“This
issue goes to the heart of fairness in our country. There has been much
discussion recently about economic inequality, but almost no
conversation about the way the spread of markets nurtures a broader,
systemic inequality."-Michael Sandel, The Moral Limit of Markets, 2012
The issue of fairness, of social justice, of equitable redistribution, the core rationales for modern, liberal societies has been percolating in my mind; as I ride through West London on my way to tutor, the numbers of Ferraris and Lamborghinis is startling both in their excess and their symbolism in this great bastion of free market liberalization. And thus, the issue that Sandel brings to public light, of fairness. Is is fair that some should be driving $250,000 cars, when there are plenty of $20,000 cars which are perfectly capable of performing the same function, and people starving to death in other nations, and multitudes of homeless and destitute in this same city? What is the appropriate balance of free markets, governmental restrictions on personal liberties, private property rights, and moral excess?
Economic inequality is a fundamental feature of liberal economies. However, the gap continues to widen; and as this gap continues to widen, and societies are increasingly polarized, we must ask as a society, as a modern experiment in social relations, what kind of world is it that we wish to live in? What is fair? What is responsible? What is just? What is fairness in both the eyes of the rich and the poor (as well as the middle)? What is the point of excess, and what is the redistribution that must be enacted, at this point, to further our aims of basic social justice and equity?
How can this market economy, with its excesses, be legitimized in the eyes of the masses? As Dani Rodrik asks, how can a functioning market economy be "...compatible with social stability and cohesion?"
Nick Kristof, commenting on Sandel's work, concludes succinctly, “Market fundamentalism,” to
use the term popularized by George Soros, is gaining ground. It’s
related to the glorification of wealth over the last couple of decades,
to the celebration of opulence, and to the emergence of a new
aristocracy. Market fundamentalists assume a measure of social Darwinism
and accept that laissez-faire is always optimal. "
