economy

This week, we spoke with author Douglas Rushkoff about a new kind of economy that doesn't involve punching the clock. But what does it look like when you're creating and selling your own product? Your own brisket, pickles, or ideas? We talked to Susan Piver, director of the Open Heart Project, an online meditation and mindfulness guide designed to help people cope with what Rushkoff calls "present shock."

When journalist Steven Brill first began investigating the American health care system for his article "Bitter Pill, he started in a familiar place: medical bills. What he found shocked him. One patient, for example, paid $2,293 per day just for room and board in a hospital - about ten times more than he would have paid for a hotel room - and had little choice in the matter. 

"There's no marketplace at all," Brill says. "The person buying the service has no leverage, no power, and no visibility into the cost."

Should we always reward the highest bidder? We explore the moral limits of markets with Harvard's Michael Sandel, author of “What Money Can’t Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets.” Read More...