Reviews, Interviews, News, Commentaries, Excerpts, My Top 5 Books, Wilson's Bookmarks, Book AwardsDollars and Moral Sense: What Money Can't Buy
Perhaps that's the problem with identifying my students as consumers: It tempts me to value them not too much, but all too little. They purchase educational services, I deliver them as promised, and we go our separate ways. If, however, my students bear God's image, then this adds something incalculable to an otherwise contractual arrangement. And as a result, I owe them something long after they pay tuition and I claim my paycheck. You can't put a price tag on that sort of bond, but as Sandel well realizes, that doesn't mean it's cheap.
Todd C. Ream serves on the faculty of the John Wesley Honors College at Indiana Wesleyan University.
Related Elsewhere:
What Money Can't Buy is available from Barnes & Noble and other retailers.
Previous Christianity Today articles about money and business include:
You Don't Have to Quit to Find Life-Giving Work | Even if you don't like your job, you have a calling to serve God and others. (April 2, 2012)
Pastors Double-Dare the IRS | Observers suggest that punishing church endorsements will be unlikely. (December 12, 2011)
Black Friday, Cyber Monday, & the Christian Consumer | What a model for ethical consumption can look like. (November 28, 2011)
Religion and Inequality Go Hand-in-Hand | Why some countries are more religious than others—and why, assumptions to the contrary, the U.S. is not unusually religious. (September 16, 2011)
A Fractured and Beautiful Faith
Streaming This Weekend, May 24, 2013
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Comments
Marta Layton
I'm not quite sure what Mr. McKinney's purpose is, except perhaps to slander Dr. Sandel. This is precisely Dr. Sandel's point: that the markets CAN'T address every need and that there is more to value than what the market will bear. While I haven't read this latest book, I quite liked _Justice_ (I teach it to my philosophical ethics courses at a Jesuit school, and recommend his lectures at http://www.justiceharvard.com/). While Dr. Sandel isn't addressing a specifically Christian audience, his teachings on all the different theories of justice is quite eye-opening - and can only help a culture saturated with relativism see that right/wrong and justice isn't a matter of personal opinion.
Ram Prakash
good one
Roger McKinney
Sandel uses the typical socialist technique of setting up a straw man then knocking him down. The market was never intended to guide morality. Believe it or not, that is the Church's role. It's not the government's job or the job of politicians, either. Morality is the sole preserve of the Church. If morality fails, it's a church failure, not a market failure. The only purpose of the market is to bring buyers and sellers together. That's all.