A friend posted, on Facebook, an interesting article about how economists are cited 3x more than sociologists. This seems mistaken, since they seem so often wrong and the economy is such a small fraction of our social world.

I googled “number of sociologists in the us” and the Occupational Outlook Handbook from 2012 says 2,600. It says the number of sociologists is about 16,900, 6.5 times as many! If these numbers are accurate, it probably just points to our obsession with money. Money is such a commonly used abstraction that it seems very concrete to most of us. We think there MUST be a way to manipulate the economy!

Sociology seems more abstract, fuzzier. I was surprised when I took my single sociology class in college in 1980- so many wonderful insights about so many specific things! Yet it seemed too huge a field to wrap my head around. It seemed “fuzzy” in the sense that after one class, I could not play with it and produce new “things” like I could with a computer.

Though there are 6.5x as many economists, the article above says economists are mentioned only 3x more. So perhaps each sociologist is considered to be of double the value of an economist. (Joking, that’s certainly consistent with economic principles- the greater the supply, the lower the price, an indicator of perceived value…)

I’m building PeopleCount.org to transform democracy. We have a wonderful, concrete plan, which, to be understood, I present as a simple solution. Of course, it’s just the trim-tab on the rudder, and will be just the start of fixing our ship of state’s steering mechanism to navigate to our desired future. If you are (or know of) a sociologist willing to be an advisor, please contact me, Rand. At PeopleCount.org

In 1978, Anwar Sadat said, “He who cannot change the very fabric of his thought will never be able to change reality.” One of the key ways we change the fabric of our thought is to develop a new understanding. Some of our most profound reality-changing understandings are about ourselves and our society. We’d be well served to put more emphasis on sociology.