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Blog #3: What Money Can't Buy - The Moral Limits of Markets |
Text 1: I would like to discuss the section about the wedding toast. Sandel challenges the ideas of authenticity and effect. He is challenging us to consider whether or not we would purchase a speech or toast to have a great effect on someone or an audience, or if we would rather write our own speech that maybe wouldn't result in such a resounding applause. He goes on to say that most of us would agree that the bought toast means much less than an authentic one. Why is this? The answer is friendship. A personal toast to someone you know means much more than a State of the Union of address which is a formal speech written to the masses. The key here is intimacy. Interpersonal speeches or toasts have a greater magnitude because their entire effort is directed at one personality and therefore results in a greater emotional impact due to the proximity of the party delivering the message and the party from which emotion is evoked.
Actual Response 1: This section reminded me about the concept of buying cards. For years now I have considered the act of buying cards plagiarism. If a student were to go online and purchase a scholarly paper and submit that paper for a class, he or she would be subject to school penalty and possible suspension or expulsion. However, families plagiarize numerous times a year buying cards for their loved ones, using words that are not their own to express their emotions. I have always preferred writing personal cards or letters to demonstrate the authenticity that Sandel is writing about in this paper. I believe that an authentic attempt by a human being to convey a true emotion should always be revered more than a bought attempt to create a false effect.
Text 2: "College admission is a good that can be bought and sold." It is sad, but it is true. Legacy preferences and wealthy families are easy ways to increase a person's chances of getting into college. College is just another form of business. Schools adorn their pamphlets with the welcoming smiles of students of all different races and show pictures of the football games and campus life, but they do not show the whole story. College admissions know that if they admit another legacy into their program, they will automatically get more money from that family who will not only spend tuition money, but will probably donate funds because they are so "proud" that their whole family has attended this college or university. So even if this legacy student is not as academically polished as the student applying next to them, he or she will get preference based on past family history. College is therefore not only admitting students based on academic performance. The system is flawed.
Actual Response 2: I am glad I am not a legacy. I am proud that I got into all the schools I applied to all based on my academic merit. I wish that these huge education systems were more focused on each student and less focused on the masses of students and increasing that mass or manipulating that mass in order to achieve a higher profit. This is why I am more attracted to classes like this one whereby each student is encouraged to speak early and often. Too many classes are quiet and dull and I believe this is a problem in the "education" aspect of what a college should be achieving.
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