Why can't sociologists be more like economists?

Just look at 'Public economics' if you want to see the benefits of engagement (Notice how silly this term is as economics has always been part of the public policy landscape). With the steep economic downturn in the US you have economists left, right and center of the ideological spectrum offering research and context for public consumption at an unprecedented rate. From Fox, with their anti-Keynesian, neo-liberal ideology to MSNBC and their public intellectual guests criticizing the damage of the "invisible hand" and corporate welfare--- It is fantastic, a buffet of diverse opinions competing for legitimacy in the public sphere, while simultaneously making the overall discipline stronger, regardless of the 'uncertainty', 'reliability' and diversity of its knowledge base. They are not sitting around wondering the unintended consequences of their normative biases and promotion of a 'flawed' economic-sociological imagination. Regardless of their motives, their nation is in trouble, the people are hungry for understanding, and many of them are contributing as they see fit regardless of their ideological bent. Rather than look at a public sociology as arrogant, that we have the answers, let us see it through a humble sociological eye. We acknowledge we do not have the solutions, but we offer a number of competing perspectives and trust the public not only separate the wheat from the chaff, but contribute to the dialogue and assist in making sociology relevant to a peer-review that is not threatened by lay expertise or getting it wrong from time to time. Perhaps there is a reason Malcolm Gladwell's three pop.sociology books are best sellers? Underestimating the public and the potential we possess will further insulate us, create inertia and make our most important asset (students) look somewhere else to make sense of it all.
-BK