Review of Paul Bloomberg, The Predatory Society: Deception in the American Marketplace

The Predatory Society examines the inadequacies of marketing and the free market system. It is written by a sociologist. I think that, in general, sociologists are biased against marketing people. The bias runs like this: Sociologists believe that consenting adults should be allowed to enter into agreements without state interference. However, if those agreements involve legal transactions with money, the freedom of the consenting adults should be abridged for the protection of those adults. An elite should decide how much freedom is in the interests of these people. Translated into marketers' terms, the argument is that the state should regulate the behavior of adult buyers and sellers because the former are honest but incompetent and the latter are often dishonest. Blumberg lives up to some of my expectations, but he is also aware of the arguments favoring the free market.