Drug Deaths vs Media Coverage

From the Guardian’s Data Blog comes this neat visualization of poisoning deaths from various drugs and compared to press coverage thereof. The at the comparison for pot in particular. I think this image, which shows the deaths as a proportion of users is probably more relevant when considering the likely social consequences of media bias.

Economic Anthropology Seminar

I’ve always been interested in economic anthropology, and think it’s a field unjustly neglected by economists.  The Nobel Committee’s recognition of Elinor Ostrom, whose work is based significantly on ethnographic field-work, will hopefully get more economists interested. I also think the field also has a lot to offer libertarians. Capitalism is frequently charged with creating [...]

Moral Monopolies of Church and State

Benito Arruñada has a fascinating post at Organizations and Markets: Moral codes can be produced and enforced through markets or through organizations. In particular, Catholic theology can be interpreted as a paradigm of the organizational production of morality. In contrast, the dominant moral codes are now produced in something resembling more a market. The organizational [...]

Economists and Sociologists

Fabio Rojas at Orgtheory asks: if sociology sucks, why do economists keep doing it? He cites Weber, Parsons, Becker, Levitt, Akerlof, and Caplan as examples of economists who “regularly dine at our restaraunt,” yet constantly complain about the service. I’d add Douglass North, Timur Kuran, and many of the contemporary Austrian School to the list of [...]

Why Don’t More People Give to Charity via Facebook?

Facebook Causes seems like it should be a great way of encouraging charitable giving. Since social pressure increases contributions to charity, we might expect that making your donations visible to your friends would prompt more giving.  Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to have worked very well. Only a tiny fraction of the 179,000 nonprofits that have [...]

Quote of the Day: Legitimacy and Domination Edition

Norms become legitimate when the actors view them as right, proper, and appropriate. Temperance norms are legitimate to the members of the Temperance movement. To many nonabstainers they may be illegitimate. Domination rests on the power, prestige, authority of one person, group, or official over another. The content of the norm may be disapproved but, [...]