ABSTRACT
We often personify markets so that they can be criticized, or applauded, in moral terms. We argue that the market ought not have done what the market has in fact done, or claim that a certain situation is correct-and we should be satisfied with it-because it is the outcome of a fair market. Perhaps most commonly and importantly, we often treat labor markets as if they were moral actors. As a result, we quite literally expect that the society configured by marketplace decisions about employment will be just, and regularly are disappointed to discover that it is not so. Let us call this the moralist vision of economic life.
