Progress and Poverty · Theme
Wages and Labor
How Progress and Poverty develops Wages and Labor.
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.
Where it surfaces
- 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.
- III: Of Interest and the Cause of Interest
The chapter discusses the relationship between interest and wages, arguing that high wages and high interest often coexist, contrary to some economic doctrines.
- V: The Law of Interest
Argues that capital is a form of labor and that wages and interest are interdependent.
- VI: Wages and the Law of Wages
The chapter establishes the law of wages as dependent on the margin of production, explaining how wages are determined by the productivity of labor on the least productive land in use.
- VII: The Correlation and Coordination of These Laws
Wages are shown to depend on the margin of cultivation, not on the ratio of laborers to capital.
- Insufficiency of Remedies Currently Advocated
The chapter examines how strikes and trade unions fail to raise wages, and argues that wages are determined by rent, not by labor organization.
- From the Diffusion of Education and Improved Habits of Industry and Thrift
Argues that wages are determined by what remains after rent, not by individual industry or skill, and that general improvements in labor do not raise wages.
- III: From Combinations of Workmen
The chapter focuses on the dynamics of wage determination through labor combinations, strikes, and the inherent difficulties in raising wages.
- From Cooperation
The chapter examines how cooperation in production substitutes proportionate wages for fixed wages, but does not alter the fundamental distribution of wealth.
- II: The Enslavement of Laborers the Ultimate Result of Private Property in Land
The chapter shows how competition for land drives wages down to subsistence levels, making free laborers worse off than chattel slaves in some respects.
- Of the Effect Upon the Production of Wealth
The chapter predicts that freeing natural opportunities via the land tax would cause wages to rise to the fair earnings of labor, as employers compete for workers.
- II: Of the Effect Upon Distribution and Thence Upon Production
The chapter examines how the reform would raise wages and interest, and how higher wages increase labor efficiency and productivity.
- Endnotes
Endnotes discuss the wage fund doctrine, the source of wages, and the relationship between labor and capital.
