Perhaps one of the most influential books of all time, it is written in a style that can be difficult to read, because it is dense. The information it contains is difficult to accept yet the research that went into uncovering the facts upon which it is based is impeccable. During my coming of age, the subject of Economics was considered dry and boring, but when we realize that there is nothing that affects people more than the economy they live within, the nature of the discipline changes. Mr. George makes the cold, often clinical approach come alive with real world examples of the uninterrupted fallacies that guide and govern the way we think about the world around us. Millions of copies were sold and the book was translated into many languages over a century ago, but the material it covers is essential knowledge and is especially important in our day and age.
I fully admit to being a bit of a nerd. Of all my peers, I was probably the most interested in economics and how our policies and prejudices guide the invisible hand of the markets. I have always said that we have not had free markets, at least as far back as the establishment of what later became the FDA. In a free market, all drugs both poisons and remedies would be freely available. Tainted food would also be freely available and non-food items could be used as adulterants at will by anyone with the wherewithal to create, package and sell them. Some might say that these conditions do exist and that means that the markets are free, however, the rules morph depending on where you are and often who you are in the economic system. If your companies are part of the large donor class in Washington D.C. or you have cozy affiliations with the seat of power within your county or state, different rules apply. That means the market is only as free as your contact list, or who owes you favors.
Back in the day, during the early Reagan years, there was an all out attack on the Economics Departments of major universities. economists knew that Reaganomics were fiction. The wealthy have never parted with a single dollar that they did not think would redouble their income, power and influence. That is the crux of the tome written by Henry George. Anyone who tried to speak truth to power within the established world of Economics was ruthlessly undermined, threatened and deemed a trouble-maker by the Administration, thugs in Congress and the major media went right along with the deception because the majority of media moguls knew that their fortunes would improve if they got on board with Reagan's ignorant rantings about tax cuts and his justification of inhumanity of wealth perpetrating crimes against humanity through the elimination of the middle class and revocation of the social safety nets that our government had established as far back as the Administration of FDR. The perverse logic was that by demonizing the poor, we could allow the wealthy to keep more of their "hard-earned" cash, that confiscatory tax policy had led to a breakdown of our collective "morality" and that those who worked the hardest at the lowest paying jobs were somehow responsible for our unwed mothers, the growing ranks of those who openly admitted that they were gay and the rise in crime that many cities were experiencing. Not one of these beliefs or accusations was ever proven to be true but our nation seemed to want a father figure and who didn't have a judgemental self-righteous and authoritarian father, right?
This book, Progress and Poverty details dozens of factual historic events that cut the legs out of the arguments put forth by Malthus, who has perhaps single-handedly created more obfuscation and ongoing strife than any other "scientist" of the nineteenth century.
His theories have justified the entrenched beliefs that population will always outpace availability of resources and that any technological advance will be unable to provide increased quality of life because our numbers will increase exponentially, outpacing the ability of the environment to support us. Now you might say, "It is true! I have seen this effect with my own eyes." however what we are all seeing is the diametric opposite. Population frequently follows a different curve. Many young people from around the planet are not choosing to have children. Even though technologies are being developed that greatly increase both the ability of our species to do more with less and the quality of life we can experience with less cost to the environment.
Just as Darwin, who read Malthus in 1838, did not understand that he was lucky, not "fit", Malthus did not understand the root causes of his privilege either. Wealth cannot fathom itself. Those on top of the pile can never experience or have empathy for the individuals upon whose suffering their exulted view is made possible. This book, by George, refutes this pedantic theory at its core. We have living proof of the opposite, yet if we talk to our friends and neighbors, how many of them will say such ridiculous things as, "The poor have brought on their own plight by making immoral choices." or that "Welfare whores steal from others by making us pay higher taxes." or "Single mothers should have kept their legs together and I should not be made to pay fort hem to raise children that are a result of their own depravity and lust." I only know that people say these things, feeling justified in doing so because I have heard self righteous, often religiously motivated people say them. Often, these lies are allowed to pass, unquestioned even though many of the most moral people i have ever met were on the poor end of the socio-economic scale. Poverty is no more brought about by poor choices than wealth accrues to those who work hard.
The Malthusian theory was just another way of trying to prop up the Divine Right of Kings, so too Darwin tried to link evolutionary survival with fitness. The wealthy never were part of the same game that the rest of us were, but they set the rules of the game, the definitions of the terms that are "agreed to" in public discussions and proffered unsupported ideas that would contaminate our minds for centuries. When the book, Progress and Poverty was read by millions, it changed the course of economics and politics. We need the information contained in it more now than ever and if you have not gotten a chance to be exposed to this well-researched and timely material, get it, read it and understand that someone over a century ago took many years to research and put it together for others, not for the enrichment of himself. It was not written to start a political dynasty, or to placate a wicked man's conscience, as so many books find their way to market today but to enlighten others about the way the world has worked for millennea.
I fully admit to being a bit of a nerd. Of all my peers, I was probably the most interested in economics and how our policies and prejudices guide the invisible hand of the markets. I have always said that we have not had free markets, at least as far back as the establishment of what later became the FDA. In a free market, all drugs both poisons and remedies would be freely available. Tainted food would also be freely available and non-food items could be used as adulterants at will by anyone with the wherewithal to create, package and sell them. Some might say that these conditions do exist and that means that the markets are free, however, the rules morph depending on where you are and often who you are in the economic system. If your companies are part of the large donor class in Washington D.C. or you have cozy affiliations with the seat of power within your county or state, different rules apply. That means the market is only as free as your contact list, or who owes you favors.
Back in the day, during the early Reagan years, there was an all out attack on the Economics Departments of major universities. economists knew that Reaganomics were fiction. The wealthy have never parted with a single dollar that they did not think would redouble their income, power and influence. That is the crux of the tome written by Henry George. Anyone who tried to speak truth to power within the established world of Economics was ruthlessly undermined, threatened and deemed a trouble-maker by the Administration, thugs in Congress and the major media went right along with the deception because the majority of media moguls knew that their fortunes would improve if they got on board with Reagan's ignorant rantings about tax cuts and his justification of inhumanity of wealth perpetrating crimes against humanity through the elimination of the middle class and revocation of the social safety nets that our government had established as far back as the Administration of FDR. The perverse logic was that by demonizing the poor, we could allow the wealthy to keep more of their "hard-earned" cash, that confiscatory tax policy had led to a breakdown of our collective "morality" and that those who worked the hardest at the lowest paying jobs were somehow responsible for our unwed mothers, the growing ranks of those who openly admitted that they were gay and the rise in crime that many cities were experiencing. Not one of these beliefs or accusations was ever proven to be true but our nation seemed to want a father figure and who didn't have a judgemental self-righteous and authoritarian father, right?
This book, Progress and Poverty details dozens of factual historic events that cut the legs out of the arguments put forth by Malthus, who has perhaps single-handedly created more obfuscation and ongoing strife than any other "scientist" of the nineteenth century.
His theories have justified the entrenched beliefs that population will always outpace availability of resources and that any technological advance will be unable to provide increased quality of life because our numbers will increase exponentially, outpacing the ability of the environment to support us. Now you might say, "It is true! I have seen this effect with my own eyes." however what we are all seeing is the diametric opposite. Population frequently follows a different curve. Many young people from around the planet are not choosing to have children. Even though technologies are being developed that greatly increase both the ability of our species to do more with less and the quality of life we can experience with less cost to the environment.
Just as Darwin, who read Malthus in 1838, did not understand that he was lucky, not "fit", Malthus did not understand the root causes of his privilege either. Wealth cannot fathom itself. Those on top of the pile can never experience or have empathy for the individuals upon whose suffering their exulted view is made possible. This book, by George, refutes this pedantic theory at its core. We have living proof of the opposite, yet if we talk to our friends and neighbors, how many of them will say such ridiculous things as, "The poor have brought on their own plight by making immoral choices." or that "Welfare whores steal from others by making us pay higher taxes." or "Single mothers should have kept their legs together and I should not be made to pay fort hem to raise children that are a result of their own depravity and lust." I only know that people say these things, feeling justified in doing so because I have heard self righteous, often religiously motivated people say them. Often, these lies are allowed to pass, unquestioned even though many of the most moral people i have ever met were on the poor end of the socio-economic scale. Poverty is no more brought about by poor choices than wealth accrues to those who work hard.
The Malthusian theory was just another way of trying to prop up the Divine Right of Kings, so too Darwin tried to link evolutionary survival with fitness. The wealthy never were part of the same game that the rest of us were, but they set the rules of the game, the definitions of the terms that are "agreed to" in public discussions and proffered unsupported ideas that would contaminate our minds for centuries. When the book, Progress and Poverty was read by millions, it changed the course of economics and politics. We need the information contained in it more now than ever and if you have not gotten a chance to be exposed to this well-researched and timely material, get it, read it and understand that someone over a century ago took many years to research and put it together for others, not for the enrichment of himself. It was not written to start a political dynasty, or to placate a wicked man's conscience, as so many books find their way to market today but to enlighten others about the way the world has worked for millennea.
