Georgism and Work Hours

Robert Clancy

[A letter reprinted from Nomos, Spring 1989]

In his letter in your Fall/Winter 1988 issue, Bob Black asks: "What puzzles me ... is why massive, technologically-powered increases haven't reduced the hours of work." He suggests that liberal economists have not given an answer. Neither have conservative, libertarian, or socialist economists.

But over a century ago, the American economist Henry George tackled the question in a larger context: Why, in spite of increase in productive power, does poverty persist? Not merely a puzzling question; he called this the central problem of modern times, the "riddle of the Sphinx." The paradox is summarized in the title of his book Progress and Poverty.

Not belonging to any school of economics, George analyzed the problem independently. He concluded that the monopoly of land was at the bottom of it. Land (in its broadest sense, including natural resources) is the most fundamental requirement of life. Denied equitable access to land due to its ownership by a few, most people must continually seek jobs and struggle to live. All progress goes not to labor in the form of higher rewards, but to the owners of land in the form of ever higher rents and prices.

George's analysis is borned out more and more by developments in modern times. Poverty is on the increase, the gap between rich and poor continues to grow, there are more and more "moonlighters" and working wives, land commands an ever higher price, and people are finding it harder and harder to find a place to live or operate an independent business, with a growing homeless population.

George concluded in favor of a free enterprise economy, free trade, and a minimum of government. But it must be an economy that eliminates the land monopoly by the public collection of rent for the benefit of all -- the Single Tax -- and the elimination of all taxes on labor, industry, enterprise, and trade.