Summary Of What Isn T For Sale

The fact that a person can buy anything from a simple meal to a comfortable jail cell tells you how much the world has changed over the years. And if they have the right amount of money, all they have to do is pick up their phone. As Sandel puts it “We live in a time when almost everything can be bought and sold” (Sandel 442 – 447). Living in a world where things are so easily acquired also means living in a world where things are easily forgotten. In his essay “What Isn’t For Sale?” Sandel gives a few way people can make money or use it to ease life. The example range from paying a second grader to read to paying a surrogate mother in India. While some of these things can be understandable, why pay a doctor $1,500 for their private number? With there being a price on almost everything, people spend without a second thought. Some of the effects of commercialization are targeting children in schools, a lack of appreciation for small things, and large event sales.
Big companies are sponsoring everything from lunches, to texts books, to sporting events. Ruskin and Schor stated that “Corporations spend $15 billion marketing to children in the United States each year” (Ruskin and Schor 487 – 491). Majority of this began when TV’s were added to classrooms at the expense of large companies. But was the price worth it? By allowing these TV’s and educational programs into the classrooms, they also had to allow companies to run commercial. On top of that are the advertisements that children interact with on social sites and television at home. This onset of advertisements create a cycle. Either a child who’s given everything they want, and has no control as an adult. Or one who goes through life wanting, and possible has no control once they are an adult and providing for themselves. Which only creates more debt in the country either