Progress and Poverty - The Complete Works of Henry George

Henry George

Description

"Progress and Poverty is not so much a book as an event. The life and thought of no one capable of understanding it can be quite the same after reading it."

- Emma Lazarus

In this landmark text, Henry George lays out his study of questions of why poverty partners with economic and technological progress. His theory of single land tax proposed in this book was so influential it spurred progressive economic reform.

Henry George was an American political economist and journalist. His 1879 work Progress and Poverty explored the paradox of increasing poverty and inequality amongst economic progress. He looked into the causes of industrial depressions and focused his efforts on anti-monopoly reforms to remedy economic and social problems by introducing his solution: a single land tax.

Volumes within this book include:

Wages and Capital

Population and Subsistence

The Laws of Distribution

Effect of Material Progress Upon the Distribution of Wealth

The Problem Solved

The Remedy

Justice of the Remedy

Application of the Remedy

Effects of the Remedy

The Law of Human Progress

Highly influential in its time and admired by many intellectual contemporaries, Progress and Poverty was a founding text in Georgist ideology. Republished by Read & Co. Books, it is an essential read for those looking to learn more about the critical economic theories and social reforms throughout history.

Sujets

• Progressive Era

Informations

• Publié par: Read Books Ltd.
• Date de parution: 05 avril 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781528797467
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

PROGRESS A ND POVERTY
An Inquiry into the Cause of Industrial Depressions and of Increase of Want with Increase of Wealth: The Remedy
THE COMPLETE WORKS OF HENRY GEORGE
By
HENRY GEORGE

First published in 1879





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This edition is published by Read & Co. Books, an imprint of Read & Co.
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To those who, Seeing the Vice and Misery that Spring from the Unequal Distribution of Wealth and Privilege, feel the Possibility of a Higher Social State and Would Strive for its Attainment
San Francisco, Ma rch , 1879.


Contents
HE NRY GEORGE
By Thomas Gaskel l Shearman
PREFACE TO FOUR TH EDITION
INTRODUCTORY
THE PROBLEM
IN TRODUCTORY
T HE PROBLEM
BOOK I
WAGES AND CAPITAL
CHAPTER I
THE CURRENT DOCTRINE OF WAGES—ITS INS UFFICIENCY
CHAPTER II
THE MEANING OF THE TERMS
C HAPTER III
WAGES NOT DRAWN FROM CAPITAL, BUT PRODUCED BY THE LABOR
CHAPTER IV
THE MAINTENANCE OF LABORERS NOT DRAWN FR OM CAPITAL
CHAPTER V
THE REAL FUNCTIONS OF CAPITAL
BOOK II
POPULATION AND SUBSISTENCE
CHAPTER I
THE MALTHUSIAN THEORY, ITS GENESIS A ND SUPPORT
CHAPTER II
INFERENCES FROM FACTS
C HAPTER III
INFERENCES FR OM ANALOGY
CHAPTER IV
DISPROOF OF THE MALTHUS IAN THEORY
BOOK III
THE LAWS OF DISTRIBUTION
CHAPTER I
THE INQUIRY NARROWED TO THE LAWS OF DISTRIBUTION—THE NECESSARY RELATION OF THESE LAWS
CHAPTER II
RENT AND THE L AW OF RENT
C HAPTER III
OF INTEREST AND THE CAUSE O F INTEREST
CHAPTER IV
OF SPURIOUS CAPITAL AND OF PROFITS OFTEN MISTAKEN FO R INTEREST
CHAPTER V
THE LAW O F INTEREST
CHAPTER VI
WAGES AND THE LA W OF WAGES
C HAPTER VII
THE CORRELATION AND CO-ORDINATION OF THESE LAWS
CH APTER VIII
THE STATICS OF THE PROBLEM THUS EXPLAINED
BOOK IV
EFFECT OF MATERIAL PROGRESS UPON THE DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH
CHAPTER I
THE DYNAMICS OF THE PROBLEM Y ET TO SEEK
CHAPTER II
THE EFFECT OF INCREASE OF POPULATION UPON THE DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH
C HAPTER III
THE EFFECT OF IMPROVEMENTS IN THE ARTS UPON THE DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH
CHAPTER IV
EFFECT OF THE EXPECTATION RAISED BY MATERIA L PROGRESS
BOOK V
THE PROBLEM SOLVED
CHAPTER I
THE PRIMARY CAUSE OF RECURRING PAROXYSMS OF INDUSTRIAL DEPRESSION
CHAPTER II
THE PERSISTENCE OF POVERTY AMID ADVANC ING WEALTH
BOOK VI
THE REMEDY
CHAPTER I
INSUFFICIENCY OF REMEDIES CURRENTLY ADVOCATED
CHAPTER II
THE T RUE REMEDY
BOOK VII
JUSTICE OF THE REMEDY
CHAPTER I
THE INJUSTICE OF PRIVATE PROPER TY IN LAND
CHAPTER II
THE ENSLAVEMENT OF LABORERS THE ULTIMATE RESULT OF PRIVATE PROPER TY IN LAND
C HAPTER III
CLAIM OF LAND OWNERS TO CO MPENSATION
CHAPTER IV
PRIVATE PROPERTY IN LAND HISTORICALLY CONSIDERED
CHAPTER V
OF PROPERTY IN LAND IN THE UNI TED STATES
BOOK VIII
APPLICATION OF THE REMEDY
CHAPTER I
PRIVATE PROPERTY IN LAND INCONSISTENT WITH THE BEST U SE OF LAND
CHAPTER II
HOW EQUAL RIGHTS TO THE LAND MAY BE ASSERTED A ND SECURED
C HAPTER III
THE PROPOSITION TRIED BY THE CANONS O F TAXATION
CHAPTER IV
INDORSEMENTS AND OBJECTIONS
BOOK IX
EFFECTS OF THE REMEDY
CHAPTER I
OF THE EFFECT UPON THE PRODUCTION OF WEALTH
CHAPTER II
OF THE EFFECT UPON DISTRIBUTION AND THENCE UPON PRODUCTION
C HAPTER III
OF THE EFFECT UPON INDIVIDUALS A ND CLASSES
CHAPTER IV
OF THE CHANGES THAT WOULD BE WROUGHT IN SOCIAL ORGANIZATION AND S OCIAL LIFE
BOOK X
THE LAW OF HUMAN PROGRESS
CHAPTER I
THE CURRENT THEORY OF HUMAN PROGRESS—ITS INS UFFICIENCY
CHAPTER II
DIFFERENCES IN CIVILIZATION—T O WHAT DUE
C HAPTER III
THE LAW OF HUMA N PROGRESS
CHAPTER IV
HOW MODERN CIVILIZATION M AY DECLINE
CHAPTER V
THE CEN TRAL TRUTH
CONCLUSION
THE PROBLEM OF INDIVIDUAL LIFE
CONCLUSION
THE PROBLEM OF INDIV IDUAL LIFE
FOOTNOTES:


HE NRY GEORGE
By Thomas Gaskel l Shearman
An American author and political economist, born in Philadelphia, Penn., on the 2nd of September 1839. He settled in California in 1858; removed to New York, 1880; was first a printer, then an editor, but finally devoted all his life to economic and social q uestions.
In 1871 he published Our Land Policy , which, as further developed in 1879 under the title of Progress and Poverty , speedily attracted the widest attention both in America and in Europe. In 1886 he published Protection or Fr ee Trade .
Henry George had no political ambition, but in 1886 he received an independent nomination as mayor of New York City, and became so popular that it required a coalition of the two strongest political parties to prevent his election. He received 68,000 votes, against 90,000 for the coalition candidate. His death on the 29th of October 1897 was followed by one of the greatest demonstrations of popular feeling and general respect that ever attended the funeral of any strictly private citizen in American history.
The fundamental doctrine of Henry George, the equal right of all men to the use of the earth, did not originate with him; but his clear statement of a method by which it could be enforced, without increasing state machinery, and indeed with a great simplification of government, gave it a new form. This method he named the Single Tax . His doctrine may be condensed as follows: The land of every country belongs of right to all the people of that country. This right cannot be alienated by one generation, so as to affect the title of the next, any more than men can sell their yet unborn children for slaves. Private ownership of land has no more foundation in morality or reason than private ownership of air or sunlight. But the private occupancy and use of land are right and indispensable. Any attempt to divide land into equal shares is impossible and undesirable. Land should be, and practically is now, divided for private use in parcels among those who will pay the highest price for the use of each parcel. This price is now paid to some persons annually, and it is called rent . By applying the rent of land, exclusive of all improvements, to the equal benefit of the whole community, absolute justice would be done to all. As rent is always more than sufficient to defray all necessary expenses of government, those expenses should be met by a tax upon rent alone, to be brought about by the gradual abolition of all other taxes. Landlords should be left in undisturbed possession and nominal ownership of the land, with a sufficient margin over the tax to induce them to collect their rents and pay the tax. They would thus be transformed into mere land agents. Obviously this would involve absolute free trade, since all taxes on imports, manufactures, successions, documents, personal property, buildings or improvements would disappear. Nothing made by man would be taxed at all. The right of private property in all things made by man would thus be absolute, for the owner of such things could not be divested of his property, without full compensation, even under the pretence of taxation.
The idea of concentrating all taxes upon ground-rent has found followers in Great Britain, North America, Australia and New Zealand. In practical politics this doctrine is confined to the “Single Tax, Limited,” which proposes to defray only the needful public expenses from ground-rent, leaving the surplus, whatever it may be, in the undisturbed possession of la nd-owners.
A Biogr aphy from 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, Volume 11


There must be refuge! Men
Perished in winter winds till one smote fire
From flint stones coldly hiding what they held,
The red spark treasured from the kindling sun;
They gorged on flesh like wolves, till one sowed corn,
Which grew a weed, yet makes the life of man;
They mowed and babbled till some tongue struck speech,
And patient fingers framed the lettered sound.
What good gift have my brothers, but it came
From search and strife and loving sacrifice?
—Ed win Arnold
Never yet
Share of Truth was vainly set
In the world’s wide fallow;
After hands shall sow the seed,
After hands, from hill and mead,
Reap the harvests yellow.
—Whittier


PREFACE TO FOUR TH EDITION
The views herein set forth were in the main briefly stated in a pamphlet entitled “Our Land and Land Policy,” published in San Francisco in 1871. I then intended, as soon as I could, to present them more fully, but the opportunity did not for a long time occur. In the meanwhile I became even more firmly convinced of their truth, and saw more completely and clearly their relations; and I also saw how many false ideas and erroneous habits of thought stood in the way of their recognition, and how necessary it was to go over the who le ground.
This I have here tried to do, as thoroughly as space would permit. It has been necessary for me to clear away before I could build up, and to write at once for those who have made no previous study of such subjects, and for those who are familiar with economic reasonings; and, so great is the scope of the argument that it has been impossible to treat with the fullness they deserve many of the questions raised. What I have most endeavored to do is to es