Progress and Poverty · Question
How does Progress and Poverty develop the theme of Wages and Labor?
Answer
Progress and Poverty by Henry George develops Wages and Labor across the chapters the companion marks for this theme.
Challenges the classical theory that wages are drawn from capital, asserting instead that wages are produced by labor, and that competition for land forces wages to a subsistence minimum.
The chapter directly addresses the nature of wages, arguing they are produced by labor rather than drawn from capital, challenging classical views.
The chapter directly challenges the classical theory that wages are determined by the ratio of labor to capital, arguing instead that wages come from the product of labor.
Wealth is defined as labor impressed upon matter, and capital as wealth aiding production, linking labor to the creation of tangible wealth.
Evidence in the book
- Book I: Wages and Capital
The chapter directly addresses the nature of wages, arguing they are produced by labor rather than drawn from capital, challenging classical views.
- I: The Current Doctrine of Wages—Its Insufficiency
The chapter directly challenges the classical theory that wages are determined by the ratio of labor to capital, arguing instead that wages come from the product of labor.
- II: The Meaning of the Terms
Wealth is defined as labor impressed upon matter, and capital as wealth aiding production, linking labor to the creation of tangible wealth.
- III: Wages Not Drawn from Capital, but Produced by the Labor
The chapter directly addresses the nature of wages, arguing they are produced by labor rather than drawn from capital.
- The Maintenance of Laborers Not Drawn from Capital
George argues that wages are not drawn from capital but are the product of labor exchanged for other labor, challenging the wage fund doctrine.
- V: The Real Functions of Capital
The chapter argues that wages are not drawn from capital but from the produce of labor, challenging the wage fund doctrine.
- IV: Disproof of the Malthusian Theory
George argues that wages are determined by the efficiency of labor, not by population pressure, and that increased population can increase productive power.
- I: The Inquiry Narrowed to the Laws of Distribution—The Necessary Relation of These Laws
Critiques the existing wage theory and argues that wages are not determined by capital but by the produce of labor.
