[8] He was president of his senior class at Palisades High School and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Brandeis University with a bachelor's degree in politics in 1975.

Across three programs, Sandel debates with the audience whether universities should give preference to students from poorer backgrounds, whether a nurse should be paid more than a banker, and whether it is right to bribe people to be healthy.

In the former, Sandel writes that the discontent takes "the form of inchoate anxieties—a growing sense that we were losing control of the forces that govern our lives, and that the moral fabric of community was unraveling.

[24] Public Philosophy is a collection of his own previously published essays examining the role of morality and justice in American political life.

He offers a commentary on the roles of moral values and civic community in the American electoral process—a much-debated aspect of the 2004 US election cycle and of current political discussion.

[26] He is also the author of the book What Money Can't Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets (2012), which argues some desirable things—such as body organs and the right to kill endangered species—should not be traded for cash.

[27] In the book, Sandel argues that stimulating a market-oriented approach in people may lead to relaxation or even corruption of their moral values.

[29] Elite institutions including the Ivy League and Wall Street have corrupted our virtue, according to Sandel, and our sense of who deserves power.

[30] Ongoing stalled social mobility and increasing inequality are laying bare the crass delusion of the American Dream, and the promise "you can make it if you want and try".

";[35] The Wall Street Journal headlines: "Review: The Cream Also Rises: The meritocratic ideal makes elites arrogant and threatens communal solidarity.

"[36] In 2009, Sandel criticized economist Gary Becker, winner of the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in honor of Alfred Nobel for his market immigration proposal.