economics correspondent Paul Solman explores that question and some related ones in a conversation

with the author of a new book. It's part of Paul's regular reporting Making Sense of financial

news. WOMAN: Do I think I should be able to bid for a baby? I'm not -- sure. (LAUGHTER)

WOMAN: It's a market. PAUL SOLMAN: Michael Sandel has been called one of the most prominent

college professors in America for his course "Justice," now online after having been taken

by some 25 percent of all Harvard undergrads over the past two decades. Sandel orchestrates

a discussion among the course's 1,000 students, mixing case studies with moral stalwarts from

Aristotle to John Rawls. Early in the term, Sandel asks students if everything should

be for sale, mediated by the marketplace, that is, like the value of a human life, which,

posited at $200,000 in one case study, student Julia Roto thought far too low. MICHAEL SANDEL,

author, "What Money Can't Buy": What do you think would be a more accurate number? STUDENT:

I don't think I could give a number. I think that this sort of analysis shouldn't be applied

to issues of human life. PAUL SOLMAN: And thus the theme of Sandel's new book, "What

Money Can't Buy," or shouldn't be able to buy, as he explained in an interview at Harvard's

student-run Phillips Brooks House. Michael Sandel, welcome. MICHAEL SANDEL: Good to be

here. PAUL SOLMAN: What bothers you about what's been happening to our market economy?

MICHAEL SANDEL: Over the last three decades, we ve actually drifted, without quite realizing

it, from having a market economy to becoming a market society. And the difference is this:

A market economy is a tool, a valuable and effective tool, for organizing productive

activity. But a market society is a place where almost everything is up for sale. It's

a way of life where market values seep into almost every sphere of life, and sometimes

crowd out or corrode important values, non-market values. PAUL SOLMAN: Let's get down to cases:

queuing, buying your place in line. MICHAEL SANDEL: Right. PAUL SOLMAN: What's wrong with

that? MICHAEL SANDEL: Well, it's interesting to notice that, over the past three decades,

there are many aspects of life where you can pay your way to the head of the line. In airports,

those long lines of security checkpoints, if you're flying on an expensive ticket, you

can go to the head of the line. Even if you're flying coach, the airlines will sell you,

as an a la carte perk, the right to go to the head of the line for the security check.

PAUL SOLMAN: Hey, at Logan Airport, I have a gold passport card right here, where -- I

think it was $200 -- and I get to park on the third level of central parking, and I

have to confess, I love that. MICHAEL SANDEL: Okay. But here's the question. Is there a

difference between paying for a service, a better parking place, or even paying to board

the airplane first, so you get access to the overhead bin -- that's a service -- and paying

to go to the head of the queue for security checks, which, after all, are to provide for

national security to prevent terrorism on airplanes? Is that paying for a service or

is that paying for a public good? PAUL SOLMAN: So you're the moral philosopher. Is it okay

for me and members of the audience to buy the VIP pass that gets me special access to

parking at Boston's airport? MICHAEL SANDEL: Yes, it's fine, Paul. I'm not here to give

a moral sermon about every instance of -- of paying more for a service. But it's happening

in other parts of our social life, where it does matter. Take a small example. In Washington,

D.C., there are line-standing companies. They have arisen because the seats are limited

for congressional hearings. Often, the lines are long. Lobbyists want to attend, but they

don't like standing in a very long line, maybe overnight. PAUL SOLMAN: Well, their time is

very valuable. MICHAEL SANDEL: So what they do is they go to line-standing companies,

and they -- those companies hire homeless people and others, pay them an hourly rate

to stand in those long lines until just before the hearing. The same line-standing companies

will get you a line-stander at the Supreme Court if you want to hear an oral argument

that's very popular. Now, different, isn't it, from a preferred parking place or boarding

the plane early? PAUL SOLMAN: All right, I have an intuition that it's not right somehow

to sell tickets to congressional hearings. But I'm not exactly sure why it's wrong, only

that it sounds sort of distasteful. MICHAEL SANDEL: It's wrong for two reasons. One is

about equal access. In a democratic society, everyone should have equal access to representative

government, to congressional hearings, to Supreme Court arguments. The other reason

it's wrong is that it demeans representative government. It's demeaning to the whole idea

of government in the name of the public good to have ticket scalpers hawking seats in the

Appropriations Committee. LARRY DAVID, actor: Oh, you should see the traffic. The only thing

moving is the carpool lane. PAUL SOLMAN: In his book, Sandel mentions an episode on HBO's

"Curb Your Enthusiasm," where Larry David is stuck in traffic. LARRY DAVID: I'm not

going to use the carpool lane by myself, because I -- I don't want to. PAUL SOLMAN: At this

point, opportunity knocks. ACTRESS: Hey, daddy, you want a date with mama? LARRY DAVID: Get

in the car. MICHAEL SANDEL: And he got there on time. This was a novel use of a market

mechanism to gain access to a carpool lane. But, today, in many cities, Larry David would

not have to bother hiring a prostitute to ride in the seat next to him. He and everyone

else can simply pay to ride in the fast lane solo, provided you pay the fee. PAUL SOLMAN:

Do you have a problem with that, or not? You d outlaw that, or you wouldn't? MICHAEL SANDEL:

I don't think it's objectionable by itself. I wouldn't ban it. But the question that worries

me is, when almost everything in our public life, not just access to the fast lane, is

sold off to the highest bidder, something is lost. Money comes to matter more and more

in our society. And against the background of rising inequality, that takes a toll on

the commonality of our civic life. PAUL SOLMAN: And that's where you're coming from with all

of this? MICHAEL SANDEL: Yes. My concern is with the accumulated effect. Are we cheapening

important social goods and civic goods that are worth caring about? PAUL SOLMAN: Michael

Sandel, thanks very much. MICHAEL SANDEL: Thank you, Paul. JUDY WOODRUFF: Check back

to our website tomorrow, when we will have more from Paul's conversation with Michael

Sandel, including a look at online bets that only pay out once someone dies. urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags

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