Markets without Limits

Jason Brennan is the Flanagan Family Professor of Ethics, Economics, and Public Policy at Georgetown University. He is the author of 15 books, including Debating Democracy (2021), Why It’s OK to Want to Be Rich (2020), Cracks in the Ivory Tower (2019), and When All Else Fails (2018). Peter Jaworski is an Associate Teaching Professor at Georgetown University, teaching Ethical Values of Business to undergraduates and Ethical Leadership to MBAs and Executive MBAs. He was a Visiting Research Professor at Brown University, a Visiting Assistant Professor at the College of Wooster, and an Instructor at Bowling Green State University.

• 1. Are There Some Things Money Should Not Buy? 2. If You May Do It for Free, You May Do It for Money 3. A Taxonomy of Possible Objections 4. It’s the How, Not the What 5. Semiotic Objections 6. The Mere Commodity Objection 7. The Wrong Signal and Wrong Currency Objections 8. Objections: Semiotic Essentialism, Minding Our Manners, and What It Says When You Buy Love 9. The Corruption Objection 10. How to Make a Sound Corruption Objection 11. The Selfishness Objection 12. The Crowding Out Objection 13. The Surprising Truth about Blood Markets: How Paying for Blood Crowds In Altruism 14. The Immoral Preference Objection 15. The Low Quality Objection 16. The Civics Objection 17. Objections Solved by Market Design 18. Exploitation, Sweatshops, and the Living Wage 19. Consent, Desperation, and Coercion 20. Line Up for Expensive Equality! 21. Baby Buying: Adoption Rights and Designer Babies 22. Selling Civics: Vote Markets and Citizenship 23. Blackmail, Threats, and What We Owe to Each Other for Free 24. Associative Objections: Should We Boycott More People? 25. Anti-Market Attitudes Are Resilient 26. Dignity, Schmignity 27. Where Do Anti-Market Attitudes Come From? 28. The Pseudo-Morality of Disgust 29. Postscript