Michael Sandel: Why we shouldn't trust markets with our civic life

Dr Sander will be the best USA president. What a pity Americans prefer the stinking Clinton or Trump clans.

This Ted Talk should have billions of views.

It took them years to understand the meaning of equality and justice, I wish they could have focused the life of Prophet Muhammad SAW who taught us the same thing 1400 years ago.

gives a 5 dollars tip Thanks, Professor ! ;)

This whole recording is disgustingly moist.

Very silly ! He describes a clearly NON-market conditions - a lab condition/response where a monopsony group pays children to read arbitrary books of arbitrary length, against any reasonable group self-interest, and when they evaluate the results by completely different criteria than 'arbitrary' they (very unsurprisingly) are not ideal by these alternate valuations.

He then asserts "the market" has a crowding-out effect, but there was obviously no market present in this case.

Imagine instead a REAL market. Some interested self-parties - say parents, parent groups, grandparents or such - decided to pay their own set of children to read. They would certainly not pay the same amount for each book. They would likely not even pay the same to different children reading the same book. Instead they would negotiate a market price each side basing the negotiation on personal interests.

The 'market problem' in Sandel's example is that there was no market !

Don't worry about the MARKET SOCIETY. Its always been the case. Just remember what the oldest profession is (prostitution). More generically, don't worry about ethics, morals, right and wrong. We went one better than utilitarianism and the categorical imperative with J S Mill's ON LIBERTY, you can do anything you wish as long as you don't harm others. But today we can go one better again and say "you can do whatever you wish as long as you don't break the law". Over the long term western parliamentary democracies can do no wrong in their domestic and foreign policy. If they make a mistake then you or I can call them to account. You have all the empowerment you need to do this; freedom of speech, a free press and parliamentary debate and scrutiny. In these circumstances the best argument can get out, be heard and win the day. And the weaker arguments can deservedly fail. There can be no better ruler than the best argument and that is what we have in modern western parliamentary democracies. Leading to my bottom line WESTERN PARLIAMENTARY DEMOCRACIES CAN DO NO WRONG OVER THE LONG TERM IN THEIR FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC POLICY. What is right and wrong has moved on from ancient text written by people who didn't know the world was round to what is legal and what is illegal.

This guy is a frickin Commie

I totally agree with Sandel when he says we are changing to marketing society. A society where everything is money. Even the social life and relationship. The reason for this is the cause of inequality in the society. When people cut the line or the pay a college in advance before even taking exam. This plants the idea that money is everything. You can do everything with money. Unfortunately, this creates isolation among people. The rich people interact with their kind and the poor with their kind. Even in the social events, they do not learn about each other, because the rich are in the VIP. I agree with him when he says we need to change this because the purpose of life is living and sharing with each other.

I wonder if he gets paid for his talks on morality. If so then it is the marketization of the philosophy.... Imagine Socrates getting paid for his talks and discussions.....

Great talk !!

Who are these 204 presumably greedy people who disliked this video?

Merci très intéressant thanks for posting!!!!!!!!

School / Highschool = preparation for college
College = preparation for the work force
The work force = money incentive

There has always been that intrinsic market motivator for students... So many honor roll kids if you ask them will say they get good grades to get into a good college to get a good job.

Learning for it's own sake is fine. If you want kids to do better in school then allow a more flexible and entertaining curriculum for one, and for two throw grades out entirely.

When I teach others how to do something in the real world I do not give them a grade... Why should schools?

i showed my sister how to change the flat tire on her car. I didn't give her a grade... but she knows how to do that.

I taught a friend how to play the guitar. He was not given a grade either...

I enlightened all of you who read this post, and you are not being graded on that either.

Just arrogance of the intellectual to decide what kind of education the poor must receive, instead of giving them choices. It is the poor who suffer from a one-size-fits-all approach, because the middle and upper classes have more access to privatized/individuzlized education. We've seen how badly the public school system works- unions destroy most teacher's incentive to provide quality teaching because you can't fire them.
I don't like the intellectual's "let me decide what is good for you" attitude, because it assumes that the poor can't decide what is good for them, it assumes the inferiority of their intelligence.

Michael Sandel is right about this one.

I am of very modest means. I have very unusual health problems, and, for me, access to appropriate health care is limited. My doctors have told me that providing me with first rate medical care is a public good. What they learn in treating me has influenced how they treat others, and they are better doctors because they know me.

I live in public housing authority elderly / disabled housing. I am trapped because it is a very bad idea for me to take Section 8 housing. (My elderly mother, who is well-off, refuses to go to an elder law attorney and have a proper estate plan done. When my mother dies, and if I was on Section 8, I would loose my housing subsidy. I live in the second most expensive area of the US and, without the subsidy, I couldn't afford to live in a modest apartment a reasonable distance from my health care providers.) My slumlord landlord only enforces the terms of the lease related to money (don't pay the rent, get evicted) and those terms required by State and Federal regulations. It refuses to enforce 'quiet enjoyment' provisions of the lease. Because of this, the Trailer Trash tenants (about 15% of the residents) , who are supported by Trailer Trash Management, rule the roost. I have the right to 'quiet enjoyment'', the right to live in a safe and secure environment. Because I am of modest means, but not so poor that I qualify for legal aid, but can't afford an attorney (even though I have an excellent case), the courthouse door is essentially barred. My slumlord landlord can violate the terms of the lease with impunity, because I can't afford to go to court and have a judge order that the lease be enforced.

Copyrights and Patents are worthless if you can't afford to enforce them. This is a major problem for small businesses / start-up companies, who are operating on a shoestring and who have discovered that a larger, better funded organization played 'me too'. Might makes right.

Another interesting and related concept is the 'tragedy of the commons'. According to Investopedia, The tragedy of the commons occurs when individuals neglect the well-being of society (or the group) in the pursuit of personal gain. For example, if neighboring farmers increase the number of their own sheep living on a common block of land, eventually the land will become depleted and not be able to support the sheep, which is detrimental to all. Read more: Tragedy Of The Commons Definition | Investopedia
http://www.investopedia.com/terms/t/tragedy-of-the-commons.asp

Thank you Professor Sandel.

So I think we can all agree that a lot of kids fall through the cracks in our educational system and don't learn to love to read at all. Is it better for a lot of kids to learn to read because of an incentive for money and not have an intrinsic love of reading or is it better to just have a lot of kids fall through the cracks and not like to read at all?

Low Grid/ High Group