by Roopa Pai
Sandel argues that we should be careful about allowing The Market, and ‘market values’—which say trade is good, period—to dominate our lives in areas where such values have no place. He argues that markets should have ‘moral limits’—we should not only think about whether a trade is ‘good’, we should also think about whether a trade is ‘fair’ to everyone around, even those not directly involved in the trade itself.
While it is generally okay for a trade to favour the rich—pay more money for a better seat on a plane or a bigger room in a hotel—it is not always okay when it comes into areas where other values should matter. In some areas of community life, the questions we should be asking are not ‘Can you pay for it?’ but ‘Do you deserve it?’, ‘Do you need it more than someone else?’, ‘Were you here first?’ and ‘Will making this trade hurt someone else?’ Yup, the same kinds of questions you should ask yourself before you do or say things in your non-trading life, too.
Only when we all ask such questions will we be able to create not only a more productive and prosperous world, but also one that is fairer, gentler, more ethical, and a better place to live in for all of us.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
A big thank you to:
♦Dr Raghuram Rajan, former governor of the Reserve Bank of India, who actually responded, within the hour, while he was still RBI governor, to a cold-call email sent to his @rbigovernor.in address, saying he would not mind taking a look at the manuscript of this book. Within the next ten days, he had done so, and even sent in a warm endorsement of it. Which goes to prove, yet again, that the busiest, most talented people are often the nicest, most efficient ones too.
♦Devangshu Datta, Consulting Editor, Business Standard, and overall supernerd (as a schoolboy, he won the Bournvita Quiz no less than three times; as an adult, he co-wrote Vishwanathan Anand’s autobiography My Life in Chess with him), for very kindly agreeing to read the manuscript. The only two of his many valuable suggestions that have not been incorporated are the ones about leaving chocolate (he is allergic to it) and mangoes (he hates them) out of the book.
♦Mahesh Yagnaraman, alternative energy entrepreneur, self-confessed Economics passionista, and dear friend, for taking time out of his insane ‘start-up-founder schedule’ to read and critique the manuscript.
♦Sudeshna Shome Ghosh, lovely and calm editor and friend, for not batting an eyelid when, after enthusiastically picking Economics out of a bunch of different subjects that she had lined up as possible themes for books, I confessed cheerfully that I did not know the first thing about it.