Objective Proficiency p 42. What Money Can't Buy by Michael J. Sandel. Extra Listening

• Listen to this audiobook excerpt and hear Michael J. Sandel read from his book What Money Can't Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets. Sandel takes on one of the biggest ethical questions of our time: Is there something wrong with a world in which everything is for sale? If so, how can we prevent market values from reaching into spheres of life where they don't belong? What are the moral limits of markets?

Fill in the gaps
Nowadays there are not many things money can't buy, almost everything is 1_____/ ______/ ______. For example:

• A prison cell 2__________.
• Access to the 3________/ __________ lane while driving alone in order to 4_________ traffic congestion.
• The services of an Indian 5______________ mother to carry a pregnancy. Couples tend to 6__________ the job to India. There it is cheaper than one-third 7______/ _______/ ________ in the United States.
• The right to immigrate to the United States: $500,000. Foreigners who invest $500,000 and create at least ten jobs where unemployment is high are 8__________ for a green card that entitles them to permanent residency.
• The right to shoot an endangered black rhino: $150,000. In order to incentivise the raising and protection of the endangered species, South Africa has begun letting 9__________ sell hunters the right to kill a limited number. 
• The cell phone number of your doctor: $1,500 and up per year. An increasing number of “10_________” doctors offer cell phone access and same-day appointments for patients willing to pay annual fees. 
• The right to 11__________ a metric ton of carbon into the atmosphere.
• Admission of your child to a prestigious university: top universities accept some less than 12________ students whose parents are wealthy and likely to make substantial financial contributions.

If you need to earn some extra money, here are some 13_________ possibilities:

• Rent out space on your forehead (or elsewhere on your body) to display commercial advertising: $777. Air New Zealand hired thirty people to shave their heads and wear temporary tattoos with the slogan “Need a change? 14________/ __________ to New Zealand.”
• Serve as a human 15__________ pig in a drug safety trial for a pharmaceutical company: $7,500. The pay can be higher or lower, depending on the16______________ of the procedure used to test the drugs effect, and the discomfort involved.
• Fight for a private military company.
• Stand in line overnight on Capitol Hill to hold a place for a 17____________ who wants to attend a congressional hearing.
• If you are a second grader in an 18________________ Dallas school, you can read a book and earn $2. 
• If you are 19__________, lose fourteen pounds in four months and earn $378. Companies and health 20___________now offer financial incentives for weight loss and other kinds of healthy behaviour.
• Buy the life insurance policy of an 21__________ or elderly person, pay the annual 22__________ while the person is alive, and then collect the death benefit when he or she dies. This form of 23_______/ _____ the lives of strangers has become a $30 billion industry. 

Nowadays almost everything can be bought and sold. In the last 30 years, markets have come to govern our lives as never before. We did not make any deliberate choice. It is almost as if it 24________/ _______ us.
At the end of the cold war, markets enjoyed 25__________ prestige. No other 26____________ for organising the production and distribution of goods had proved as successful at generating 27____________ and prosperity. However, something else was happening. Market values were coming to play a greater and greater role in social life. Economics was becoming an imperial 28_________. Today, the logic of buying and selling no longer applies to material goods alone but increasingly governs the whole of life. It is time to ask whether we want to live this way.

KEY
1. up for sale (up for something on offer for something. E.g. The house is up for sale.)


2. upgrade (N) /ˈʌpɡreɪd/ an act of upgrading something. Upgrade (V) /ˌʌpˈɡreɪd/ raise (something) to a higher standard.


3. car pool /ˈkɑːpuːl/ a group of car owners who take turns to drive everyone in the group to work, so that only one car is used at a time. E.g. they organized carpools to deliver the kids to school. If passengers travelled in carpools of four, gasoline consumption would fall by 45 per cent.


4. ease (to become or to make something less unpleasant, painful, severe, etc. Alleviate. E.g. The pain immediately eased. Ease something This should help ease the pain. The plan should ease traffic congestion in the town.)


5. surrogate (/ˈsʌrəɡət/ used to describe a person or thing that takes the place of, or is used instead of, somebody/ something else. E.g. She saw him as a sort of surrogate father. A surrogate mother is a woman who gives birth to a baby for another woman who is unable to have babies herself. 


6. outsource (/ˈaʊtsɔːs/ to arrange for somebody outside a company to do work or provide goods for that company. Contract (work) out. E.g. We outsource all our computing work. You may choose to outsource this function to another company or do it yourself.


7. the going rate (the going rate (for something) the usual amount of money paid for goods or services at a particular time. E.g. They pay slightly more than the going rate.)


8. eligible /ˈelɪdʒəbl/ a person who is eligible for something or to do something, is able to have or do it because they have the right qualifications, are the right age, etc. E.g. eligible (for something) Only those over 70 are eligible for the special payment. Eligible (to do something) When are you eligible to vote in your country?


9. ranchers (rancher: a person who owns, manages or works on a ranch. E.g. a cattle rancher)


10. concierge /ˈkɒnsieəʒ/ 1 a person, especially in France, who takes care of a building containing flats/ apartments and checks people entering and leaving the building. 2 (especially North American English) a person in a hotel whose job is to help guests by giving them information, arranging theatre tickets, etc.


11. emit /iˈmɪt/


12. stellar /ˈstelə(r)/ excellent. E.g. a stellar performance.


13. novel /ˈnɒvl/ different from anything known before; new, interesting and often seeming slightly strange. E.g. a novel feature. Job-sharing (an arrangement for two people to share the hours of work and the pay of one job) is still a novel concept and it will take a while for employers to get used to it. He hit on a novel idea to solve his financial problems.


14. Head down (head + adverb/ preposition to move in a particular direction. Where are we heading? Let's head back home. She headed for the door.We headed north. Head towards the mall. The boat was heading out to sea. (Figurative) Can you forecast where the economy is heading?) 


15. guinea (guinea pig /ˈɡɪni /1 a small animal with short ears and no tail, often kept as a pet. 2 a person used in medical or other experiments. E.g. Students in fifty schools are to act as guinea pigs for these new teaching methods.) 


16. invasiveness (the ability of microorganisms to enter the body and spread in the tissues.) 


17. lobbyist (someone who is employed to persuade legislators to vote for legislation that favours the lobbyist's employer. E.g. She is a paid lobbyist for a drug company.) 


18. underachieving (underachieve /ˌʌndərəˈtʃiːv/ to do less well than you could do, especially in school work. E.g. Too many boys are underachieving at school.)


19. obese


20. insurers ( /ɪnˈʃʊərə(r)/ a person or company that provides people with insurance)


21. ailing (/ˈeɪlɪŋ/ ill/ sick and not improving. E.g. She looked after her ailing father.) 


22. premiums (premium /ˈpriːmiəm/ an amount of money that you pay once or regularly for an insurance policy. E.g. a monthly premium of £6.25. 


23. betting on 


24. came upon (come on/ upon somebody/ something to meet or find somebody/ something by chance. E.g. Almost unawares he came upon an extraordinary sight.)


25. unrivalled (Am E. unrivaled) (/ʌnˈraɪvld/ better or greater than any other. Unsurpassed. E.g The hotel enjoys an unrivalled position overlooking the lake.)


26. mechanism


27. affluence (/ˈæfluəns/ the state of having a great deal of money; wealth. Prosperity. E.g. The 1950s were an age of affluence in America. A sign of our growing affluence.)


28. domain (/dəˈmeɪn/ an area of knowledge or activity; especially one that somebody is responsible for. Sp. campo, ámbito. E.g. Physics used to be very much a male domain.

 
 

Transcript
There are some things money can't buy, but these days, not many. Today, almost everything is up for sale. Here are a few examples:

• A prison cell upgrade: $82 per night. In Santa Ana, California, and some other cities, nonviolent offenders can pay for a clean, quiet jail cell, away from the cells for nonpaying prisoners.
• Access to the car pool lane while driving solo: $8 during rush hour. Minneapolis and other cities are trying to ease traffic congestion by letting solo drivers pay to drive in car pool lanes, at rates that vary according to traffic.
• The services of an Indian surrogate mother to carry a pregnancy: $6,250. Western couples seeking surrogates increasingly outsource the job to India, where the practice is legal and the price is less than one- third the going rate in the United States.
• The right to immigrate to the United States: $500,000. Foreigners who invest $500,000 and create at least ten jobs in an area of high unemployment are eligible for a green card that entitles them to permanent residency.
• The right to shoot an endangered black rhino: $150,000. South Africa has begun letting ranchers sell hunters the right to kill a limited number of rhinos, to give the ranchers an incentive to raise and protect the endangered species.
• The cell phone number of your doctor: $1,500 and up per year. A growing number of “concierge” doctors offer cell phone access and same-day appointments for patients willing to pay annual fees ranging from $1,500 to $25,000.
• The right to emit a metric ton of carbon into the atmosphere: €13 (about $18). The European Union runs a carbon emissions market that enables companies to buy and sell the right to pollute.
• Or how about this? Admission of your child to a prestigious university: the price is not posted, but officials from some top universities told The Wall Street Journal that they do accept some less than stellar students whose parents are wealthy and likely to make substantial financial contributions.

Not everyone can afford to buy these things. But today there are lots of new ways to make money. If you need to earn some extra cash, here are some novel possibilities:

• Rent out space on your forehead (or elsewhere on your body) to display commercial advertising: $777. Air New Zealand hired thirty people to shave their heads and wear temporary tattoos with the slogan “Need a change? Head down to New Zealand.”
• Or you can serve as a human guinea pig in a drug safety trial for a pharmaceutical company: $7,500. The pay can be higher or lower, depending on the invasiveness of the procedure used to test the drugs effect, and the discomfort involved.
• Or you can fight in Somalia or Afghanistan for a private military company: $250 per month up to $1,000 per day. The pay varies according to qualifications, experience, and nationality.
• Or you can stand in line overnight on Capitol Hill to hold a place for a lobbyist who wants to attend a congressional hearing: you can make $15-$20 an hour. The lobbyists pay line-standing companies, who hire homeless people and others to queue up.
• Or if you are a second grader in an underachieving Dallas school, you can read a book and earn $2. To encourage reading, the schools pay kids for each book they read.
• If you are obese, lose fourteen pounds in four months and earn $378. Companies and health insurers now offer financial incentives for weight loss and other kinds of healthy behavior.
• Buy the life insurance policy of an ailing or elderly person, pay the annual premiums while the person is alive, and then collect the death benefit when he or she dies you can make potentially, millions (depending on the policy). This form of betting on the lives of strangers has become a $30 billion industry. The sooner the stranger dies, the more the investor makes.

We live at a time when almost everything can be bought and sold. Over the past three decades, markets and market values have come to govern our lives as never before. We did not arrive at this condition through any deliberate choice. It is almost as if it came upon us.
As the cold war ended, markets and market thinking enjoyed unrivalled prestige, understandably so. No other mechanism for organizing the production and distribution of goods had proved as successful at generating affluence and prosperity. And yet, even as growing numbers of countries around the world embraced market mechanisms in the operation of their economies, something else was happening. Market values were coming to play a greater and greater role in social life. Economics was becoming an imperial domain. Today, the logic of buying and selling no longer applies to material goods alone but increasingly governs the whole of life. It is time to ask whether we want to live this way.