Please Follow these instructions precisely:
Simply for the purposes of discussion in class (and your journaling), you are responsible for reading the first Introductory chapter: “Introduction: Markets and Morals” (pp. 6-29 in the pdf document) and the last section of the last chapter: The Skyboxification of Everyday Life (pp. 376-80 in the pdf document). If you are doing the response for this piece, then I would like you to choose ONE other chapter in the book to read, whichever one: looking at the table of contents and its subheadings, choose the one you find most interesting. Don’t be alarmed by the large number of potential pages…the pdf version has put about a third of the book version on each page, so the amount of reading is actually quite small. Also, I think you will simply find this text FUN to read…PROMISE! If you choose to do the repsonse for this reading, please answer the following questions, before providing your own perspective on the text:
Sandel explains that over the last few decades a market and consumer logic has come to penetrate every area of contemporary social and political life; accordingly, he makes a distinction between a ‘market economy’ versus a ‘market society’. What does he mean by this distinction? Sandel argues that by making markets the ultimate arbiter of values in society, our capacity for a genuine public attitude and decision-making is corrupted. Why does he think that? Use examples from the extra chapters you read to underline why he takes a purely private consumer attitude to social and political decision-making to be destructive of public life. Do you agree with Sandel that there are things money should not be able to buy? If so, what areas of life do you think should be decided upon primarily through public discourse rather than private consumption?
