ABSTRACT
Where Chapter 3 examined in an abstract and general manner praxeological action within society, this chapter explores such action within the specific societal context wherein that action is organized within networks of teams. Ronald Coase (1937) is almost universally regarded as the natural starting point for thinking about team production, as exemplified by Alchian and Demsetz (1972). That starting point is based on the conventional presumption that individuals are independent from society; hence the organization of production into teams involves a trade-off between losses of individual autonomy when activity is organized through teams and gains that team activity offers, as illustrated by lowering transaction costs, spreading risks, and exploiting economies of scale. While I do not dispute the presence of such trade-offs, I would also note that there are other considerations that are surely also present in accounting for patterns of team-based activity. For the most part, these revolve around human nature in some fashion. We aren’t solitary creatures, so team production is attractive independently of possible economies of scale or reductions in transaction costs. Yet we also crave accomplishment and glory, which works against the organization of society as a single team, independently of the abolition of prices that would result from such an organizational format.
