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The Price of the Common Good offers a fresh perspective on economic prosperity and solidarity that emphasizes communal interests.
There is more at stake in market economies than self-interest or making money. Lying just below the surface, there are shared projects answering the deepest political questions of how we live together and who we become. The Price of the Common Good exposes the inadequacies of the prevailing individualistic vision of markets and firms and develops an incisive new framework for analyzing the shared goods that are always in play. To get a purchase on the full moral architecture of markets and firms, Mark Hoipkemier recovers the classical idiom of the “common good” for today’s economy.
Hoipkemier argues not that economic institutions should ideally embody communal purposes, but that they already do. Engaging with leading political economists, he shows the centrality of common goods in real-world institutions with examples such as Uber, corporate law, and globalized auto manufacturing. The Price of the Common Good offers both the defenders and critics of the market a richer way of deliberating about shared concerns in markets and firms as they are and as they should be.
“This book is one of the most important I have read in decades, and is essential foundational reading for all those in economics, politics, and ethics who seek flourishing businesses in a flourishing society.” —David Cloutier, author of The Vice of Luxury
“Mark Hoipkemier does not hesitate to tackle the difficult task of convincing a skeptical world that corporations and markets are not purely private, profit-driven affairs. He substantially enriches our ability to understand the location of these institutions on the border of the private and the common good.” —Andrew M. Yuengert, author of Approximating Prudence
"This book aims to describe how the moral architecture of corporate controllers and market forces determine the direction of the political economy." —RMOL (Rakyat Merdeka Online)
"This book is a careful exploration of how in practice acting together in the service of common goods is more common than we sometimes think, and needs to find its place in any adequate theoretical account of both the firm and the market." —The Centre for Enterprise, Markets and Ethics
"[Hoipkemier's] proposed second language for speaking of common goods in a pluralistic economy is one that it would be well worthwhile for each of us to learn." —The Independent Review
"The author lists categories of common goods applicable to the firm, relying on two distinctions, first, between goods of excellence and goods of effectiveness, and second, between goods either intrinsic to or extrinsic to social relations. The resultant categories of common goods are property, power, practice, and product. These are helpfully illustrated with concrete examples." —Review of Politics
Mark Hoipkemier is an assistant professor in the Program on Politics, Philosophy, and Economics at the University of Navarra.
List of Tables
Acknowledgements
Preface
Introduction: Merchant vs. Citizen
Part 1. Doing Business
1. No Profit without Honor
2. How to Think about Common Goods
3. Work Together
4. The Uber Problem
Part 2. On the Market
5. The End of the Invisible Hand
6. Forum and Emporium
7. On Social Contracts
Conclusion: Toward a Pluralist Political Economy