Preface to Progress and Poverty
Henry George
[Preface to the Fourth Edition (pp. vii-xi)]
THE views herein set forth were in the main briefly stated in a
pamphlet entitled "Our Land and Land Policy," published in
San Francisco in 1871. I then intended, as soon as I could, to present
them more fully, but the opportunity did not for a long time occur. In
the mean while I became even more firmly convinced of their truth, and
saw more completely and clearly their relations; and I also saw how
many false ideas and erroneous habits of thought stood in the way of
their recognition, and how necessary it was to go over the whole
ground.
This I have here tried to do, as thoroughly as space would permit. It
has been necessary for me to clear away before I could build up, and
to write at once for those who have made no previous study of such
subjects, and for those who are familiar with economic reasoning; and,
so great is the scope of the argument that it has been impossible to
treat with the fullness they deserve many of the questions raised.
What I have most endeavored to do is to establish general principles,
trusting to my readers to carry further their applications where this
is needed.
In certain respects this book will be best appreciated by those who
have some knowledge of economic literature but no previous reading is
necessary to the understanding of the argument or the passing of
judgment upon its conclusions. The facts upon which I have relied are
not facts which can only be verified by a search through libraries.
They are facts of common observation and common knowledge, which every
reader can verify for himself, just as he can decide whether the
reasoning from them is or is not valid.
Beginning with a brief statement of facts which suggest this inquiry,
I proceed to examine the explanation currently given in the name of
political economy of the reason why, in spite of the increase of
productive power, wages tend to the minimum of a bare living. This
examination shows that the current doctrine of wages is founded upon a
misconception; that, in truth, wages are produced by the labor for
which they are paid, and should, other things being equal, increase
with the number of laborers. Here the inquiry meets a doctrine which
is the foundation and center of most important economic theories, and
which has powerfully influenced thought in all directions-the
Malthusian doctrine, that population tends to increase faster than
subsistence. Examination, however, shows that this doctrine has no
real support either in fact or in analogy, and that when brought to a
decisive test it is utterly disproved.
Thus far the results of the inquiry, though extremely important, are
mainly negative. They show that current theories do not satisfactorily
explain the connection of poverty with material progress, but throw no
light upon the problem itself, beyond showing that its solution must
be sought in the laws which govern the distribution of wealth. It
therefore becomes necessary to carry the inquiry into this field. A
preliminary review shows that the three laws of distribution must
necessarily correlate with each other, which as laid down by the
current political economy they fail to do, and an examination of the
terminology in use reveals the confusion of thought by which this
discrepancy has been slurred over. Proceeding then to work out the
laws of distribution, I first take up the law of rent. This, it is
readily seen, is correctly apprehended by the current political
economy. But it is also seen that the full scope of this law has not
been appreciated, and that it involves as corollaries the laws of
wages and interest-the cause which determines what part of the produce
shall go to the land-owner necessarily determining what part shall be
left for labor-and capital. Without resting here, I proceed to an
independent deduction of the laws of interest and wages. I have
stopped to determine the real cause and justification of interest, and
to point out a source of much misconception-the confounding of what
are really the profits of monopoly with the legitimate earnings of
capital. Then returning to the main inquiry, investigation shows that
interest must rise and fall with wages, and depends ultimately upon
the same thing as rent-the margin of cultivation or point in
production where rent begins. A similar but independent investigation
of the law of wages yields similar harmonious results. Thus the three
laws of distribution are brought into mutual support and harmony, and
the fact that with material progress rent everywhere advances is seen
to explain the fact that wages and interest do not advance.
What causes this advance of rent is the next question that arises,
and it necessitates an examination of the effect of material progress
upon the distribution of wealth. Separating the factors of material
progress into increase of population and improvements in the arts, it
is first seen that increase in population tends constantly, not merely
by reducing the margin of cultivation, but by localizing the economies
and powers which come with increased population, to increase the
proportion of the aggregate produce which is taken in rent, and to
reduce that which goes as wages and interest. Then eliminating
increase of population, it is seen that improvement in the methods and
powers of production tends in the same direction, and, land being held
as private property, would produce in a stationary population all the
effects attributed by the Malthusian doctrine to pressure of
population. And then a consideration of the effects of the continuous
increase in land-values which thus springs from material progress
reveals in the speculative advance inevitably begotten when land is
private property a derivative but most powerful cause of the increase
of rent and the crowding down of wages. Deduction shows that this
cause must necessarily produce periodical industrial depression, and
induction proves the conclusion; while from the analysis which has
thus been made it is seen that the necessary result of material
progress, land being private property, is, no matter what the increase
in population, to force laborers to wages which give but a bare
living.
This identification of the cause that associates poverty with
progress points to the remedy, but it is to so radical a remedy that I
have next deemed it necessary to inquire whether there is any other
remedy. Beginning the investigation again from another starting point,
I have passed in examination the measures and tendencies currently
advocated or trusted in for the improvement of the condition of the
laboring masses. The result of this investigation is to prove the
preceding one, as it shows that nothing short of making land common
property can permanently relieve poverty and check the tendency of
wages to the starvation-point.
The question of justice now naturally arises, and the inquiry passes
into the field of ethics. An investigation of the nature and basis of
property shows that there is a fundamental and irreconcilable
difference between property in things which are the product of labor
and property in land; that the one has a natural basis and sanction
while the other has none, and that the recognition of exclusive
property in land is necessarily a denial of the right of property in
the products of labor. Further investigation shows that private
property in land always has, and always must, as development proceeds,
lead to the enslavement of the laboring class; thus land-owners can
make no just claim to compensation if society choose to resume its
right; that so far from private property in land being in accordance
with the natural perceptions of men, the very reverse is true, and
that in the United States we are already beginning to feel the effects
of having admitted this erroneous and destructive principle.
The inquiry then passes to the field of practical statesmanship. It
is seen that private property in land, instead of being necessary to
its improvement and use, stands in the way of improvement and use, and
entails an enormous waste of productive forces; that the recognition
of the common right to land involves no shock or dispossession, but is
to be reached by the simple and easy method of abolishing all taxation
save that upon land-values. And this an inquiry into the principles of
taxation shows to be, in all respects, the best subject of taxation.
A consideration of the effects of the change proposed then shows that
it would enormously increase production; would secure justice in
distribution; would benefit all classes; and would make possible an
advance to a higher and nobler civilization.
The inquiry now rises to a wider field, and recommences from another
starting-point. For not only do the hopes which have been raised come
into collision with the widespread idea that social progress is only
possible by slow race improvement, but the conclusions we have arrived
at assert certain laws which, if they are really natural laws, must be
manifest in universal history. As a final test, it therefore becomes
necessary to work out the law of human progress, for certain great
facts which force themselves on our attention as soon as we begin to
consider this subject, seem utterly inconsistent with what is now the
current theory. This inquiry shows that differences in civilization
are not due to differences in individuals, but rather to differences
in social organization; that progress, always kindled by association,
always passes into retrogression as inequality is developed; and that
even now, in modern civilization, the causes which have destroyed all
previous civilizations are beginning to manifest themselves, and that
mere political democracy is running its course toward anarchy and
despotism. But it also identifies the law of social life with the
great moral law of justice, and, proving previous conclusions, shows
how retrogression may be prevented and a grander advance begun. This
ends the inquiry. The final chapter will explain itself.
The great importance of this inquiry will be obvious. If it has been
carefully and logically pursued, its conclusions completely change the
character of political economy, give it the coherence and certitude of
a true science, and bring it into full sympathy with the aspirations
of the masses of men, from which it has long been estranged. What I
have done in this book, if I have correctly solved the great problem I
have sought to investigate, is, to unite the truth perceived by the
school of Smith and Ricardo to the truth perceived by the school of
Proudhon and Lasalle; to show that laissez faire (in its full true
meaning) opens the way to a realization of the noble dreams of
socialism; to identify social law with moral law, and to disprove
ideas which in the minds of many cloud grand and elevating
perceptions.
This work was written between August, 1877, and March, 1879, and the
plates finished by September of that year. Since that time new
illustrations have been given of the correctness of the views herein
advanced, and the march of events-and especially that great movement
which has begun in Great Britain in the Irish land agitation-shows
still more clearly the pressing nature of the problem I have
endeavored to solve. But there has been nothing in the criticisms they
have received to induce the change or modification of these views-in
fact, I have yet to see an objection not answered in advance in the
book itself. And except that some verbal errors have been corrected
and a preface added, this edition is the same as previous ones.
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