Originally Posted By ecdc <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/04/what-isn-8217-t-for-sale/8902/" target="_blank">http://www.theatlantic.com/mag...le/8902/</a> A fantastic article well worth your time on the explosion! in the last thirty years, of things for sale that were never part of the market economy before. You can pay for a prison cell upgrade, or for your doctor's private mobile number. He goes onto examine why this really isn't good. >>First, consider inequality. In a society where everything is for sale, life is harder for those of modest means. The more money can buy, the more affluence—or the lack of it—matters. If the only advantage of affluence were the ability to afford yachts, sports cars, and fancy vacations, inequalities of income and wealth would matter less than they do today. But as money comes to buy more and more, the distribution of income and wealth looms larger.... These examples illustrate a broader point: some of the good things in life are degraded if turned into commodities. So to decide where the market belongs, and where it should be kept at a distance, we have to decide how to value the goods in question—health, education, family life, nature, art, civic duties, and so on.... Without quite realizing it—without ever deciding to do so—we drifted from having a market economy to being a market society. The difference is this: A market economy is a tool—a valuable and effective tool—for organizing productive activity. A market society is a way of life in which market values seep into every aspect of human endeavor. It’s a place where social relations are made over in the image of the market.<<
Originally Posted By mele I don't mind the "pay more to use the carpool lane" thing. They only do it one one of the highways here but there's talk of using it on others. The lane is often empty and there are a lot of people who cheat. At least this way, the cheaters would be caught and the state would make a bit more income off of it. I dunno, it doesn't bother me so much. They recently started tolling the bridge that I have to cross to work. Using the non-tolled routes would take so much longer and use so much extra gas, it's not worth it. I hate paying the toll ($3.50 each way) BUT...everyone else hates it too and there's never any traffic on it anymore. It's kind of awesome...a wee little perk, I guess, since I'm forced to pay anyway.
Originally Posted By Goofyernmost To be honest, it's kind of refreshing because in the past the rich never had to pay for many things, they were free to them. Look at Professional golfers, they make pretty good money (if they are any good), yet they get hotels, cars, equipment and meals free. Not only do they get it at no charge, but they get paid to possess it. The poor guys just starting out without any name recognition, pay for all of that. On a lesser scale, I went to a Champion Tour tournament last year. I went up to a smoothy concession and ordered one for myself. While I was waiting a very famous and "rich" pro walked up with club in hand and ordered one for himself. I paid $5.50 for mine. Care to guess what he paid? Right! Notta! The idea that things are now available that they have to pay for makes my heart happy. At least they don't get the riches and the freebee's.
Originally Posted By SpokkerJones Celebrities often get free stuff, the idea being that they might promote the product. I mean, I listen to Howard Stern all the time and he is always getting free DVDs and stuff. And then they pass the disc around so everybody can borrow it. So it's certainly plausible that the famous pro in your story is being given something for free in the hopes that they mention the product/store/whatever.
