Why we shouldn't trust markets with our civic life
Here's a question we need to rethink together: What should be the role of money and markets in our societies?
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Today, there are very few things that money can't buy. If you're ntenced to a jail term in Santa Barbara, California, you should know that if you don't like the standard accommodations, you can buy a prison cell upgrade. It's true. For how much, do you think? What would you guess? Five hundred dollars? It's not the Ritz-Carlton. It's a jail! Eighty-two dollars a night. Eighty-two dollars a night. If you go to an amument park and don't want to stand in the long lines for the popular rides, there is now a solution. In many theme parks, you can pay extra to jump to the head of the line. They call them Fast Track or VIP tickets.
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And this isn't only happening in amument parks. In Washington, D.C., long lines, queues
sometimes form for important Congressional hearings. Now some people don't like to wait in long queues, maybe overnight, even in the rain. So now, for lobbyists and others who are very keen to attend the hearings but don't like to wait, there are companies, line-standing companies, and you can go to them. You can pay them a certain amount of money, they hire homeless people and others who need a job to stand waiting in the line for as long as it takes, and the lobbyist, just before the hearing begins, can take his or her place at the head of the line and a at in the front of the room. Paid line standing.
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It's happening, the recour to market mechanisms and market thinking and market solutions, in bigger arenas. Take the way we fight our wars. Did you know that, in Iraq and Afghanistan, there were more private military contractors on the ground than there were U.S. military troops? Now this isn't becau we had a public debate about whether we wanted to outsource war to private companies, but this is what has happened.
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增肥的方法Over the past three decades, we have lived through a quiet revolution. We've drifted almost without realizing it from having a market economy to becoming market societies. The difference is this: A market economy is a tool, a valuable and effective tool, for organizing productive activity, but a market society is a place where almost everything is up for sale. It's a way of life, in which market thinking and market values begin to dominate every aspect of life: personal relations, family life, health, education, politics, law, civic life.
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自考网Now, why worry? Why worry about our becoming market societies? For two reasons, I think. One of them has to do with inequality. The more things money can buy, the more affluence, or the lack of it, matters. If the only thing that money determined was access to yachts or fancy vacations or BMWs, then inequality wouldn't matter very much. But when money comes increasingly to govern access to the esntials of the good life -- decent health care, access to the best education, political voice and influence in campaigns -- wh
en money comes to govern all of tho things, inequality matters a great deal. And so the marketization of everything sharpens the sting of inequality and its social and civic conquence. That's one reason to worry.bisque
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There's a cond reason apart from the worry about inequality, and it's this: with some social goods and practices, when market thinking and market values enter, they may change the meaning of tho practices and crowd out attitudes and norms worth caring about.
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I'd like to take an example of a controversial u of a market mechanism, a cash incentive, and e what you think about it. Many schools struggle with the challenge of motivating kids, especially kids from disadvantaged backgrounds, to study hard, to do well in school, to apply themlves. Some economists have propod a market solution:
Offer cash incentives to kids for getting good grades or high test scores or for reading books. They've tried this, actually. They've done some experiments in some major American cities. In New York, in Chicago, in Washington, D.C., they've tried this, offering 50 dollars for an A, 35 dollars for a B. In Dallas, Texas, they have a program that offers eight-year-olds two dollars for each book they read.
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So let's e what -- Some people are in favor, some people are oppod to this cash incentive to motivate achievement. Let's e what people here think about it. Imagine that you are the head of a major school system, and someone comes to you with this proposal. And let's say it's a foundation. They will provide the funds. You don't have to take it out of your budget. How many would be in favor and how many would be oppod to giving it a try? Let's e by a show of hands.
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First, how many think it might at least be worth a try to e if it would work? Rai your hand.
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And how many would be oppod? How many would --
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So the majority here are oppod, but a sizable minority are in favor. Let's have a discussion. Let's start with tho of you who object, who would rule it out even before trying. What would be your reason? Who will get our discussion started? Yes?
