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. Uber provides the smartphone-era, gig-economy version of a taxi service. In order to get a ride in the “10,000+ cities worldwide” where Uber operates, all you need to do is download its smartphone app, enter some payment information, and tap in your destination. An offer is made to an available driver nearby; she accepts, arrives, and you are on your way. It’s easy, quick, and cheap. Of course, the driver who picks you up will not be an employee of Uber, or at least that is the legal arrangement that Uber and its allies have secured in California. Uber does have over 22,000 conventional employees, who build and service its “technology booking platform.” But on the company’s official view, rather than working for Uber, your driver works through Uber’s app but ultimately works for you, the passenger. Uber serves as a middleman, for a 20-30% cut, contracting temporarily with a driver only for the duration of the ride she provides. The number of drivers and riders on the road is controlled by market forces of supply and demand, with a little help from Uber’s algorithms, which dangle incentives in front of passengers or drivers when one side is lacking. In many ways, the scheme has worked enviably well as a business proposition. Though Uber did not turn its first profit until 2023, fourteen years into its life, its market valuation a year after its 2019 IPO was more than $50 billion. It has become the paradigm of digital disruption, inspiring a legion of gig-economy imitators that seek to become the “Uber for X” in their own industry. For that matter, what is Uber’s own industry? The company insists that it is only a technology firm, not a transportation business, in keeping with the notion that its 3.9 million “driver-partners” are contractors (or even clients, i.e. end-users of its software). The image of a humble dispatching tool is essential to Uber’s public narrative. Behind the scenes, matters look rather different, sin