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Morality and the market: containing the beast*

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What Money Can't Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets. By MichaelSandel, London: Penguin, 2012. 244 pp. ISBN: 978-1-846-14471-4 £20.00 hardback

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 July 2013

Prince Saprai
Prince Saprai*
Affiliation:
Faculty of Laws, University College London
*
p.saprai@ucl.ac.uk
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Extract

In his latest book, the renowned political philosopher Michael Sandel asks what has become a pressing question for our age: Is there anything money can't buy? Sandel shows that there are certainly very few. If you've got the money, you can: hunt and kill endangered species like the black rhino; have 24/7 access to a doctor; give your child an elite education; gain a right to pollute the atmosphere; get people to stand in queues for you; place a bet that a particular celebrity will die next year; gain the life insurance policies of people who are seriously ill in the hope of cashing in when they die; and you can even get someone to make an apology on your behalf.

Type
Review essay
Information
International Journal of Law in Context , Volume 9 , Issue 2 , June 2013 , pp. 279 - 284
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

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Footnotes

*

I borrow part of the title from an article by Kit Barker (1995).

References

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