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Harvard professor questions universality of market values

Sandel gave numerous examples of growing commodification of abstract values in society

“What should be the role of money and markets in our society?” The question arose repeatedly in a lecture given by Michael Sandel, a Harvard professor of government and best-selling author, Thursday evening to an almost-full C.V. Starr Auditorium.

In his lecture, Sandel said the past three decades’ emphasis on the market economy has led to significant changes in how our society values certain goods. But in society today, “there are few things money can’t buy,” Sandel said.

“We’ve drifted from having a market economy to becoming a market society,” Sandel added. “Everything is up for sale.”

Sandel, who wrote the bestseller, “What Money Can’t Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets,” suggested that, as a society, people try to use markets to commodify things that can’t — or shouldn’t — be bought, such as friendship.

“But what about social goods closely connected to friendship? Or tokens of friendship?” Sandel asked.

Sandel pointed toward “The Perfect Toast,” a site that writes custom wedding toasts for $149, as one such example of the attempted commodification of friendship.

Goods such as wedding toasts are unique, Sandel said, in that they lose value and meaning if they are bought. Despite this, he said, the market still attempts to quantify and sell them.

Invoking an example closer to home, Sandel sparked debate among audience members by posing a hypothetical situation in which the University would admit two students each year — who otherwise would not have been admitted — if they each paid $10 million. He asked students whether they would support or object to the proposition.

Most in the audience objected, with only a few in favor of Sandel’s proposition.

Opponents cited fairness as a reason to object.

“You(‘d be) giving a perception in contrary to fairness, and that would hurt the University,” said Haakon Sagbakken ’16 in response to Sandel’s proposal.

Other students said such an admission policy would degrade Brown’s commitment to academic excellence, adding that the wealthy are currently not underrepresented at elite universities — a remark that elicited laughs from the crowd.

Several students in favor of  the hypothetical situation proposed that the $20 million earned from these two students could fund the education of many low-income students who could not attend otherwise.

One student in the audience said private donations are necessary to maintain a private university, adding that similar favoritism arises for athletes in the admission process.

“It’s the same reason athletes are held to a lower academic standard,” the student said.

Sandel said trying to add financial incentive to certain civic issues changes the nature of many problems entirely. He described the small Swiss town of Wolfenschiessen, where citizens were polled about whether they would be willing to have a nuclear dump site in their town. Fifty-one percent agreed to do so without financial incentive, but fewer agreed to do so when a financial incentive of 6,000 Euros per citizen was added.

“Many said ‘we didn’t want to be bribed,’” Sandel said. “When money entered the picture, what was a civic question became a financial transaction. … The cash incentive changed (its nature).”

At the end of his lecture, Sandel said society must deliberate what role markets and money play in society.

If people fail to do this, Sandel said, then “markets will do this for us.”

Students interviewed said the event was thought-provoking.

David Katzevich ’16 called Sandel’s lecture “fantastic.”

“To have a professor come here and raise this issue is a great experience,” Katzevich said.

Sandel’s lecture was part of the Political Theory Project’s Odyssey Lecture Series, which is intended to encourage “free thinking and thinking on uncomfortable topics,” said John Tomasi, Political Theory Project director, in his introductory remarks.

The lecture series will continue Nov. 21 with economist Stephen Moore of the Wall Street Journal.

 

A previous version of this story identified the lecture series as the Political Theory Project's Janus Forum Lecture Series. In fact, the lecture series is not produced by the Janus Forum. 

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