Almost without realizing it, we have drifted from having market economies to becoming market societies. A market economy is a tool for organizing productive activity, while a market society is a place where almost everything – from our bodies to our politics – is up for sale.
TOKYO – Today, there are very few things that money can’t buy.
If you are sentenced to a jail term in Santa Barbara, California, and don’t like the standard accommodations, you can buy a prison-cell upgrade for about $90 per night.
If you want to help to prevent the tragic fact that, each year, thousands of babies are born to drug-addicted mothers, you can contribute to a charity that uses a market mechanism to ameliorate the problem: a $300 cash grant to any drug-addicted woman willing to be sterilized.
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We live in a world of national monies, where every territorial jurisdiction has just one currency that must be used for every monetary purpose – from exchange and keeping accounts to paying taxes and storing wealth. But could money now be returning to its more historically much longer baseline of multiple and complementary types?
reviews two recent books on the “deep past” of one of humanity’s most important institutions.
Nina L. Khrushcheva & Javier Solana
engage in a wide-ranging conversation on the forces behind Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the war’s likely effects on European and global security, and the future of the international order.
TOKYO – Today, there are very few things that money can’t buy.
If you are sentenced to a jail term in Santa Barbara, California, and don’t like the standard accommodations, you can buy a prison-cell upgrade for about $90 per night.
If you want to help to prevent the tragic fact that, each year, thousands of babies are born to drug-addicted mothers, you can contribute to a charity that uses a market mechanism to ameliorate the problem: a $300 cash grant to any drug-addicted woman willing to be sterilized.
To continue reading, register now.
As a registered user, you can enjoy more PS content every month – for free.
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