The Commercialization of Morally-Salient Aspects of Life

Markets may be an economically efficient way of organizing the production and distribution of many things, yet most people feel that there are certain aspects of human activity which should not be organized by markets even if it would be “efficient” in a technical economic sense to do so. Virtually everyone, except for a few extreme libertarians, believes that it would be a wrong to create a capitalist market for the production and adoption of babies. Even if it were the case that the exchanges on such a market were voluntary, the idea of turning a baby into a commodity with a market price and selling the baby to the highest bidder is seen by most people as a monstrous violation of the moral value of human beings. Most people object to a market in voluntary slaves – that is, a market in which you are allowed to sell yourself voluntarily into slavery. Most people also object to markets in most body parts and organs, whether the organs come from live donors as in the case of things like kidneys and corneas, or from deceased donors, as in the case of hearts. Partially this is because of the belief that such markets would inevitably pray on the vulnerabilities of the poor and lead to many types of abuse, but also it is because of wariness in reducing the human body to the status of a commodity with a market price attached to it. And most people believe it would be wrong to have a free market in votes in elections, in which people could directly purchase votes from citizens, even if this would improve the welfare of both parties to the exchange. So, even in highly commercialized capitalist societies, most people believe that there are moral limits to the domains in which markets should be allowed to organize our activities. Human beings and democratic rights should not be treated like commodities.