Henry George and the Classical Scientific Research Program: George's Modification of It and His Real Significance for Future Generations

Abstract . Henry George's revision of classical economics was based on a new “hard core” assumption linking efficiency, equity, and social welfare to a revised concept of property rights in land. However, rather than create new core supporting “protective belt” theories, George either accepted or, when necessary, modified existing classical theories especially those which threatened his new hard core, for example, classical “wages-fund” theory. Consequently, George's adaptation of the Ricardian “stationary state” model was less accurate than mainstream classical economics in its predictions concerning the behavior of the distributive shares of income over time, and the effects of technological change on economic growth and economic welfare. Without its own protective belt, George's classicism became a special case of classical economics whose value, nevertheless, existed in its effective criticism of classical property rights theory.     

Henry George and Europe

Abstract . Henry George's land reform ideas became known in Germany not through his writing or speaking but through the efforts of Michael Flürscheim, an industrialist and pioneer social reformer, who first presented those ideas to the public. The American's idea that the land value tax was the only legitimate source of government revenue as the only economic surplus had found no acceptance among German socialist leaders. It was a capitalist, Flürscheim, who was inspired by George's theories and wrote and spoke about them. Flürscheim brought about the foundation of the first German land reform organization. Though it failed, a successor became the largest such association in the world.     

Henry George's Theory of State's Agenda: The Origins of His Ideas on Economic Policy in Adam Smith's Moral Theory

Abstract . The tension between Henry George's reformism and his laissezfaire liberalism was resolved through a system of natural liberty George derived from the relation between Adam Smith's ethics and economics. Crucial for George's nonutilitarian philosophy of government was the interdependence between the moral sense (sympathy) and the prevailing socioeconomic order. In the appropriate institutional environment, the role of the government was diminished since the pervasive moral sense insured justice by monitoring the individual's pursuit of economic self-interest. In contrast, a defective socio economic order required government intervention. For example, land monopoly and the maldistribution of income undermined the role of sympathy, promoted excessive self interest and the breakdown of the system of natural liberty. Government action through the single tax eliminated the “fear of want,” restored an operative moral sense and guaranteed justice in society. Under these conditions, government can provide additional services for a growing society without being susceptible to “corrupt and tyrannous” behavior.     

The Meaning,Prospects, and Future of the Commons: Revisiting the Legacies of Elinor Ostrom and Henry George

Elinor Ostrom's work on the commons has convinced mainstream economists that “collective” governance of the commons can overcome the “tragedy of the commons” and “free‐rider problems.” Yet, a more systematic appraisal of Ostrom's work shows that it contains no concept of justice. Her idea of rights is extremely limited, often tied to the notion of joint, rather than equal, rights. Indeed, for Ostrom, the notion of the commons is socially separatist and not ecological. Ostrom uses historical examples, but without analyzing how common possession historically evolved and was undermined by external forces. Hence her proposed “collective action” to save the commons actually accelerates the real threats to the commons. A strikingly different and more holistic approach to the commons is offered by Henry George, who posits the commons as the most important path to social, economic, and ecological sustainability. Unlike Ostrom, who studied the commons “scientifically” to show that some goods are neither private, public, nor club‐based, George studied the commons to understand and remove injustice at the roots. His approach is more critical and certainly more relevant today in showing that another world is possible. However, George's work too, requires significant changes to update its framing of the meanings, prospects, and future of the commons.     

Public Choice and Land Tax Fairness

Land value taxation (LVT) as desirable U.S. tax policy was brilliantly set forth by the American publicist and economist, Henry George, in the book Progress and Poverty, published 100 years ago. Economists concerned with state and local taxation have generally accepted the basic elements of George's analysis. The absence of substantial LVT legislation despite the economic efficiency and ethical strengths of land as a tax base arises from two sources. First, the public perception of land has not separated land's attributes from those possessed by other property. Second, land ownership data have not been gathered and publicized. Groups favoring taxes that promote economic justice and efficiency should support efforts to develop land ownership data. It would be an important first step toward fully utilizing the potential of LVT.     

Henry George and Europe: As Dissident Economist and Path-breaking Philosopher, He was a Catalyst for British Social Reform

Abstract . Henry George's influence was greater in the United Kingdom than in the United States. The 80s and 90s there were particularly favorable for the reception of his revolutionary ideas. Though, thanks to such thinkers as Alfred Russell Wallace and James and John Stuart Mill, a land reform movement already existed, its sudden rise to national significance was due to George. George's writing and speaking skills and his dedication moved many serious citizens into the political Left and heavily influenced men and women who became leaders of British non-Marxian socialism, at the formation and consolidation of their movement. While George's followers broke with both the Wallace and socialist movements, George's rhetorical talents awakened the broad circles of thinking people to a consciousness of the full range of the social question.     

Ricardo,Gold, and Rails: Discovering the Origins of Progress and Poverty

Henry George's Progress and Poverty was one of the most widely read books of the 19^th century. It is important to acknowledge the influence of classical writers such as Smith and Ricardo on George's thought. However, the content of George's most popular work cannot be fully appreciated unless one takes account of the historical period and social context within which its author came to maturity: Philadelphia and California before 1879 are part of the story of Progress and Poverty ( 1979 ).     

Karol Wojtyła’s Katolicka Etyka Społeczna as Precursor and Hermeneutic Key to Pope John Paul II’s Economic Teaching

The highly anticipated publication of Karol Wojtyła’s Katolicka etyka społeczna (KES) in 2018 provides a novel and important basis for understanding the economic thinking of Pope John Paul II. The text is comprised of Wojtyła’s extensive lecture notes from the 1950s on the topic of Catholic social teaching and spans almost 500 pages. KES illustrates the future pope’s deep concern for economic justice as a young priest and his ambivalence towards capitalism, which persisted throughout his papacy. Given the size of KES, this article selectively focuses on Wojtyła’s treatment of topics of continuing relevance: the right of the Church to pronounce on economic matters; private property and the “social mortgage” on it; inequality, the just distribution of resources, and the “option for the poor”; the moral assessment of capitalism and Marxism; the dignity of labor and workers’ rights; and the role of conflict in promoting the common good. I contend that KES is consonant with the later papal teaching of John Paul II on economic justice and that it provides a hermeneutic key to understanding it. Furthermore, I argue that the “radicalism” of Karol Wojtyła on matters of economic justice in KES coheres with papal social teaching from Pope Paul VI through that of Pope Francis.     

Natural Rights: Henry George and the Economic Fruits of a Good Society

This article examines Henry George's understanding of how natural rights grow out of a just society. His views were influenced by the 17^th‐century proponents of natural rights, but cannot be subsumed under them. The connection of freedom to obligation affirmed by George's classical Protestantism allowed him to overcome tension between theories of natural law and natural rights. Rights and responsibilities were not abstractions for George. His practical solution for restructuring society offers a modern path to a more just society in which rights would abound.     

Henry George's Thought in Relation to Modern Economics

Abstract . Henry George's influence on economic thought has been neglected although his readers included Clark, Marshall, Hobson, Commons, Lerner and Böhm-Bawerk and his ideas provoked thought and discussion, Clark made clear that George stimulated him to develop his marginal productivity theory. But the 19th century American theorist affected or touched upon the neoclassical concept of capital, the theory of externality, the neoclassical versus the classical concept of monopoly; the entitlements approach to distributive justice; the burden of debt and other transfer incomes and capital formation and the theory of expectations. George's influence is wider than generally recognized. The last of the classical economists, he wrote in high Victorian prose about some very modern problems.     

China's Approach to Social Market Economics: The Chinese variant of Market Socialism Seeks to Escape from the Difficulties of Central Command Planning

Abstract . The paradigm of a social market economy provides a rational basis for resolving structural socioeconomic changes, as presently evidenced in the People's Republic of China. China's approach to socioeconomic change, labeled as “Socialism with Chinese Characteristics,” resembles a modified version of Eucken's paradigm of a social market economy.¹ The Chinese paradigm, leaning on that of Walter Eucken, provides for a “limited”free market, which not only accommodates economic growth and change, but which also makes allowance for some degree of human, especially economic freedom, and dignity. Eucken's model is based on a sound institutional and legal framework which he considered to be essential for a viable modern market economy. China's new socioeconomic program is moving the country in this direction. It takes into account people's desire for a useful and Just socioeconomic order (however defined), characterized by stable socioeconomic and political policies and by a flexible price mechanism, to enable them to live a life in dignity, free of economic deprivation.     

Henry George and the Ethics of Economics

Abstract . Henry George's Progress and Poverty (1879) is a great ethical masterpiece. Its moral tone distinguishes the book. More than an economics test, it is a philosophic quest for justice, an impassioned declaration of the rule of natural law. Indignantly attacking the contention that economics has no place for natural law or ethics, George exclaims: “She [economics] has been degraded and shackled; her truths dislocated; her harmonies ignored.” On the contrary, George stresses, political economy (economics) is a science, and like all sciences, is governed by natural law. Furthermore, it is basically “moral.” Science must, of necessity, always lead to ethics. Natural law must, of necessity, always lead to morality, or justice.“The law of human progress, what is it but the moral law?” George asks. “Unless its foundation be laid in justice the social structure cannot stand.” The social ill that perpetuates poverty and the manifold evils it causes is private ownership of land and the private privilege of collecting its rent. “The fundamental law of nature, that the enjoyment by man shall be consequent upon his exertion, is thus violated.”     

Why Everyone Should Read George's 'Progress and Poverty': On the Classic's Centenary, the Specialists Find This 19th Century Best Seller Still Very Timely

Abstract . When one urges that everyone read a classic, Progress and Poverty, now on the centenary of its publication, it is not only because in a democracy the voting citizen decides basic questions of economic policy, but because it appeals to the moral sense of economics students as well as other social scientists. Is it not important that legislation affecting living standards and culture be just, as well as scientifically sound? And that economists, along with other social scientists, master communication technique as Henry George did, so that they can share the fruits of their investigations? Part of the ability to get something done about what is perceived as a problem must rest on the ability to communicate, As Joseph Schumpeter showed, George's proposal that the economic rent of land be collected in lieu of taxes that burden labor and capital was economically sound and his criticism of a tax system that penalizes industry and thrift and rewards speculation is now “obvious wisdom,”     

Henry George and His Philosophy: He Sought Equality of Opportunity to Use the Earth's Resources as Well as the End of Land Monopoly

Abstract . The George scholars today appear to be interesting the academic community in re-evaluating Henry George and his ideas. George, the 19th century American economist and social philosopher, dedicated himself to ending poverty by giving everyone equal access to the earth and its resources. He believed that land monopoly could be ended by taking the economic rent of all land and natural resources to meet the costs of government in lieu of taxes on labor and capital. George's writings revived interest in the ethos of the early settlers a time when sight was being lost of Pioneer America's contribution to the world's march toward freedom.     

Henry George and Immigration

Henry George's opposition to free immigration may be surprising in light of his positions on other aspects of economic theory and policy. This essay reviews George's statements on immigration policy, discusses inconsistencies of these statements with his positions on free trade and Malthusian population theory, compares George's views with the neoclassical economic perspective on immigration, and suggests that implementation of George's policy of taxing land values would share the gains from immigration in a manner that might reduce opposition to open borders.     

Jefferson's Unheavenly City: A Bicentennial Look*

Abstract . The opportunity provided by the American Bicentennial for a re-examination of our political values is also an opportunity for a closer look at the political philosophy of Thomas Jefferson. Although Jefferson has been placed, with John Locke, in a “heavenly city of the eighteenth century philosophers” who sought new defenses on behalf of medieval spiritualism and divine law, the present essay contends that Jefferson's epistemological commitments differed from Locke's, and that Jefferson's political theory was far more “modern” than Locke's with respect to the key notions of rights, property, and consent. Some of Jefferson's political conclusions differed from those of Locke either in degree, such as in the details of representation, or in kind, such as in regard to the ownership of property.     

Henry George and British Labor Politics

Abstract . Henry George, the American social reformer and Single Taxadvocate, made six visits to Britain in the last quarter of the 19th century, a period crucial in British labor politics. George became locked in contest for the minds and hearts of British working men and women, as well as all classes, with the advocates of Christian and moderate socialism and with Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, the chief advocates of State socialism through political revolution. Though it was Marx's adopted country, George won out for a time, and it was his program for competitive capitalism, with socialization limited to industries unsuited for market discipline, which influenced development of a mixed economy. New research complementing E. P. Lawrence's traces George's decisive impact on the founders of the British labor parties, some leaders of which almost achieved George's fiscal program. But it was the Liberals who later fought for his full program.     

Henry George's Impact at Home and Abroad: He Won the Workers of Marx's Adopted Country But Through Leninism Marxism Has Won Half the World

Abstract . Henry George, the American economist and social philosopher, considered it an anomoly that, under modern industrial conditions, progress and poverty should march together. He recognized that the juxtaposition of wealth and want was a worldwide phenomenon and traced its cause to monopoly, particularly the monopoly of land and natural resources. Realizing that current taxes on consumption and production were disincentives to capital and labor, he proposed that governments tax the only true surplus, economic rent, through land value taxation. This would enable the people to reassert their common title to the land—the earth. His message was accorded a more favorable reception abroad than at home. Karl Marx wrote Das Kapital in England but it was George, not Marx, who appealed to the British workers. Yet it was Marxism that swept half the world into State socialism, conquering by political power and bayonet-Leninism while George's followers pursued the democratic approach of public education.     

Henry George and the Institution of Private Property in Land: A Property Rights Approach

Abstract . Conflicting statements concerning whether the implementation of Henry George's single tax proposal would destroy the institution of private property in land have appeared in the literatures of economics and other disciplines. A number of writers have implied that the taxation of Ricardian rent is equivalent to land nationalization. In the main, followers of George have denied that the single tax would abolish private property in land. Their claim is based on the fact that land titles would remain in private hands under the single tax. Since the whole question of private property is beset with ideological difficulties, a property rights approach is applied to this issue in an attempt to resolve the controversy. The conclusions are that the actual implementation of George's system would not destroy private property in land and that it is incorrect to equate the single tax with land nationalization.     

Poverty and Mass Unemployment in Mineralrich Botswana

Abstract . The economic plight of Botswana's poor has worsened as a direct consequence of the mining sector's success. Their condition results from the process by which economic expansion and modernization has taken place. It has created an economic elite composed of a government bureaucracy and an emerging military “salariat,” and a small group of corporation officials and managers. The elite have joined white farming families as the country's largerscale land and cattle owners, purchasing land and cattle from savings out of relatively high salaries in the mining and public sectors. They have drilled boreholes for water and mechanized their farms and ranches. In effect, the elite have enjoyed access to the revenue from mining; their wealth is a product of that sector's growth, and the consequence is the emergence of a dual Botswana. One is rich, the other is poor, and the emerging clash between rich and poor could destabilize and threaten an African success story.