STEPHEN BROOKFIELD ON CREATIVE AND CRITICAL THINKING SUMMARY

MICHAEL SANDEL: WHAT MONEY CAN'T BUY

1.    How does Michael Sandel support the thesis that "over the past three decades we have drifted from having a market economy to becoming a market society?

The difference is that a market economy is a tool for organizing productive activity while a market society is where everything is up for sale, it is a way of life.

Marketization of everything has corrupted the value of our acts. As some examples by Michael Sandel which shows that although money corrupts people’s values, they can be motivated to do things just for the results or the values they can get from it and not just for money.

2.    What sorts of arguments are offered for and against the assumed proposal of paying young children two dollars for every book they read?

Some of them were in agreement with paying children for each book they read because that reward could maybe motivate them and make them to start loving reading. But others were against that statement as they think that children could read just for money, becoming a work and forgetting the real value or reading.

3.    Now, what is your standpoint about cash incentives at school or at home to encourage students to read more books?

I think that money is not a motivation for children to read as they do not need it to get in love with the habit of reading. But money could damage their values and they could start reading for money and not for education, or for culture, or fun. There are many more incentives to encourage and motivate children to read. I would give them an ice-cream or a visit to the amusement park for each book they read.

4.    When Michael Sandel contends that "this tendency of markets and cash incentives of crowding out nonmarket goods, higher goods, can be seen in many spheres of social life, what sort of "higher goods" do you think he is referring to?

Those higher good could be behaviors, values, commonality, human practices, education, health, and non-material domains.

5.    What kind of nonmaterial goods do you think have been crowded out by market transactions in Colombia?

Many non-material goods as good values, respect for others, tolerance, even love, have been crowded out by market transactions in our country. One of all of those goods is health, first of all, is a non-material good that has been crowded out by money as we can see that higher social classes have made a business of it, forgetting the quality of people’s lives just because of money.

6.    What should be the role of money and markets in our Colombian society?

Money should be for international market support and to make better the quality of people’s life. Unfortunately, human beings let that money corrupt good values and human behaviors.