What Should Not Be Sold?

We have a variety of laws that forbid the selling of certain things that are, in themselves, perfectly legal. Sex is the most obvious; we have made it a crime to sell sex but ok to give it away for free. Michael Sandel, a Harvard professor best known for his online course on justice, has written a book about this question of what should be saleable and what should not. To start, let's ask some questions:

1. Should prostitution be legal?
2. Should lobbyists be able to hire people to wait in line for them at Congressional hearings?
3. Should it be legal for people to sell their unwanted babies instead of giving them up for adoption?
4. Should there be special fast lanes on toll roads so rich people in a hurry can buy a faster trip? What about "congestion pricing" that automatically raises the price of toll roads when they get crowded, or that raises the cost of parking when spaces are scarce?
5. Should people be able to sell their unneeded organs (like that left kidney)?
6. Should we pay children to read books?
7. Should top colleges consider who can pay the most in deciding which applicants to admit?
8. Should how much money people have determine whether they get good health care?
9. Should whether accused criminals get out of jail depend on whether they can raise bail?
10. Should people be able to take out life insurance policies on strangers, so they get a windfall when that person dies?

I am curious about other people's responses and invite everyone to supply answers in the comments.

There are two kinds of issues here. One is that many of us feel that some things simply should not be sold. For me, this applies to babies. The commoditizing of human life has a very bad history, and the specter of poor women having babies just to sell them makes my skin crawl. (Not that many women would do this, but if the price were right somebody surely would.)

Another, separate issue is that the more things are bought and sold, the more the poor are disadvantaged. This is why I object to "congestion pricing" schemes; as long as parking places are cheap, poor people can to some extent substitute time, effort, or local knowledge for money and get where they need to go without emptying their wallets, whereas with such schemes money matters more and more.

Numbers 7 and 8 above are two of the biggest political issues of our time. If you ask them in the way I just did, most Americans say no to both, but when it comes to the details of how to make those wishes real, unanimity collapses. We are increasingly uncomfortable with markets in education and health care, but unsure what to do about that moral sentiment.

For what it's worth, my answers to these questions are:

1. Yes
2. Yes
3. No
4. No
5. No
6. Yes
7. No
8. No
9. No
10. No