The chapter explores the impact of monetary incentives on public responsibility and decision-making through various examples like accepting nuclear waste sites for compensation and imposing fines at daycare centers. It delves into the erosion of traditional values by market forces, urging for collective deliberation on the values markets should influence. The importance of engaging in robust public discourse and reflection on moral questions to prevent markets from solely determining societal issues is emphasized.
Should we pay children to get good grades? Is it ethical to pay people to test risky new drugs or to donate their organs? What about hiring mercenaries to fight our wars, or selling citizenship to immigrants willing to pay? Michael Sandel is one of the world's most acclaimed and popular political philosophers. He has given the BBC Reith lectures and his online lectures for Harvard University attract millions of views. In this talk from May 2012 he looked at the role of markets in a democratic society, and asked how can we protect the moral and civic goods that markets do not honour and money cannot buy?
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