Man Seeks . . .
Henry George: Progress & Poverty: The
Current Doctrine of Wages — Its Insufficiency
But the fundamental truth, that in all economic reasoning must be firmly
grasped, and never let go, is that society in its most highly developed form
is but an elaboration of society in its rudest beginnings, and that principles
obvious in the simpler relations of men are merely disguised and not abrogated
or reversed by the more intricate relations that result from the division
of labor and the use of complex tools and methods. The steam grist mill,
with its complicated machinery exhibiting every diversity of motion, is simply
what the rude stone mortar dug up from an ancient river bed was in
its day — an instrument for grinding corn. And every man engaged in it,
whether tossing wood into the furnace, running the engine, dressing stones, printing
sacks or keeping books, is really devoting his labor to the same purpose that
the prehistoric savage did when be
used his mortar — the preparation of grain for human food.
And so, if we reduce to their lowest terms all the complex operations of
modern production, we see that each individual who takes part in this infinitely
subdivided
and intricate network of production and exchange is really doing what the
primeval man did when he climbed the trees for fruit or followed the receding
tide for
shellfish —endeavoring to obtain from nature by the exertion of
his powers the satisfaction of his desires. If we keep this firmly
in mind, if we look upon production as a whole — as the co-operation
of all embraced in any of its great groups to satisfy the various desires
of each, we plainly see that the reward each obtains for his exertions
comes as
truly and as directly from nature as the result of that exertion, as did
that of the first man.
To illustrate: in the simplest state of which we can conceive, each man digs
his own bait and catches his own fish. The advantages of the division
of labor soon become apparent, and one digs bait while the others fish.
Yet evidently the one who digs bait is in reality doing as much toward the
catching of fish as any of those who actually take the fish. So when the advantages
of canoes are discovered, and instead of all going a-fishing, one stays behind
and makes and repairs canoes, the canoe-maker is in reality devoting his labor
to the taking of fish as much as the actual fishermen, and the fish which he
eats at night when the fishermen come home are as truly the product of his
labor as of theirs. And thus when the division of labor is fairly inaugurated,
and instead of each attempting to satisfy all of his wants by direct resort
to nature, one fishes, another hunts, a third picks berries, a fourth gathers
fruit, a fifth makes tools, a sixth builds huts, and a seventh prepares clothing
-- each one is to the extent he exchanges the direct product of his own labor
for the direct product of the labor of others really applying his own labor
to the production of the things be uses -- is in effect satisfying his particular
desires by the exertion of his particular powers; that is to say, what be receives
be in reality produces. If he digs roots and exchanges them for venison, he
is in effect as truly the procurer of the venison as though be had gone in
chase of the deer and left the huntsman to dig his own roots. The common
expression, "I made so and so," signifying "I earned so and so," or "I earned
money with which I purchased so and so," is, economically speaking, not metaphorically
but literally true. Earning is making.
Now, if we follow these principles, obvious enough in a simpler state of society,
through the complexities of the state we call civilized, we shall see clearly
that in every case in which labor is exchanged for commodities, production
really precedes enjoyment; that wages are the earnings -- that is to say, the
makings of labor -- not the advances of capital, and that the laborer who receives
his wages in money (coined or printed, it may be, before his labor commenced)
really receives in return for the addition his labor has made to the general
stock of wealth, a draft upon that general stock, which he may utilize in any
particular form of wealth that will best satisfy his desires; and that neither
the money, which is but the draft, nor the particular form of wealth which
he uses it to call for, represents advances of capital for his maintenance,
but on the contrary represents the wealth, or a portion of the wealth, his
labor has already added to the general stock.
Keeping these principles in view we see that
- the draughtsman, who, shut up in some dingy office on the banks of the
Thames, is drawing the plans for a great marine engine, is in reality
devoting his labor to the production of bread and meat as truly as though
he were
garnering the grain in California or swinging a lariat on a La Plata
pampa; that he is as truly making his own clothing as though he were shearing
sheep
in Australia or weaving cloth in Paisley, and just as effectually producing
the claret he drinks at dinner as though he gathered the grapes on
the banks of the Garonne.
- The miner who, two thousand feet under ground in the heart of the Comstock,
is digging out silver ore, is, in effect, by virtue of a thousand exchanges,
harvesting crops in valleys five thousand feet nearer the earth's center;
chasing the whale through Arctic icefields; plucking tobacco leaves
in Virginia; picking coffee berries in Honduras; cutting sugar cane on
the Hawaiian Islands;
gathering cotton in Georgia or weaving it in Manchester or Lowell;
making quaint wooden toys for his children in the Hartz Mountains; or plucking
amid
the green and gold of Los Angeles orchards the oranges which, when
his shift is relieved, he will take home to his sick wife.
The wages which he receives on Saturday night at the mouth of the shaft, what
are they but the certificate to all the world that he has done these things
- the primary exchange in the long series which transmutes his labor into the
things he has really been laboring for?
All this is clear when looked at in this way; but to meet this fallacy in
all its strongholds and lurking places we must change our investigation from
the deductive to the inductive form. Let us now see, if, beginning with facts
and tracing their relations, we arrive at the same conclusions as are thus
obvious when, beginning with first principles, we trace their exemplification
in complex facts. read
the entire chapter
Rev. A. C. Auchmuty: Gems from George,
a themed collection of excerpts from the writings of Henry
George (with links to sources)
POLITICAL economy is not a set of dogmas. It is the explanation of a certain
set of facts. It is the science which, in the sequence of certain phenomena,
seeks to trace mutual relations and to identify cause and effect, just as the
physical sciences seek to do in other sets of phenomena. It lays its foundations
upon firm ground. The premises from which it makes its deductions are truths
which have the highest sanction; axioms which we all recognize; upon which
we safely base the reasoning and actions of every-day life, and which may be
reduced to the metaphysical expression of the physical law that motion seeks
the line of least resistance — viz. that men seek to gratify their desires
with the least exertion. Proceeding from a basis thus assured, its processes,
which consist simply in identification, and separation, have the same certainty.
In this sense it is as exact a science as geometry, which, from similar truths
relative to space, obtains its conclusions by similar means, and its conclusions
when valid should be as self-apparent. — Progress & Poverty — Book
I, Chapter 1, Wages and Capital: The Current Doctrine of Wages — Its
Insufficiency
WHETHER it proceed from experience of the irksomeness of labor and the desire
to avoid it, or, further back than that, have its source in some innate principle
of the human constitution, this disposition of men to seek the satisfaction of
their desires with the minimum of exertion is so universal and unfailing, that
it constitutes one of those invariable sequences that we denominate laws of nature,
and from which we may safely reason. It is this law of nature that is the fundamental
law of political economy — the central law from which its deductions and
explanations may with certainty be drawn, and, indeed, by which alone they become
possible. It holds the same place in the sphere of political economy that the
law of gravitation does in physics. Without it there could be no recognition
of order, and all would be chaos. . . . It is no more affected by the selfishness
or unselfishness of our desires than is the law of gravitation. It is simply
a fact. — The Science of Political Economy — unabridged:
Book I, Chapter 12, The Meaning of Political Economy: Fundamental Low of Political
Economy • abridged:
Chapter 10: The Fundamental Law of Political Economy
LET us try to trace the genesis of civilization. Gifted alone with
the power of relating cause and effect, man is among all animals the only producer
in the true sense of the term. . . . But the same quality of reason which makes
him the producer, also, wherever exchange becomes possible, makes him the exchanger.
And it is along this line of exchanging that the body economic is evolved and
develops, and that all the advances of civilization are primarily made. . .
. With the beginning of exchange or trade among men this body economic begins
to form, and in its beginning civilization begins. . . . To find an utterly
uncivilized people, we must find a people among whom there is no exchange or
trade. Such a people does not exist, and, as far as our knowledge goes, never
did. To find a fully civilized people, we must find a people among whom exchange
or trade is absolutely free, and has reached the fullest development to which
human desires can carry it. There is, as yet, unfortunately, no such people. — The
Science of Political Economy — unabridged:
Book I, Chapter 5, The Meaning of Political Economy: The Origin and Genesis
of Civilization • abridged:
Chapter 4, The Origin and Genesis of Civilization
WHEN we, come to analyze production, we find it to fall into three modes, viz::
ADAPTING, or changing natural products either in form or in place so as to fit
them for the satisfaction of human desire.
GROWING, or utilizing the vital forces of nature, as by raising vegetables or
animals.
EXCHANGING, or utilizing, so as to add to the general sum of wealth, the higher
powers of those natural forces which vary with locality, or of those human forces
which vary with situation, occupation, or character. — Progress & Poverty — Book
III, Chapter 3, The Laws of Distribution: of Interest and the Cause of Interest
THESE modes seem to appear and to assume importance, in the development of human
society, much in the order here given. They originate from the increase of the
desires of men with the increase of the means of satisfying them, under pressure
of the fundamental law of political economy, that men seek to satisfy their desires
with the least exertion. In the primitive stage of human life the readiest way
of satisfying desires is by adapting to human use what is found in existence.
In a later and more settled stage it is discovered that certain desires can be
more easily and more fully satisfied by utilizing the principle of growth and
reproduction, as by cultivating vegetables and breeding animals. And in a still
later period of development, it becomes obvious that certain desires can be better
and more easily satisfied by exchange, which brings out the principle of co-operation
more fully and powerfully than could obtain among unexchanging economic units. — The
Science of Political Economy unabridged:
Book III, Chapter 2, The Production of Wealth: The Three Modes of Production • abridged:
Part III, Chapter 2, The Production of Wealth: The Three Modes of Production
MEN of different nations trade with each other for the same reason that men
of the same nation do — because they find it profitable; because they
thus obtain what they want with less labor than they otherwise could. — Protection
, Chapter 6: Trade - econlib -|- abridged
TRADE is not invasion. It does not involve aggression on one side
and resistance on the other, but mutual consent and gratification.
There cannot be a trade unless
the parties to it agree, any more than there can be a quarrel unless the parties
to it differ. England, we say, forced trade with the outside world upon China
and the United States upon Japan. But, in both cases, what was done was not
to force the people to trade, but to force their governments to
let them. If the
people had not wanted to trade, the opening of the ports would have been useless. — Protection
or Free Trade, Chapter 6: Trade - econlib
TRADE does not require force. Free trade consists simply in letting people
buy and sell as they want to buy and sell.It is protection that requires
force,
for it consists in preventing people from doing what they want to do. — Protection
or Free Trade, Chapter 6: Trade - econlib -|- abridged
IF all the material things needed by man could be produced equally
well at all points on the earth's surface, it might seem more convenient
for man the animal,
but how would he have risen above the animal level? As we see in the history
of social development, commerce has been and is the great civilizer and educator.
The seemingly infinite diversities in the capacity of different parts of the
earth's surface lead to that exchange of productions which is the most powerful
agent in preventing isolation, in breaking down prejudice, in increasing knowledge
and widening thought. These diversities of nature, which seemingly increase
with our knowledge of nature's powers, like the diversities in
the aptitudes of individuals
and communities, which similarly increase with social development, call forth
powers and give rise to pleasures which could never arise had man been placed
like an ox in a boundless field of clover. The "international law of God" which
we fight with our tariffs — so shortsighted are the selfish prejudices
of men — is the law which stimulates mental and moral progress; the law
to which civilization is due. — Social
Problems — Chapter 19: The First Great Reform.
... go to "Gems from George"
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