A stimulating ethics alarm drill surfaced over at Freakonomics, where Stephen Dubner challenged the site’s  readers to help him compile a list of goods, services and activities that one can legally give away or perform gratis, but that  when money changes hands, the transactions become illegal. It is a provocative exercise, especially when one ponders why the addition of  money should change the nature of the act from benign to objectionable in the view of culture, society, or government. It is even more revealing to expand the list to include uses of money that may not create illegality, but which change an act from ethical to unethical.

Sometimes commerce turns the act wrongful only for the individual do the paying. Sometimes only the individual accepting the cash becomes unethical.  Money doesn’t corrupt these transactions for the same reasons in all cases. I see three distinct categories:

1.Abuses of economic power: situations where an individual or organization uses money to coerce or induce people to do something that is bad for them, those to whom they have duties, or society, such as…

• Prostitution (Both parties are unethical)
• Bribing public officials (Both parties are unethical)
• Buying children (Both parties are unethical)
• Paying individuals to humiliate or harm themselves for entertainment (Payer is unethical)
• Abandoning a romantic relationship for compensation, as from a disapproving parent (Both parties are unethical)
• Paying an individual to abandon a business relationship or break a contractual agreement (Both parties are unethical)

2. Charging money for something that has no value, or when one is not qualified to provide a service professionally…

• Driving someone to a destination for compensation (Charging party is unethical)
• Selling an alcoholic beverage rather than giving it away. (Charging party is unethical)
• Charging for legal or other expert advice when one isn’t licensed to practice, or isn’t an expert.(Charging party is unethical)
• Charging for medical treatment when one isn’t a licensed medical professional. (Charging party is unethical)

3. Situations where charging or paying money distorts distribution of a needed product or service to the detriment of society, or otherwise encourages individuals to seek compensation for what they should do freely.

• Buying human organs (Both parties may be unethical)
• Charging for returning lost property or rescuing fellow citizens in peril (Charging party is unethical)
• Demanding money to protect private information [extortion] (Charging party is unethical)

You should also consider the suggestions submitted by Dubner’s respondents.