be up for sale? Are there civic goods that money can't buy?

At the end of his speech, Dr. M. Sandel leaves these questions open for our own deliberation.

Well, I think money shouldn't be able to buy anything. In an ideal society, money should be nothing more than an instrument, a media that enables easy exchange of properties. After all, that is the very reason why money was invented in the first place. In ancient times, it would have been difficult for me to exchange 2 cows for 5 sheep since the other person had to be interested in my cows. So, if my "business companion" already has 5 cows and is looking for hens instead... What do we do? Money is used precisely for that purpose. It serves as a universal tool for trading. And maybe that's where the problems started. Money was supposed to be a tool, but has ended up being a goal. That is why I'd never state as my life dream "getting rich". Of course I appreciate having money, but only because it enables me to enjoy things that I can buy with money. On the other side, without money you can't really live the way our society is built up. But this is a consequence of our system that everyone has to go to work, thus doing their part for the society.
In the end, I think there definitely are some civic goods that money can't buy. Let's take the example of a marriage. There are marriages (possibly more than we'd expect) that are only based on financial reasons. But the difference is: you can buy the marriage, but you can never buy the love of the other person. You can apply that logic to anything. You may buy the loyalty of your people, but once the money stops flowing, the loyalty ceases as well. And that means that you didn't buy their loyalty, but the illusion of loyalty. Civic goods can only be achieved by genuinely human goods like passion, honesty or willingness.