the limits of the market | Moral Markets?

Republicans Keep Flunking Microbe Economics

by New York Times | Jul 18, 2020 | opinion & ideas, the limits of the market

“Econ 101 has lots of good things to say about free markets […], but no rational discussion of economics says that free markets, left to themselves, can solve the problem of ‘externalities’ — costs that individuals or businesses impose on others who have no say in the matter. […] Pollution is the classic example of an externality that requires government intervention, but spreading a dangerous virus poses exactly the same issues. Yet many conservatives seem unable or unwilling to grasp this simple point. And they seem equally unwilling to grasp a related point — that there are some things that must be supplied through public policy rather than individual initiative. And the most important of these ‘public goods’ is probably scientific knowledge,” so Paul Krugman argues

The Relational Economy

by Dissent Magazine ("a mainstay of the democratic left") | Jul 11, 2020 | opinion & ideas, the limits of the market, work - meaning & future

“Even before the coronavirus, the boundaries between work and home had thinned, and our vocabularies for both were blending. ‘Emotional capitalism’—a term Perel borrows from sociologist Eva Illouz—leads to first dates that feel like job interviews, as we apply market logic to our love lives. Meanwhile our bosses expect us to bring all the passion we have to our jobs, and in return we expect work to provide ‘authenticity and vulnerability and trust and transparency and belonging,’ according to Perel.”

Pay for Plasma? We Bloody Well Should

by CapX ("for popular capitalism") | Jun 30, 2020 | opinion & ideas, health care, the limits of the market

“As for the purported evil of ‘commodifying’ plasma collection, it’s hard to see how our current situation of importing paid plasma is morally distinct from allowing British donors to be compensated. It’s also worth asking how much extra death and suffering we would be willing to tolerate from plasma shortages in exchange for keeping markets out of our lives. The only moral answer is zero. As Jaworski and his co-author Jason Brennan make clear in their book Markets without Limits, the anti-commodification thesis about how markets can corrupt or offend our dignity, is on very shaky ground.”

Private Gain, Public Loss

by Digital Magazine 'Aeon' | Jun 22, 2020 | long read articles, the limits of the market

“The project of selling state or public assets to be owned or run by private businesses has always been controversial. What characterises the controversy, though, is that both advocates and opponents tend to cast it in instrumental terms. That is, the identity of the body or entity doesn’t matter in and of itself; what matters is whether or not they achieve a good outcome or do a better job. […] But that view is shortsighted. We don’t just care about what the decision is and whether a decision is right, just, efficient or good. We also care about who makes the decision.”

Vital Signs: Why ‘the Marketplace for Ideas’ Can Fail – From an Economist’s Perspective

by The Conversation ("Academic Rigour, Journalistic Flair") | Jun 10, 2020 | the limits of the market

“The proposition that good ideas eventually triumph in ‘the marketplace for ideas’ dates at least to 1644 […] Now economists generally like markets. […] Yet economists […] are all too aware that markets don’t always function well in reality. […] Why, then, why should we have faith in the marketplace for ideas?”

The Plasma Debate: The Ethics of Paying for Human Blood

by Big Think ("Smarter Faster") | May 4, 2020 | opinion & ideas, the limits of the market

“Is it ethical for people to be paid for their plasma? Here, Peter Jaworski, an ethics scholar, [and co-author of the book Markets without Limits] explains five key arguments people make against paying people for plasma—safety, security, altruism, commodification, and exploitation—and explains his views on them.”

Price Controls Don’t Work – But Mask Rationing Is the Exception that Proves the Rule

by The Conversation ("Academic Rigour, Journalistic Flair") | Apr 24, 2020 | opinion & ideas, the limits of the market

“As an economist who wrote a textbook on price theory and teaches it to undergraduates, I’m generally skeptical about price controls. But not in this case.”

To Get Out of This We Are Going to Have to Think like Central Planners

by The Conversation ("Academic Rigour, Journalistic Flair") | Mar 24, 2020 | the limits of the market

“Businesses are being told whether they can or cannot open and how they must operate, consumers are subject to formal and informal rationing, workers are directed to stay home, or, in the case of schoolteachers, until now ordered to turn up regardless of risk. All of it is taking place against the background of what is assumed to be a market economy, where businesses are meant to live or die according to their success in meeting the needs of consumers, and where unemployed workers are expected to find jobs or live in poverty.”

Moral Markets?

Towards an Economy of Human Flourishing

Your portal to critical reflections on free markets, capitalism, business & economics