When Selling Your Soul Isn't Enough

Social Theory and Practice, Vol. 30, No. 4, pp. 599-612, 2004

15 Pages Posted: 9 Aug 2008

See all articles by Nick Smith

Nick Smith

University of New Hampshire

Date Written: August 8, 2008

Abstract

Georg Simmel wamed in 1900 that capitalism creates not only a market economy but also a market culture in which money becomes the central and absolute value.' Some cultural critics seem to take the root of all evil claim seriously, asserting with rhetorical flourishes filled with normative hyperbole that commodification is the primary cause of all social problems. Our anxieties about money, however, are often vague and tempered by our sense that it appears to be more or less the best way to organize life and measure value in such a complex and pluralistic world. Somewhere between demonization of the market and blind faith in it lies a clear analysis of precisely what is wrong with the commodification of life.

Suggested Citation

Smith, Nick, When Selling Your Soul Isn't Enough (August 8, 2008). Social Theory and Practice, Vol. 30, No. 4, pp. 599-612, 2004, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1213350

Nick Smith (Contact Author)

University of New Hampshire ( email )

United States

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