12 Comments

Personally I am curious about the sociology of corporations. This new form of social organization has arisen. It's clearly closely associated with capitalism. But it's getting larger and larger. Amazon has 1.5 million employees - on the same order of magnitude as the total workforce of Cuba. The structure *within* a company is not very capitalist. You generally don't have groups competing in an internal marketplace. But there is this idea that Amazon can be very efficient, whereas the workforce of Cuba is inherently not very efficient. Is there something about the internal culture of these companies that makes it work?

I dunno, but it seems like sociology could have something interesting to say here. Not the sort of sociology that is very Marxist, because that sort seems inherently not really able to understand the nature of the modern corporation.

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One can't quit working for Castro Inc.

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In my undergrad days I ended up with an Econ and Sociology double major, mostly because I was surprised that we were studying so many of the same thinkers, but the two disciplines conception of the other seemed so inaccurate.

Maybe it was just the luck of the draw of my department, but there was a huge focus on bottoms up spontaneous order and I think I studied more Mill in sociology than in econ.

But since graduation, the little sociology I've come across has indeed been more Marxist in outlook. So I welcome seeing a book like this come out and am looking forward to downloading it.

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“Brandon Davis relies on public choice theory to describe how states prey on minority populations through mass incarceration.”

Maybe minorities should turn the tables on the state and be more law-abiding.

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The missing link is the family and altruism. Men have freely supported their wives, children and parents over millennia. Religion has extended this by the injunction of charity to create "the kindness of strangers."

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$45 for the Kindle version? $96 hardcover? Does it come with a gold bar?!

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Last sentence of paragraph 6: "It can be downloaded for free at the Rowman & Littlefield website."

It is unlikely that Amazon delivers a gold bar along with the book since the smallest available gold bar, weighing just one gram - or the approximate weight of a paper clip, an unused postage stamp, a stick of gum or a raisin - is currently worth about $107.

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It is free for me when I actually click on the hot link in the last sentence of paragraph 6 (of the book's introduction that Caplan quotes). That link (U will have to remove the space after the question mark) is copied below.

Hoping to forestall further exchanges with you, I have generously created a tinyurl.com link to simplify your access to the FREE copy of the book:

https://tinyurl.com/47fnrrww

Hot link contained in the last sentence of paragraph 6 of the introduction (remove the space after the question mark before using):

https://nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Frowman.com%2FWebDocs%2FSociologyLiberalism.pdf&data=05%7C02%7Cbcaplan%40gmu.edu%7C1db5ba3bd3d44bdb226e08dd395268f2%7C9e857255df574c47a0c00546460380cb%7C0%7C0%7C638729748526135264%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=Iqrh3icb8onx%2BsN4n1Mt8cJkALdy0CUphiZBz%2FVemJk%3D&reserved=0

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Across the political spectrum there is wide acceptance that Humans are social animals.

ERGO: There needs to be a "balance" between "collectivism" and "individualism".

ERGO: A wide range if government social interventions are justified.

No thought is given to whether "social relations" are voluntary or compulsory.

About 20 years ago I wrote a letter to the NY Times regarding an OpEd by David Brooks.

He (a self styled "moderate conservative") seemed not to have considered the point.

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Love the book’s cover and subtitle. Thanks for sharing.

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I went to a couple of those IHS seminars in the late 1980s/early 90s. They were excellent and very stimulating. I especially remember Tom Palmer and Randy Barnett. Sociology has long seemed to collectivist to me also, although I had come across libertarian sociology early on in the 80s thanks to Chris Tame of the UK's Libertarian Alliance who appreciated the more freedom-oriented sociologists.

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