Debra Satz - Why Some Things Should Not Befor Sale: The Moral Limits of the Market Review Essay

Sep 14, 2026

Uploaded by Maeve

Rutger Claassen reviews Debra Satz’s book Why Some Things Should Not Be for Sale: The Moral Limits of the Market (Oxford University Press, 2010). The review situates Satz within a debate on the moral limits of markets dominated by liberal egalitarians, emphasizing whether only the scope of market exchange is at issue or the economic order itself. Claassen outlines Satz’s specific egalitarian framework, her critique of neoclassical economics and libertarianism, and her concern that markets can shape preferences and create relations of dependence, illustrated through cases such as commercial surrogacy, prostitution, child labor, bonded labor, and kidney markets.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages16

Reading Time40 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Satz in the debate on moral limits of the market

Satz’s Theory

General vs. specific egalitarians

Critique of neoclassical economics

Opposition to libertarians

Dispute with general egalitarians

Book review essay of Debra Satz, Why Some Things Should Not Befor Sale. The Moral Limits of the Market, Oxford University Press, 2010. Rutger Claassen Published in: Business Ethics Quarterly, 22(3)(2012): 589-601 This is a pre-print version, identical to the final version except for corrections at the proofreading stage. For referencing purposes, please use the published version available at the website of the publisher. Introduction Over the last two decades a debate has emerged on the ‘moral limits of the market’.1 The contributors to this debate are almost all liberal egalitarians. The nature of the debate reflects this internal orientation: liberal egalitarians all basically accept a market-based economic order. The only thing that remains to be discussed is the scope of this order: which goods should be subject to market exchange and which shouldn’t? This narrow focus stands in sharp contrast to the larger and older debates between egalitarians, libertarians and Marxists, in which the fundamental nature of the economic order (capitalist or not?) was at stake. This larger question was discredited since the fall of communism. The debate on the limits of the market reflects the mood of the times after this historical moment. No fundamental challengers to capitalism were taken to be on the table. The only thing left was to determine the details of the market order. Debra Satz has been an important contributor to this debate since the early 1990s, with a series of influential articles. With the appearance of her book Why Some Things Should Not Befor Sale (2010), she has put these earlier articles in a theoretical framework, thus delivering a comprehensive theory of the limits of the market, which has to be taken as a worthy competitor to key theories like those of Michael Walzer (Walzer 1983), Elizabeth Anderson (Anderson 1993), Michael Sandel (Sandel 1998) 1 This essay has benefitted greatly from my being participant at a Workshop on Markets and Marketization in Helsinki (jan. 2011), where Satz presented her book, and John O’Neill and Adrian Walsh gave critical responses. and Margaret Radin (Radin 1996) .2 In this essay I will first give an overview of the argument of Satz’s book and then discuss how does her theory relates to these other contributions. 1. Satz’s Theory Satz’s position can best be qualified using a distinction she takes from James Tobin, between general and specific egalitarians. Satz is a specific egalitarian. In the first part of her book she explicitly criticizes economists, libertarians, general egalitarians and competing specific egalitarians and presents her own specific egalitarian theory (chapters 1 through 4) . In the second part she applies her own framework to several cases: commercial surrogacy, prostitution, child labor, bonded labor, and kidney markets (chapters 5 through 9) . In my discussion, I will follow the line of the theoretical chapters, and mention examples from the case studies by way of illustration. Two of her main targets are neoclassical economics (sometimes she speaks of‘welfare Paretianism ’) and libertarianism. These approaches link the market to the virtues of efficiency and freedom. Satz finds these linkages much too easy: some markets may exhibit these virtues while others may not. With respect to efficiency, modern economics uses a welfarist criterion. Markets are efficient in the sense that they tend to maximally satisfy actual preferences. But Satz warns us that some preferences are more important, urgent, or acceptable than others. Even more important, she focuses on the fact that many markets shape the preferences of individuals. In a chapter on classical economics she shows how the early economists (Smith, Ricardo and Marx) were specifically concerned with the way in which markets for labor, land and money shape individuals and their social relations. Restrictions on sale might be necessary to make sure that markets do not put individuals in relati

FAQs

What debate does Claassen say Satz’s book addresses?

Claassen describes a debate on the “moral limits of the market,” largely among liberal egalitarians, focused on which goods should be subject to market exchange.

How does Claassen characterize Satz’s political view?

Claassen explains that Satz is a “specific egalitarian,” drawing on James Tobin’s distinction between general and specific egalitarians.

What are the main objections Claassen reports Satz making to economists and libertarians?

Satz argues that linking markets to efficiency and freedom is too easy, and she stresses that markets can shape preferences and produce dependence, making libertarianism morally inadequate in certain cases.

Sep 14, 2026

Uploaded by Maeve