What Money Cant Buy - The Moral Limits of Markets by Michael Sanders - Book Report/Review Example

When a public intellectual like Michael Sandel speaks his mind out, people have no choice but to sit back and take notice. A of political philosophy in Harvard University, Sandel takes the world of marketing, economics, and philosophy by storm with his latest non-fiction book titled What Money Can’t Buy: The Moral Limits Of Markets. The world at large has been trying hard to come to terms with the excessive dominance of marketing strategies in channels of life which would perform much better without the effort. The author has hit the jackpot in asking the world, basic ethical questions regarding the limits of applying marketing principles and strategies to acts of morality and humanity. In our review, we try and unfathom the magic of humorous philosophical thinking dotted by questions which are both intellectual and philosophical in nature. Through our study, we also try and answer the question if the thought process generated by the author leads to only better markets or succeeds to make a more potent impact. A country cannot hope to progress without definite commitment to ethics, both political and humane. With his new book, Michael J. Sandel points out these specific questions and leaves us at the edge of the cliff, where we know that the path next only leads to doom. “Why worry that we are moving toward a society in which everything is up for sale? For two reasons: one is about inequality; the other is about corruption.” (Sandel, 2012, p.8) The author starts outright with his study of strict marketing principles found in the world of economics, and slowly brings forth all other avenues of business marketing that the principles have slowly seeped into. We are all aware of airport queue skipping with extra payment made to the airlines. This whole marketing idea stems from an economist’s brainwave according to whom “long lines for goods and services are wasteful and inefficient, a sign that the price system has failed to align supply and demand” (Sandel, 2012, p.21) Practices like allowing a well-to-do person to come late to a congressional event by paying a homeless person to fill up for his executive seat, till he arrives, or asking parents to pay a fine whenever they are late for the pick-up from day care, are such that raise moral questions. Following a ‘trajectory’ that the Guardian calls ‘paradigmatic’ (Lanchester, 2012), the writer challenges our instinctive acceptance of offerings around us by raising questions like : does the real value of the concept or thought, that the event is about, not diminish when proxies are used? And how is it to be considered fair? While parents took to the fine paying rule very well, the paid fines only added up to a decent fee for the day-care. To add to the chagrin, there are viaticals and peasant’s insurance to keep the families of the dead or dying happy with dollars grown by betting on his life. Come to think of it, when we hear of a patient who has suffered from Hepatitis B, donating a considerable portion of his serum, only because he is hemophilic who fought the disease with huge antibodies produced in his body naturally, for the sole purpose of medical research, and gets paid handsomely for it (Truog, Kesselheim, & Joffe, 2012, p. 1), we feel bad. These practices have been endorsed by many big names in the corporate world. And there have been hugely successful stories of families of dead daily workers being paid huge compensations. Yet, there are significant questions in humanity that marketing rules cannot answer. In his book, Michael Sandel has struck the right note in convincing readers that the corporate world has become pervaded with marketing techniques which could be considered partially fair when they were started, given the arguments provided by brands using them, but have gradually turned into unfair money making techniques. With his set of well researched evidences, the book journeys to show how such thinking and practices have affected domains of life that are not to be considered as a market. In reference to the recent financial crash faced by United States, he candidly observes, “The spectacular failure of financial markets did little to dampen the faith in markets generally” (Sandel, 2012, p.12) and that in spite of Wall Street looming large over the doom, people blamed the Federal government for the troubles which spoke of how well people understand that immoral political philosophy leads to the unethical marketing practices of today. The book spans amoral marketing practices found in Chinese policy of population control to sports memorabilia gifting, health check-up and motherhood, and deals with topics that we hear of in daily life, but do not recognize as potently immoral or unethical. In a separate review article in the Guardian, Julian Baggini lets the thought flow in the lines of the author as he reflects, “the more market thinking comes to dominate life, the more it infects our ways of thinking, crowding out values such as loyalty, civic duty and altruism.” (Baggini, 2012). The case on poaching of rare and endangered species by a rich Russian billionaire who pays a huge amount of money to kill three members of the species, reveals how brutal political and administrational decisions of thwarting poaching can turn, especially when the money paid is being considered as a steady source of revenue. Poaching is banned for the good of humanity and the rare species. But with money, are you really supposed to believe that even they are available to satiate our thirst to use animal killing as a sport or a pastime? Liberty, indeed is not sufficient enough for a liberal mode of life. (Ignatieff, 2012) With its humorous quips and thoughts, the chapters make for swift reading. Going back to the airport queue skipping practice, today you have amusement park lines, fast car expressways, and elevator lines, which can be skipped with a few extra dollars. In the author’s words, many critics see this as “corrosive of a wholesome civic habit”, (Sandel, 2012, p.18) namely that of fairness and the feeling of equality in democracy. There are fans of Sandel who have finished reading the book within a span of 48 hours. And why not? With a topic that keeps you going back to that piece of news you came across in yesterday’s newspaper or the hot topic over pool you attended last weekend, readers are gripped with the pervasive tone and sober aggression of the thinker. In it’s The Thinking Read review of the book, Barnes and Noble Review writer outrightly calls Sandel’s presentation of the case as “compelling” (Grayling, 2012). This book is the start of a fight against demoralizing practices that our children will grow up witnessing to, thanks to the worshippers of money we have around us. Fiction lovers are going to enjoy this non-fiction book without any doubt. A few reviewers hoped for a direct attack on the authorities being studied by the author. And then there are others who wanted a direct launch of campaign. As Jonathan V. Last rightly points out in his article “In Economists We Trust”, The Wall Street Journal review of the book. He says,” What Mr. Sandel does not offer is prescriptions for rolling back the clock” (Last, 2012). Indeed, all through the book, the method in which the author puts his message forward, is resilient, polite, and sober. “Some see in our rancorous politics a surfeit of moral conviction: too many people believe too deeply, too stridently, in their own convictions and want to impose them on everyone else.” (Sandel, 2012, p. 13 ) Yes, the facts are there, but the compulsion to take action for a “greater state intervention of the market” (Besley, 2012, p. 489) is not present. Note the tone when the writer says, “rise of the Tea Party movement, whose hostility to government and embrace of free markets would have made Ronald Reagan blush” (Sandel, 2012, p.12). There are also points on which the author ponders as to what extent a few activities like selling of body organs can be considered immoral. The act after all, saves another person’s life! Author’s point of view simply makes us face the question as to whether these practices could have ever taken shape had we been more ethical in our professional and personal lives. And if we have actually accepted them in our society, then what good are we hoping out of them? As the Curtis Brown review of the book claims, the author is “a master at illuminating, with clarity and verve, the hard moral questions we confront in our everyday lives” (Curtis, 2012). The powerful argument rendered with resilience and complete control by Sandel, leaves the readers only more convinced as to how much we need to remove market thinking from our daily lives and stop worshipping cash generating practices as never wrong. The immense audience reaction that the book saw can be well summarized in the words of Decca Aitkenhead as she writes in the Guardian saying, “His closing elegy to what is lost by a society that surrenders all decisions to the market almost moved me to tears.” (Aitkenhead, 2012) Conclusion: The book has taken the mammoth step of bringing together data that shockingly reveals how selfishness of the well-to-do sections of the society has allowed brands to extract more business, and increase brand reputation. Readers are treated to real life situations wherein the principles of morality that the world has grown up believing in, are nullified by individual and company marketing decisions driven by the instinct to capture more market attention. In our thesis, we see that with his compelling tone, Sandel has succeeded in getting the reader refrain from resorting to hard-core market practices in activities of daily life that do not call for such money mindedness, by offering a real experience of the brutal state of affairs in the non-market sections of today’s society. The world would do a great deal better without using money making tricks on parents, patients, or just normal people in need of money. By using an economist’s approach to business we only pave a downward moral path for our society. Indeed today, hard-core marketing has led professionals in all categories of an industry render their duties mechanically leaving hardly any scope for intuitive or moral thinking. This is a direct consequence of immoral application of marketing principles which aims at getting more attention to a brand. One read through this book, and we are sure that not only has the process to stronger principles in marketing just begun, but marketers are in line for some serious soul-talk. This book succeeds in creating a deep impact on any reader. There indeed is hope for a brighter society ahead, for everyone! References Aitkenhead, D. (2012), Michael Sandel : ‘We need to reason about how to value our bodies, human dignity, teaching and learning’, retrieved on May 27, 2012 from : http://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/may/27/michael-sandel-reason-values-bodies?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487 Baggini, J. (2013), What Money Can’t Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets by Michael J Sandel – review, The Guardian, retrieved on May 25, 2013 from: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/may/25/money-cant-buy-sandel-review Curtis B. (2012), What Money Can’t Buy, Curtis Brown Books Reviews, retrieved on 2014 from: http://www.curtisbrown.co.uk/michael-sandel/what-money-can-t-buy/reviews/#work-sections Besley, T. (2013). "Whats the Good of the Market? An Essay on Michael Sandels What Money Cant Buy." Journal of Economic Literature, 51(2): 478-95. Grayling, A.C. (2012), What Money Can’t Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets, Barnes And Noble Review, retrieved on May 9, 2012 from: http://bnreview.barnesandnoble.com/t5/The-Thinking-Read/What-Money-Can-t-Buy-The-Moral-Limits-of-Markets/ba-p/7759 Ignatieff, M. (2012), The Price Of Everything, New Republic, retrieved on May 18, 2012 from : http://www.newrepublic.com/article/books-and-arts/magazine/103336/michael-sandel-philosophy-liberalism-democracy-market-economy-morality-income-inequality Kleinman, A. (2012), Caregiving As Moral Experience, The Lancet, 380(9853), 1550-1551. Last, J.V. (2012), In Economists We Trust, Wall Street Journal, retrieved on April 20, 2012 from: http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304356604577341940149291220 Lanchester, J. (2012), What Money Can’t Buy by Michael Sandel – review, The Guardian, retrieved on May 17, 2012 from : http://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/may/17/what-money-cant-buy-michael-sandel-review Sandel, M.J. (2012). What Money Can’t Buy: The Moral Limits Of Market. New York:  Farrar, Straus & Giroux Inc Truog, R.D., Kesselheim, A.S., & Joffe, S. (2012), Paying Patients for Their Tissue: The Legacy of Henrietta Lacks, Science, retrieved on August 13, 2012 from : http://biology.franklincollege.edu/bioweb/Biology/course_p/bioethics/The%20Legacy%20of%20Henrietta%20Lacks%202012.pdf Read More