Sandel's fear of 'everything being up for sale' is a significant concern, in my view, because there are moral implications for a society that becomes defined by its extrinsic free market value rather than by its intrinsic, social value. The former fluctuates with the material exchange of money, and gives a fair value to inanimate objects like marketable goods, but it can also quantify nonmarketable services in a way that devalues the sanctity of human experiences by devaluing them when measured by privileged price.
My position on this issue aligns with Sandel's idea that "market prices simply reflect the ability and willingness of consumers to pay" for a good, rather than serve as a measure of its value for the consumer. A "service" is a broad term, which I will define here as an 'experience which cannot be marketed as a commodity' as opposed to a physical, tangible good. There are certain services which are inherently nonmarketable; their immaterial value should be respected at the discretion of the consumer rather than degraded by those who exploit their accessibility for selfish gain. Such services include the use and appreciation of public experiences: the Yosemite Park campsites, the free theatrical performance 'Shakespeare in the Park,' and Pope Benedict XVI's papal mass. These are inarguably spiritual, emotional, human experiences which are freely/cheaply offered to the public and deserve more respect than being taken advantage of by abusive scammers in the mess of supply and demand. You may put a price on vacationing on a luxury cruise line, but a natural beauty and awe inspired by staying in a public forest should not be capitalized upon! All people deserve equal access to such services, rather than the affluent be enabled through premium means to do so; especially if these are already offered freely to the public as a gift, a federally given right. The value of hearing the Pontiff speak cannot be measured by the amount of money one is willing to cough up. It is not the same as going to a Knicks game or Miley Cyrus concert, where front row tickets are coveted for the purpose of pursuing and displaying one's vanity.
When my mother returned from visiting England for the first time, she complained of its citizens' stereotypically stubborn obsession with queuing and their quick vindication of any tourist who dared jump the queue. I amusingly make this slightly relevant reference out of admiration for the ethic of the queue: "First come, first serve," as these queue-lovers seem to abide by. Its egalitarian appeal, what Sandel describes as an "ignorance of privilege, power and deep pockets," reflects a reverence for the moral valuation of experiences, for the freedom and opportunity that every human being deserves. Yes, it may seem like just waiting in a line...but that in and of itself, the "willingness to wait," adds much more substance to the human experience than the "willingness to pay." If everything was for sale, then our everyday lives would become strictly dictated by money. Is such a cold exchange worthy of representing what is meaningful to humanity? Many developed countries measure their national success and well being through an economical assessment called Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the total monetary value of a country's production through its goods and documented services. It can be measured by tracking citizens' expenditure and documented income. Essentially, the official flow of money is used determine how successful a country is--this is fundamentally flawed because it cannot represent what the intangible idiosyncrasies of living as an American citizen. A much more humane, holistic approach is the national assessment for well-being in the country of Bhutan, called Gross National Happiness (GNH). GNH focuses on the social progress of Bhutan's people by tracking their "psychological well-being, living standard, health, culture, education, community vitality, good governance, balanced time use and ecological integration" in order to promote overall happiness.
This may seem impractical in our country, where equal opportunity can be bought when "You get what you paid for." Time is money, right? (Sorry for digressing!)
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| A Bhutanese slogan for its national assessment of Gross National Happiness |
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