Lindblom - The Market System - Afghan Journalists' Committee

118 What To Make of Itcapital goods produced by earlier generations. How that inheritanceshould be distributed to and used by the currentgeneration—and who should have legal authority over it—are difficult questions for which no one answer is obvious.The “take out what you put in” rule will not do, for earliergenerations did most of the putting in. How to distributewhat they put in cannot be decided by the rule taken as anethical proposition.Nor can the rule be defended as natural, since many earliersocieties operated by other rules no less natural thanthe quid pro quo. And even if it were natural, so also arehate, violence, and cruelty—perhaps slavery as well. All arecurbed because they are unethical, however natural theymay be.2. The market quid pro quo rule acknowledges no ethicalvalue—no human merit or contribution to societyworth rewarding—other than the capacity to offer the kindsof objects and performances that can be sold in markets.The rule recognizes the contribution of a Tata but not aBohr; or of a psychotherapist but not of a sometimes equallyhelpful friend. It does not recognize any claims on behalf ofa spouse who stays home to raise a family. I know of noethical principle that defends distributing the benefits ofsocial life only in response to market contributions, in disregardof all other contributions.3. Even if market contributions were the only ones tojustify a claim to a share of the benefits of social cooperation,awarding benefits to match what one can sell in themarket is ethically questionable. Your market contributionmay be either greater or less than the value of what you offerfor sale.Consider: you provide interior decorating services for