What Money Can't Buy

The Moral Limits of Markets

By: Michael J. Sandel

Narrated by: Michael J. Sandel

Should we pay children to read books or to get good grades? Should we allow corporations to pay for the right to pollute the atmosphere? Is it ethical to pay people to test risky new drugs or to donate their organs? What about hiring mercenaries to fight our wars? Auctioning admission to elite universities? Selling citizenship to immigrants willing to pay? In What Money Can’t Buy, Michael J. Sandel takes on one of the biggest ethical questions of our time: Is there something wrong with a world in which everything is for sale? If so, how can we prevent market values from reaching into spheres of life where they don’t belong? What are the moral limits of markets? In recent decades, market values have crowded out nonmarket norms in almost every aspect of life—medicine, education, government, law, art, sports, even family life and personal relations. Without quite realizing it, Sandel argues, we have drifted from having a market economy to being a market society. Is this where we want to be?

In his New York Times best seller Justice, Sandel showed himself to be a master at illuminating, with clarity and verve, the hard moral questions we confront in our everyday lives. Now, in What Money Can’t Buy, he provokes an essential discussion that we, in our marketdriven age, need to have: What is the proper role of markets in a democratic society—and how can we protect the moral and civic goods that markets don’t honor and that money can’t buy?

©2012 Michael J. Sandel (P)2012 Macmillan Audio

From 2012 - But More Relevant Than Ever

Eye-opening book, even though it's from 2012 it's messages are more important and relevant than ever.

really good book about ethics and markets/money

I was surprised. great ethical lessons regarding money and where it shouldn't have a place in society.

Thought-Provoking and Timely

The author teaches an extremely popular undergraduate ethics course at Harvard called "Justice" [the course is available for free download at iTunes University]. I've watched many of the Justice segments and enjoyed them, so I was very interested when I read a review of What Money Can't Buy in the NYTimes earlier this year.

Even if you lean toward [or embrace] free-market economics, Sandel's book will provide ample food for reflection. His basic argument is that the two decades leading up to the 2008 financial meltdown were an era of "market triumphalism" -- one in which markets and market values crept into spheres of life where they didn't belong. Sandel wants us to think about the role that markets and market values should play in society, and whether there are some things that money should not buy.

I found that I didn't agree with some of Sandel's views, but I nonetheless found them thoughtful and well reasoned. Sandel reads the book himself, and I found his narration perfectly matched the content. Although Sandel's topic is weighty, he manages to be low-key, engaging, and even humorous. He clearly has a point of view, but he's never didactic.

How much did I like the audiobook? I enjoyed it so much, that I later downloaded the Kindle version so I could spent more time thinking about the content. That's my equivalent of "two thumbs up."

Enjoyable

This book turned me into one of those people who can't get my friends to read what I'm reading and so tells them in too much detail about it. It can get a bit preachy in places, and the major premise of the book- that markets aren't morally neutral and we need to jettison that lie so we can begin to discuss the morality of certain transactions- is fairly apparent to anyone who's given it any thought, but the book was interestingly written and full of exciting examples. I became a factoid dispensing machine, outraged at the things money can, in fact, actually buy. It was good to know and easy to get through.
The narration wasn't spectacular, but it didn't detract for me. It happens sometimes when authors narrate their own books. Not exciting enough for a long road trip, but good for a morning commute.

interesting analysis but no real solutions

Would you consider the audio edition of What Money Can't Buy to be better than the print version?

One advantage of the audio version is it is read by the author who is a very popular and distinguished Harvard professor, so it is as though you are in his class.

What did you like best about this story?

Makes you consider where we should draw the line of what should and should not be bought.

Any additional comments?

The author says repeatedly that we have had no public discourse about this issue and we should start a national dialogue about it, etc, but it is unclear what exactly that means. Should we start writing editorials, talk about it on TV news stations, or what? Where would the solution to this problem lie?

Amazing book, less than stellar recording.

Firstly, this is an excellent book. Michael J Sandel is a wonderful economist with a sense of wit and humility not often found in that profession. The remainder of my review is about the audio recording—which is the only part of this book experience that I have issue with.

While I always appreciate hearing a person’s words from that same person’s mouth, that does not necessarily mean that I want that person to read their audiobook. Sandel has a nasally voice that, combined with the low quality of the recording, made the listening experience unpleasant at times. This could have been easily resolved by hiring a professional to record the audio for the book. I can’t help but wonder if Sandel as an economist chose to record his own audio in order to limit the market’s effect on his audiobook.

Excellent Book by a brilliant moral philosopher.

If you could sum up What Money Can't Buy in three words, what would they be?

Thoughtful, nonpartisan, and beneficial.

Who was your favorite character and why?

NA

What does Michael J. Sandel bring to the story that you wouldn???t experience if you just read the book?

Having both read the book and then listened to it afterward, listening to Sandel personally describe the issues in his own voice and tone was extremely disarming. He is genuinely concerned about these issues and seems to sincerely want the American public to live happy and meaningful lives. In short, he is both a great philosopher and a truly good man.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

At one point he makes the point that going to professional sporting events were in the past an event where everyone, both the rich and the poor, the elites and common people would come together and cheer for their favorite team. They were joined by common excitement in the public square. But now, with the advent of "box seating" those with the means can pay extremely high prices to set themselves apart from everyone else.

So So

Really just gave you two sides of a coin, no mind blowing or even thought provoking info.

Thinking once more

Reminding what need for modern society and a nation. Easy to understand and consent. Recommend for MZ generation.

An actual call to action

Full of examples, masterfully well documented, this is inevitably a call to action. Hope everyone heeds the call!