What Money Can't Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets: Sandel, Michael J.: 9780374203030: Amazon.com: Books (original) (raw)
Customers say
Customers find the book brilliant, easy to read, and entertaining. They describe it as thought-provoking, eye-opening, and jaw-dropping. Readers praise the writing quality as eminently readable, simple, and well-written. They appreciate the great arguments and intellectual rigor. However, some find the end repetitive and tedious at times.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
80 customers mention "Readability"68 positive12 negative
Customers find the book brilliant, interesting, and easy to read. They say it keeps them entertained and does a good job of highlighting some weird side effects. Readers also mention the author is wonderful and the book is a quick read.
"...I thought Sandel's examples were well-chosen, thought-provoking, and enjoyable, I wish the actual discussion of the philosophical implications of..." Read more
"...So, at the very least, the read is worth your time, so that you may start asking some questions of your own...." Read more
"...philosophy, or is just looking to kill a car ride; this book will keep you entertained, while forming an opinion for yourself...." Read more
"...However, it is great reading, as Sandel has done an excellent job at amassing anecdotes to the effect that more and more of social life takes the..." Read more
71 customers mention "Thought provoking"71 positive0 negative
Customers find the book highly interesting and provides good insight into how economists think. They say the main lesson has strong merit, and the book brings up some great discussions. Readers also appreciate the insightful explanations of moral and philosophical principles. In addition, they mention the author does an excellent job at amassing anecdotes.
"...Although I thought Sandel's examples were well-chosen, thought-provoking, and enjoyable, I wish the actual discussion of the philosophical..." Read more
"...but this book needs to be considered very carefully as the main lesson has strong merit." Read more
"Invigorating, perceptive, relevant and necessary, this essay calls for an examination – both personal and societal – of how USA society is geared up..." Read more
"...I still don't really know where I stand but here was brought up some great discussion...." Read more
44 customers mention "Writing quality"36 positive8 negative
Customers find the writing quality of the book eminently readable, simple, and well-written. They say it's an interesting, quick read with many concrete examples. Readers also mention the arguments are well presented and articulated. Overall, they describe the author as objective, logical, and non-self-interested.
"Michael Sandel is unsurpassed in writing books that are delightfully accessible while being intellectually rigorous...." Read more
"...The text is accessible and the examples are widely based on day-to-day common knowledge and good reporting of recent events...." Read more
"...I really enjoyed Sandel’s book and thought he was a fantastic author...." Read more
"What Money Can’t Buy, the well-written and thought provoking book by Harvard’s Professor Michael Sandel, is intended to encourage readers to think..." Read more
25 customers mention "Rigor"22 positive3 negative
Customers find the book intellectually rigorous, excellent, and loaded with principles and philosophy. They say the thesis is groundbreaking and the author makes good points. Readers also mention the book is good for capitalism critics and college students.
"...in writing books that are delightfully accessible while being intellectually rigorous...." Read more
"...I think this raises some great questions to utilitarianism and different ways we make decisions...." Read more
"...Consequently, while his argument is valid and interesting, a lack of breadth and depth made this purchase less satisfying than it could have been." Read more
"...Even for a free marketeer like myself, some of the arguments were very compelling, even if in the end I didn't agree...." Read more
7 customers mention "Morality"3 positive4 negative
Customers have mixed opinions about the morality of the book. Some mention that it's constructive and the idea supporting the whole is really strong. However, others say the discourse on morality in the 21st century is timid and vapid. They also say the economizing of virtues distorts the very meaning of the words and corrupts them.
"...success in Sandel's attempts to engage audiences in dynamic, constructive, and introspective conversations...." Read more
"...on love and altruism, but I see that this economizing of virtues distorts the very meaning of the words and "corrupts" them as Sandel might say...." Read more
"Although the idea supporting the whole is really strong (reason why I bought in the first place) and indeed should still be a matter of discussion,..." Read more
"...book is that it is not worth studying economics, because it is incurably ideological and incapable of dealing with contemporary social policy issues...." Read more
9 customers mention "Repetitiveness"0 positive9 negative
Customers find the book repetitive and tedious at times. However, they say the message is thought-provoking.
"...I get that. However, after the first few chapters, this book appears repetitive and thin - he doesn't ground his thesis deeply enough...." Read more
"...I also found the book to be annoyingly repetitive, as though he needed to pad his text to reach a certain number of pages...." Read more
"...However, about half way through the book it got repetitive. I was waiting for the big bang at the end, The pay-off so to speak. But was disappointed...." Read more
"...you’re buying for reading material, it is a very good book, but somewhat repetitive." Read more
5 customers mention "Book length"0 positive5 negative
Customers find the book quite short and say about a quarter of it is footnotes.
"...The book was fairly short and over too soon." Read more
"...The book is quite short and about a quarter of it (on Kindle) is footnotes...." Read more
"...The bad part is that it is kind of short and the author could had go deepeer." Read more
"...is a topic that requires thoughtful consideration but the book is too long in examples/illustrations of what the author considers to be the problem...." Read more
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Top reviews from the United States
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Reviewed in the United States on May 5, 2012
Michael Sandel is unsurpassed in writing books that are delightfully accessible while being intellectually rigorous. What Money Can't Buy lacks the academic references to classical thinkers that were in his book Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do, which is a shame, but it is still one of the most thought-provoking books I have read in a long time.
Sandel's subject is money, specifically how monetary incentives and disincentives are being used today in a wide array of realms where money was not a factor in the past. Sandel is a philosopher, not an economist or political scientist, and so he asks, "What does this mean? And why should I care?" As he says in the introduction, "to decide what money should--- and should not ---be able to buy, we have to decide what values should govern the various domains of social and civic life. How to think this through is the subject of this book."
To explore the implications of the expansion of the role of markets in our lives, What Money Can't Buy considers two primary aspects: fairness and corruption. The first aspect, fairness, is the more obvious: a wealthier individual will not be affected by a societal incentive/disincentive as much as a poor one. Granted, true, but I do not need a Harvard professor to tell me so. The second aspect is the more interesting: does the use of monetary factors corrupt our sense of values? Are there basic human rights and feelings that should be immune from market manipulation? An interesting example is that of a Swiss town that was a potential site for a nuclear waste dump. The town was a very good site for such a facility, and 51% of the town residents said they would accept it. They were then asked if they would accept the dump if authorities offered to pay an annual inducement of over $8000 per person. The rate of acceptance fell from 51% to 25%. Apparently the residents did not like having the issue turned from one of civic altruism into a pecuniary matter. People do believe that there are issues in which money should not play a role.
The book's prolific examples range from Bruce Springsteen concert tickets to paying for an upgraded prison cell (!) to cap-and-trade. I especially loved the Springsteen example. People were scalping tickets to a Springsteen concert in New Jersey; you may or may not feel this is unethical. However, if you are also told that Springsteen deliberately kept ticket prices low because he is from NJ and wanted ordinary people to be able to come, AND this cost him an estimated $4 million in ticket revenue, does this affect your opinion?
Although I thought Sandel's examples were well-chosen, thought-provoking, and enjoyable, I wish the actual discussion of the philosophical implications of the lessons to be learned had been more extensive. He made ME think, but I'd like to have heard more about what HE thinks. The book was fairly short and over too soon.
18 people found this helpful
Reviewed in the United States on September 27, 2012
What Money Can't Buy is an analysis of the embedded moral reasoning in economic thinking and how economic reasoning influences our norms and values. Sandel argues that monetary transactions for goods and services does not necessarily lead to socially optimal outcomes as the framework which legitimizes the use of monetary transactions often degrades our sense of community and norms and values. In a sense, what money cant buy is a sociology view of economics. The book is separated into major chapters, the first tackles queuing systems, the second incentives, third is on markets and morals, fourth life insurance markets and finally naming rights and the takeover of civic life my commercial interests.
For me, the book starts out the strongest with its chapter on queuing systems. The paying of those with idle time to stand in line for congressional hearings by lobbyists and the selling of shakespeare in the park tickets (in manhattan) are used as examples where the norms of first come first serve are overwhelmed by auction systems and how they promote different outcomes.
The author then goes into incentives and how when money is used to change behaviour it can be seen as a form of bribery and corruption. In particular paying kids for grades is used as an example, paying ppl to lose weight as well as paid sterilization of crack users. The well chosen examples by the author forces the reader to think about their value system and how it can be reconciled with "efficient" market outcomes.
The next topic covered is how markets cannot replace certain kinds of relationships and awards. In particular awards based on some form of well defined merit, nobel prizes, oscars etc... as well as things like friendship are corrupted if money is a factor. The author goes on to use outcomes of specific situations and dynamics to argue that the use of markets often change the social norms of an activity and as such economics cannot be viewed as a framework to optimize outcomes but often influences the dynamics of a situation permanently. For example when parents were made to pay a penalty for picking up their kids late, it increased late pickups as the penalty payment became viewed as a fee rather than the breaking of a social norm. When the penalty payment was withdrawn, behaviour remained bad by parents compared to before the implementation of the payment in the first place. Also the use of blood donation vs getting paid for blood is used to show how when paying for blood is the norm it reduces the amount of pure donors.
The author goes on to discuss the life insurance business and the business in monetizing such claims today in return for cash leaving the buyer with a claim on someone else's life for which they have no insurable interest. The underlying change in behaviour by those involved in these transactions here weakens compared to blood donation but nonetheless one questions why there is a place for such a market when reading the chapter.
The author ends with a chapter on the inflitration of advertisement to community activities. Examples of putting advertising on one's house, one's car, one's forehead are all used. The inflitration of advertisement into sports is used as a primary example as is the magnitude of the payments. The change in the price of tickets and the the salaries of players as well as the market value of sports paraphenelia is discussed. This is among the weakest of chapters which relies on nostalgia and romanticism versus a strong point. Moneyball is used as an example of how statistics has made the sport more boring rather than helped the sport. I definitely do not find as much strength in the reasoning towards the end.
All in all What Money Can't Buy brings up a very important point. Economics does not exist as an intellectual discipline to be applied neutrally to improve outcomes. It changes the framework of various situations and the resulting dynamics. If the introduction of money changes the framework of thinking about civic duty then it influences outcomes non-neutrally. As a result economics can tell us within a market setting the best way to facilitate trade or construct an auction but it cannot tell us that the market setting best serves the communities interests- that is for the community to decide from potentially a higher moral plane. People have many aspects to them many of which have nothing to do with desire for money and thus money cannot be used as a measure of utility. People believe that statement to varying degrees, but the fact that they believe in them in varying degrees means there is legitimacy to consider when market outcomes might not serve common interests. I definitely dont believe as strongly as the author on some parts but this book needs to be considered very carefully as the main lesson has strong merit.
One person found this helpful
Reviewed in the United States on August 19, 2013
Invigorating, perceptive, relevant and necessary, this essay calls for an examination – both personal and societal – of how USA society is geared up for profitability and markets at the expense of moral values, and proposes an evaluation of the social price tag. These are questions worth asking, and we should have more people asking them. We should ask them ourselves.
It hurts to hear that we are not doing what we should do or being what we should be, but a fact is a fact. Societies the world over – USA included – are still failing to tackle historical problems like equality, justice, corruption, famine and accountability. Instead, we have been indeed selling out our conscience for convenience and the promise of consumerist bliss, and we’re not even getting our money’s worth, are we?
The author addresses some of these issues more by proposing problems than solutions, but he does it in a very illustrative manner that will set your mind in motion towards your own conclusions. The text is accessible and the examples are widely based on day-to-day common knowledge and good reporting of recent events. Some commentator claimed that the “economics” of the essay is faulty, but if you think of it, so is the economics of the nation, as envisioned by economists, industrialists, marketers and government. So, at the very least, the read is worth your time, so that you may start asking some questions of your own. The Kindle formatting could use a revamp, but that in no way hurts the message.
Another consonant book with a slightly different and wider focus is: Universal Utopia. I also recommend Henry Thoreau.
Top reviews from other countries
5.0 out of 5 stars Até que ponto a ética e a moral podem limitar os lucros?
Reviewed in Brazil on October 4, 2021
Ainda não cheguei à metade do livro, mas estou gostando pelas situações que o autor coloca sobre as várias maneiras de dinheiro atrair dinheiro, com ou sem preocupação com a ética. Nós hoje vivemos no mundo da concorrência e a visão dada no livro é muito boa.
5.0 out of 5 stars Values and moral principles vs market efficiency
Reviewed in Canada on December 5, 2020
The author, Michael Sandel, has taught and written about values and moral principles throughout his Harvard career. This book covers some subjects (e.g life insurance, health care) where market efficiency may conflict with societal values in some circumstances, which the author explores. One example: The author asks if paying kids for reading books may not induce the wrong attitude towards reading (linking book reading to a market transaction, as opposed to a way to knowledge). The book is more an exploration of various questions involving market mechanisms and societal values, rather than a formal theory of the potential flaws of a market approach.
5.0 out of 5 stars L'ho regalato a mia figlia grande, quindi 5 stelle per me!
Reviewed in Italy on September 18, 2019
Lettura davvero molto interessante, che aiuta a non banalizzare la questione dell'opportunità di creare alcuni mercati e ricorda semplicemente quali sono le conseguenze.
In particolare ho apprezzato la leggerezza con la quale Sandel affronta la questione: non fa il filosofo moralizzatore, offre una serie concreta di esempi e ricorda solo di soffermarsi un attimo sulle considerazioni etiche, senza paura di non allinearsi ai 'liberisti a tutti i costi' o ai 'markettari'.
In questi giorni, una delle mie tre splendide figlie, la grande, ha iniziato a studiare economia all'università. Nelle prime due lezioni hanno affrontato il concetto di 'beni' e 'bisogni', concetti che ha trovato abbastanza banali... "sono cose che tanto non chiederenno all'esame".
Le ho comprato questo libro, in edizione cartacea, per farle capire quanto invece serva non banalizzare questi due concetti! Speriamo lo legga!
5.0 out of 5 stars Análisis filosófico en lenguaje sencillo
Reviewed in Mexico on May 5, 2017
El autor tiene la facilidad de tomar temas profundos y explicarlos de una forma clara y amena. Recomendable para quien le guste el enfoque de profundidad en este tema.
5.0 out of 5 stars Mind-blowing
Reviewed in India on October 17, 2018
Perfect book how market forces dehumanization society and can we limit them