ABSTRACT
The desideratum is a precise and incisive moral conception of commodification. The main argument against the commodification of the gift economy is that commodification impoverishes, if it does not imperil, community. As a consequence there is a troubling shift of resources away from healing the ailments of the poor to the morally dubious enhancement of the rich—one more indication that a moral conception of commodification is needed. More important, industrial production, no matter its ownership, implies a kind of commodification, not economic commodification, of course—yet another symptom of the need for a moral conception of commodification. The moral conception of commodification allows people to answer the question with a kind of conceptual structure that takes people beyond the hand waving. Education is a second public good that is being diminished by commodification. In higher education, public support has been declining sharply over the quarter century.
