Political economy is a branch of political science and economics studying economic systems (e.g. markets and national economies ) and their governance by political systems (e.g. law, institutions, and government). Widely studied phenomena within the discipline are systems such as labour markets and financial markets , as well as phenomena such as growth , distribution , inequality , and trade , and how these are shaped by institutions, laws, and government policy. Originating in the 18th century, it is the precursor to the modern discipline of economics. Political economy in its modern form is considered an interdisciplinary field, drawing on theory from both political science and modern economics .
74-564: Henry George (September 2, 1839 – October 29, 1897) was an American political economist and journalist. His writing was immensely popular in 19th-century America and sparked several reform movements of the Progressive Era . He inspired the economic philosophy known as Georgism , the belief that people should own the value they produce themselves, but that the economic value of land (including natural resources ) should belong equally to all members of society. George famously argued that
148-610: A Knights of Labor local in Burlington, Iowa titled "The Crime of Poverty", and later in an interview with former U.S. House Representative David Dudley Field II from New York's 7th congressional district published in the July 1885 edition of the North American Review : As an English friend of mine puts it: No taxes and a pension for everybody; and why should it not be? To take land values for public purposes
222-531: A debt jubilee could remove the accumulation of burdensome obligations without reducing aggregate wealth. Political economist Political economy originated within 16th century western moral philosophy , with theoretical works exploring the administration of states' wealth; political signifying the Greek word polity and economy signifying the Greek word οἰκονομία ; household management. The earliest works of political economy are usually attributed to
296-453: A single tax on land values would create a more productive and just society. His most famous work, Progress and Poverty (1879), sold millions of copies worldwide. The treatise investigates the paradox of increasing inequality and poverty amid economic and technological progress, the business cycle with its cyclic nature of industrialized economies, and the use of rent capture such as land value taxation and other anti-monopoly reforms as
370-401: A financial dispute with U.S. Senator John P. Jones . Unable to find work or provide for his family, George wrote to Governor Irwin, who rewarded him with the office of State Inspector of Gas Meters. George held that office from 1876 to 1880, during which he was able to write Progress and Poverty . Around the same time, the anti-Chinese Workingmen's Party led by Denis Kearney was seeing
444-419: A flash it came over me that there was the reason of advancing poverty with advancing wealth. With the growth of population, land grows in value, and the men who work it must pay more for the privilege. Furthermore, on a visit to New York City, he was struck by the apparent paradox that the poor in that long-established city were much worse off than the poor in less developed California. These observations supplied
518-405: A global speaking tour concerning land rights and the relationship between rent and poverty. This stroke greatly weakened him, and he never truly recovered. Despite this, George tried to remain active in politics. Against the advice of his doctors, George campaigned for New York City mayor again in 1897, this time as an Independent Democrat, saying, "I will make the race if I die for it." The strain of
592-447: A great injustice that private profit was being earned from restricting access to natural resources while productive activity was burdened with heavy income taxes, and he indicated that such a system was equivalent to slavery . This is also the work in which he made the case for a land value tax in which governments would tax the value of the land itself, thus preventing private interests from profiting upon its mere possession but allowing
666-411: A horseback ride and stopped to rest while overlooking San Francisco Bay . He later wrote of the revelation that he had: I asked a passing teamster, for want of something better to say, what land was worth there. He pointed to some cows grazing so far off that they looked like mice, and said, "I don't know exactly, but there is a man over there who will sell some land for a thousand dollars an acre." Like
740-425: A less significant form of monopoly than the owners of land title deeds, partly because he viewed the owners of locations as "the robber that takes all that is left." People could choose not to buy a specific new product, but they cannot choose to lack a place upon which to stand, so benefits gained for labor through lesser reforms would tend to eventually be captured by owners and financers of location monopoly. George
814-496: A major issue in federal politics and his book Protection or Free Trade was the first book to be read entirely into the Congressional Record . It was read by five Democratic congressmen. In 1997, Spencer MacCallum wrote that Henry George was "undeniably the greatest writer and orator on free trade who ever lived." In 2009, Tyler Cowen wrote that George's 1886 book Protection or Free Trade "remains perhaps
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#1732768594113888-564: A meeting, calling George a martyr. The New York Times reported that later in the evening, an organized funeral procession of about 2,000 people left from the Grand Central Palace and made its way through Manhattan to the Brooklyn Bridge . This procession was "all the way ... thronged on either side by crowds of silent watchers." The procession then went on to Brooklyn , where the crowd at Brooklyn City Hall "was
962-504: A meteoric rise in popularity. George supported the party and endorsed their platform, but took issue with Kearney himself. When California's Second Constitutional Convention was called in 1878, George was nominated as a delegate on both the Democratic and Workingmen's tickets, but lost the latter's nomination after he refused to recognize Kearney as leader of the party. While an anti-Kearney faction still nominated him, his refusal to toe
1036-459: A monopoly over specific arrangements and interactions of materials, governed by the forces of nature, allowed title-holders to extract royalty-rents from producers, in a way similar to owners of ordinary land titles. George later supported limited copyright, on the ground that temporary property over a unique arrangement of words or colors did not in any way prevent others from laboring to make other works of art. George apparently ranked patent rents as
1110-545: A pension and disability system, and an unconditional basic income from surplus land rents. It would be distributed to residents "as a right" instead of as charity. Georgists often refer to this policy as a citizen's dividend in reference to a similar proposal by Thomas Paine . George noted that most debt, though bearing the appearance of genuine capital interest, was not issued for the purpose of creating true capital, but instead as an obligation against rental flows from existing economic privilege. George therefore reasoned that
1184-720: A prominent leader of the single-tax movement , in many leadership roles including vice president of the International Union for Land Value Taxation and Free Trade in London, and a director of the Robert Schalkenbach Foundation . In 1932 she partnered with Oscar H. Geiger to establish the Henry George School of Social Science. She served as the president of the board of trustees of said school. De Mille went on several tours promoting
1258-432: A proponent of mathematical methods applied to the subject, advocated economics for brevity and with the hope of the term becoming "the recognised name of a science". Citation measurement metrics from Google Ngram Viewer indicate that use of the term economics began to overshadow political economy around roughly 1910, becoming the preferred term for the discipline by 1920. Today, the term economics usually refers to
1332-465: A remedy for these and other social problems. Other works by George defended free trade , the secret ballot , free (at marginal cost) public utilities/transportation provided by the capture of their resulting land rent uplift, Pigouvian taxation , and public ownership of other natural monopolies. George was a journalist for many years, and the popularity of his writing and speeches brought him to run for election as Mayor of New York City in 1886 . As
1406-459: A view, ascribed to earlier mainstream economists, of government officials trying to maximize individual utilities from some kind of social welfare function . As such, economists and political scientists often associate political economy with approaches using rational-choice assumptions, especially in game theory and in examining phenomena beyond economics' standard remit, such as government failure and complex decision making in which context
1480-592: Is found in Progress and Poverty : "We must make land common property." By taxing land values , society could recapture the value of its common inheritance, raise wages, improve land use, and eliminate the need for taxes on productive activity. George believed it would remove existing incentives toward land speculation and encourage development, as landlords would not suffer tax penalties for any industry or edifice constructed on their land and could not profit by holding valuable sites vacant. Broadly applying this principle
1554-406: Is heard from some quarters about its hurting the common people to give them what they do not work for is humbug. The truth is, that anything that injures self-respect, degrades, does harm; but if you give it as a right, as something to which every citizen is entitled to, it does not degrade. Charity schools do degrade children that are sent to them, but public schools do not. George proposed to create
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#17327685941131628-500: Is not a unified discipline, there are studies using the term that overlap in subject matter, but have radically different perspectives: Anna George de Mille Anna George de Mille (1878–1947) was an American feminist and Georgism advocate. She was the mother of Agnes George de Mille . Anna de Mille was born in San Francisco in 1878 to Henry George and Annie Corsina Fox George. Throughout her life, she served as
1702-399: Is not really to impose a tax, but to take for public purposes a value created by the community. And out of the fund which would thus accrue from the common property, we might, without degradation to anybody, provide enough to actually secure from want all who were deprived of their natural protectors or met with accident, or any man who should grow so old that he could not work. All prating that
1776-517: Is now commonly known as " Georgism ." In George's time, it was known as the "single-tax" movement and sometimes associated with movements for land nationalization, especially in Ireland. However, in Progress and Poverty , George did not favor the idea of nationalization. I do not propose either to purchase or to confiscate private property in land. The first would be unjust; the second, needless. Let
1850-614: The Muqaddimah . In Al-Muqaddimah Khaldun states, "Civilization and its well-being, as well as business prosperity, depend on productivity and people's efforts in all directions in their own interest and profit" – seen as a modern precursor to Classical Economic thought. Leading on from this, the French physiocrats were the first major exponents of political economy, although the intellectual responses of Adam Smith , John Stuart Mill , David Ricardo , Henry George and Karl Marx to
1924-586: The East India Company College , Haileybury, Hertfordshire . At present, political economy refers to different yet related approaches to studying economic and related behaviours, ranging from the combination of economics with other fields to the use of different, fundamental assumptions challenging earlier economic assumptions. Political economy most commonly refers to interdisciplinary studies drawing upon economics , sociology and political science in explaining how political institutions,
1998-734: The Episcopal Academy in Philadelphia. George chafed at his religious upbringing and left the academy without graduating. Instead he convinced his father to hire a tutor and supplemented this with avid reading and attending lectures at the Franklin Institute . His formal education ended at age 14, and he went to sea as a foremast boy at age 15 in April 1855 on the Hindoo , bound for Melbourne and Calcutta . He ended up in
2072-476: The North American Review of March 1883. The first secret ballot reform approved by a state legislature was brought about by reformers who said they were influenced by George. The first state to adopt the secret ballot, also called The Australian Ballot, was Massachusetts in 1888 under the leadership of Richard Henry Dana III. By 1891, more than half the states had adopted it too. George supported
2146-736: The United Labor Party nominee in 1886 and in 1897 as the Jefferson Democracy Party nominee, he received 31 percent and 4 percent of the vote respectively and finished ahead of former New York State Assembly minority leader Theodore Roosevelt in the first race. After his death during the second campaign, his ideas were carried forward by organizations and political leaders through the United States and other Anglophone countries. The mid-20th century labor economist and journalist George Soule wrote that George
2220-595: The political business cycles , central-bank independence and the politics of excessive deficits. An interesting example would be the publication in 1954 of the first manual of Political Economy in the Soviet Union, edited by Lev Gatovsky , which mixed the classic theoretical approach of the time with the soviet political discourse. A rather recent focus has been put on modeling economic policy and political institutions concerning interactions between agents and economic and political institutions , including
2294-562: The American West in 1858 and briefly considered prospecting for gold but instead started work the same year in San Francisco as a type setter . In California, George fell in love with Annie Corsina Fox from Sydney, Australia. They met on her seventeenth birthday on October 12, 1860. She had been orphaned and was living with an uncle. The uncle, a prosperous, strong-minded man, was opposed to his niece's impoverished suitor. But
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2368-559: The British scholars Adam Smith , Thomas Malthus , and David Ricardo , although they were preceded by the work of the French physiocrats , such as François Quesnay and Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot . In the late 19th century, the term economics gradually began to replace the term political economy with the rise of mathematical modeling coinciding with the publication of the influential textbook Principles of Economics by Alfred Marshall in 1890. Earlier, William Stanley Jevons ,
2442-538: The Democratic nomination for State Assembly . However, he refused to pay the party’s assessment fee, and was therefore ineligible for consideration. Despite this setback, he remained active in the California Democratic Party . Governor Henry Huntly Haight , impressed by the young journalist, recruited George to manage the party’s newspaper in Sacramento , and in 1871 he served as secretary of
2516-482: The Democratic state convention as it renominated Haight. Later that year, he finally received the party’s nomination for State Assembly, but was defeated alongside the rest of the ticket in a Republican landslide . In the 1875 election , George campaigned for Democrat William Irwin , who handily won thanks to Republican vote splitting. A few months later, George was forced to give up the Evening Post due to
2590-571: The Greek oikos (meaning "home") and nomos (meaning "law" or "order"). Political economy was thus meant to express the laws of production of wealth at the state level, quite like economics concerns putting home to order. The phrase économie politique (translated in English to "political economy") first appeared in France in 1615 with the well-known book by Antoine de Montchrétien , Traité de l'economie politique . Other contemporary scholars attribute
2664-678: The Railroad Will Bring Us." George argued that the boom in railroad construction would benefit only the lucky few who owned interests in the railroads and other related enterprises, while throwing the greater part of the population into abject poverty. This had led to him earning the enmity of the Central Pacific Railroad 's executives, who helped defeat his bid for election to the California State Assembly . One day in 1871 George went for
2738-555: The State and nation and to the United States Senate, and an honor to himself; a man whose heart beats in sympathy with the great body of the people; a man who is eminently like unto that greatest of modern men—Abraham Lincoln; a man who, if the people were to select, would be selected as the champion of their rights; a man—a man who has already gained a national reputation as the ablest political economist of America, standing
2812-419: The banking system but believed that would actually be an economic boon, since the financial sector, in its existing form, was mostly augmenting rent extraction, as opposed to productive investment. "The curse of credit," George wrote, was "... that it expands when there is a tendency to speculation, and sharply contracts just when most needed to assure confidence and prevent industrial waste." George even said that
2886-675: The best-argued tract on free trade to this day." Jim Powell said that Protection or Free Trade was probably the best book on trade written by anyone in the Americas, comparing it to Adam Smith 's Wealth of Nations . Milton Friedman said it was the most rhetorically brilliant work ever written on trade. Friedman also paraphrased one of George's arguments in favor of free trade: "It's a very interesting thing that in times of war, we blockade our enemies in order to prevent them from getting goods from us. In time of peace we do to ourselves by tariffs what we do to our enemy in time of war." George
2960-897: The campaign precipitated a second stroke, leading to his death four days before the election. An estimated 100,000 people visited Grand Central Palace during the day to see Henry George's face, with an estimated equal number crowding outside, unable to enter, and held back by police. After the Palace doors closed, the Reverend Lyman Abbott , Father Edward McGlynn , Rabbi Gustav Gottheil , R. Heber Newton (Episcopalian), and John Sherwin Crosby delivered addresses. Separate memorial services were held elsewhere. In Chicago, five thousand people lined up to hear memorial addresses by former Illinois governor John Peter Altgeld and John Lancaster Spalding . Mayor Strong broke down and cried at
3034-422: The couple, defying him, eloped and married on December 3, 1861, with Henry dressed in a borrowed suit and Annie bringing only a packet of books. The marriage was a happy one, and four children were born to them. On November 3, 1862, Annie gave birth to Henry George Jr. (1862–1916), a future United States Representative from New York. Early on, even with the birth of future sculptor Richard F. George (1865–1912),
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3108-518: The densest ever seen there." There were "thousands on thousands" at City Hall who were so far back that they could not see the funeral procession pass. It was impossible to move on any of the nearby streets. The Times wrote, "Rarely has such an enormous crowd turned out in Brooklyn on any occasion," but that nonetheless, "[t]he slow tolling of the City Hall bell and the regular beating of drums were
3182-574: The economic impacts of international relations ; and (3) economic models of political or exploitative class processes. Within the field of political science, there is generally a distinction between international political economy (studied by international relations scholars) and comparative political economy (studied by comparative politics scholars). Public choice theory is a microfoundations theory closely intertwined with political economy. Both approaches model voters, politicians and bureaucrats as behaving in mainly self-interested ways, in contrast to
3256-572: The excommunication of Father Edward McGlynn , and many who disagreed with George's free trade policy. George had particular trouble with Terrence V. Powderly , president of the Knights of Labor , a key member of the United Labor coalition. While initially friendly with Powderly, George vigorously opposed the tariff policies which Powderly and many other labor leaders thought vital to the protection of American workers. George's strident criticism of
3330-499: The family was near starvation. George's other two children were both daughters. The first was Jennie George, (c. 1867–1897), later to become Jennie George Atkinson. George's other daughter was Anna Angela George (1878-1947), who would become mother of both future dancer and choreographer Agnes de Mille and future actress Peggy George , who was born Margaret George de Mille. Following the birth of his second child, George had no work and no money and had to beg for food. As he approached
3404-566: The first well-dressed stranger he saw in the street, George, normally a lawful man, decided to rob him if he was unwilling to help. Fortunately, the man took pity on him and gave him five dollars. George was raised as an Episcopalian, but he believed in "deistic humanitarianism". His wife Annie was Irish Catholic , but Henry George Jr. wrote that the children were mainly influenced by Henry George's deism and humanism . After deciding against gold mining in British Columbia, George
3478-421: The importance of institutions , backwardness , reform and transition economies , the role of culture , ethnicity and gender in explaining economic outcomes, macroeconomic policy , the environment , fairness and the relation of constitutions to economic policy , theoretical and empirical. Other important landmarks in the development of political economy include: Because political economy
3552-497: The individuals who now hold it still retain, if they want to, possession of what they are pleased to call their land. Let them continue to call it their land. Let them buy and sell, and bequeath and devise it. We may safely leave them the shell, if we take the kernel. It is not necessary to confiscate land; it is only necessary to confiscate rent. George considered businesses relying on exclusive right-of-way land privilege to be "natural" monopolies . Examples of these services included
3626-469: The more conservative New York Sun wrote that, "Since the Civil War, few announcements have been more startling than that of the sudden death of Henry George." Flags were placed at half-staff, even at Tammany Hall, which cancelled its rally for the day. Henry George is best known for his argument that the economic rent of land (location) should be shared by society. The clearest statement of this view
3700-407: The narrow study of the economy absent other political and social considerations while the term political economy represents a distinct and competing approach. Originally, political economy meant the study of the conditions under which production or consumption within limited parameters was organized in nation-states. In that way, political economy expanded the emphasis on economics, which comes from
3774-479: The only sounds that broke the stillness. ... Anything more impressive ... could not be imagined." At Court Street, the casket was transferred to a hearse and taken to a private funeral at Fort Hamilton . Commentators disagreed on whether it was the largest funeral in New York history or the largest since the death of Abraham Lincoln . The New York Times reported, "Not even Lincoln had a more glorious death." Even
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#17327685941133848-502: The party line cost him the election, though he still polled the highest of any Democrat in the district. When the California State Legislature convened in 1881 to elect a U.S. Senator , State Senator Warren Chase nominated George. In his nomination speech, Chase eulogized George as follows: He has in knowledge of American and European history no superior in this State. He is a man who can be an honor to
3922-660: The peer of John Stuart Mill, Ricardo and Adam Smith, and all the writers of history on political economy. George only received two votes out of 40 cast in the State Senate ; one from Chase, and the other from fellow Workingmen's Senator Joseph C. Gorman . In 1880, now a popular writer and speaker, George moved to New York City, becoming closely allied with the Irish nationalist community despite being of English ancestry. From there he made several speaking journeys abroad to places such as Ireland and Scotland where access to land
3996-533: The physiocrats generally receive much greater attention. The world's first professorship in political economy was established in 1754 at the University of Naples Federico II in southern Italy . The Neapolitan philosopher Antonio Genovesi was the first tenured professor. In 1763, Joseph von Sonnenfels was appointed a Political Economy chair at the University of Vienna , Austria. Thomas Malthus , in 1805, became England's first professor of political economy, at
4070-415: The political environment, and the economic system — capitalist , socialist , communist , or mixed —influence each other. The Journal of Economic Literature classification codes associate political economy with three sub-areas: (1) the role of government and/or class and power relationships in resource allocation for each type of economic system ; (2) international political economy , which studies
4144-403: The roots of this study to the 13th Century Tunisian Arab Historian and Sociologist , Ibn Khaldun , for his work on making the distinction between "profit" and "sustenance", in modern political economy terms, surplus and that required for the reproduction of classes respectively. He also calls for the creation of a science to explain society and goes on to outline these ideas in his major work,
4218-476: The seeming discrepancy of economic policy and economist's recommendations through the lens of transaction costs . From the mid-1990s, the field has expanded, in part aided by new cross-national data sets allowing tests of hypotheses on comparative economic systems and institutions. Topics have included the breakup of nations, the origins and rate of change of political institutions in relation to economic growth , development , financial markets and regulation,
4292-800: The single-tax movement, and was a large donor to the Henry George Collection at the New York Public Library. She served as an officer in the Henry George Foundation of Pittsburgh. In 1950, she published Henry George, Citizen of the World , a biography of her father, which was published by the University of North Carolina Press after being released in The American Journal of Economics and Sociology . De Mille also helped raise money for
4366-556: The state should not provide aid to creditors in the form of sheriffs, constables, courts, and prisons to enforce collection on these illegitimate obligations. George did not provide any data to support this view, but in today's developed economies, much of the supply of credit is created to purchase claims on future land rents, rather than to finance the creation of true capital. Michael Hudson and Adair Turner estimate that about 80 percent of credit finances real estate purchases, mostly land. George acknowledged that this policy would limit
4440-523: The tariff set him against Powderly and others in the labor movement. In 1897 , George again ran for mayor of New York City. However, he had his fatal stroke during the campaign. During George's life, communities in Delaware and Alabama were developed based on his single tax on land and this legacy continued through applications in a number of areas around the world, including Australia, New Zealand and Taiwan . George's first stroke occurred in 1890, after
4514-409: The term "positive political economy" is common. Other "traditional" topics include analysis of such public policy issues as economic regulation , monopoly , rent-seeking , market protection , institutional corruption and distributional politics. Empirical analysis includes the influence of elections on the choice of economic policy, determinants and forecasting models of electoral outcomes,
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#17327685941134588-435: The theme and title for his 1879 book Progress and Poverty , which was a great success, selling over three million copies. In it George made the argument that a sizeable portion of the wealth created by social and technological advances in a free market economy is possessed by land owners and monopolists via economic rents , and that this concentration of unearned wealth is the main cause of poverty. George considered it
4662-495: The total cost of those investments . George used the example of urban buildings that provide free vertical transit, paid out of some of the increased value that residents derive from the addition of elevators. George was opposed to or suspicious of all intellectual property privilege, because his classical definition of "land" included "all natural forces and opportunities." Therefore, George proposed to abolish or greatly limit intellectual property privilege. In George's view, owning
4736-714: The transportation of utilities (water, electricity, sewage), information (telecommunications), goods, and travelers. George advocated that these systems of transport along "public ways" should usually be managed as public utilities and provided for free or at marginal cost . In some cases, it might be possible to allow competition between private service providers along public "rights of way," such as parcel shipping companies that operate on public roads, but wherever competition would be impossible, George supported complete municipalization . George said that these services would be provided for free because investments in beneficial public goods always tend to increase land values by more than
4810-415: The use of "debt free" (sovereign money) currency, such as the greenback , which governments would spend into circulation to help finance public spending through the capture of seigniorage rents. He opposed the use of metallic currency, such as gold or silver, and fiat money created by private commercial banks. George advocated a citizen's dividend paid for by a land value tax in an April 1885 speech at
4884-545: The value of all improvements made to that land to remain with investors. George was in a position to discover this pattern, having experienced poverty himself, knowing many different societies from his travels, and living in California at a time of rapid growth. In particular he had noticed that the construction of railroads in California was increasing land values and rents as fast as or faster than wages were rising. George first ran for public office in 1869, when he sought
4958-529: Was (and still is) a major political issue. In 1886 , George campaigned for mayor of New York City as the candidate of the United Labor Party, the short-lived political society of the United Labor Party . He polled second, more than the Republican candidate Theodore Roosevelt . The election was won by Tammany Hall candidate Abram Stevens Hewitt by what many of George's supporters believed
5032-493: Was by far "the most famous American economic writer" and "author of a book which probably had a larger world-wide circulation than any other work on economics ever written." George was born in Philadelphia to a lower-middle-class family, the second of ten children of Richard S. H. George and Catharine Pratt George (née Vallance). His father was a publisher of religious texts and a devout Episcopalian , and he sent George to
5106-446: Was eventually forced to go to the streets to beg. The George family struggled, but George's improving reputation and involvement in the newspaper industry lifted them from poverty. George began as a Lincoln Republican , then eventually became a Democrat . He was a strong critic of railroad and mining interests, corrupt politicians, land speculators, and labor contractors. He first articulated his views in an 1868 article entitled "What
5180-423: Was fraud. In the 1887 New York state elections , George came in a distant third in the election for Secretary of State of New York . The United Labor Party was soon weakened by internal divisions: the management was essentially Georgist, but as a party of organized labor it also included some Marxist members who did not want to distinguish between land and capital , many Catholic members who were discouraged by
5254-534: Was hired as a printer for the newly created San Francisco Times . He was able to immediately submit editorials for publication, including the popular What the Railroads Will Bring Us (1868), which remained required reading in California schools for decades. George climbed the ranks of the Times , eventually becoming managing editor in the summer of 1867. George's first nationally prominent writing
5328-608: Was his 1869 essay The Chinese in California , in which he wrote that Chinese immigration should be ended before Chinese immigrants overrun the western United States. George worked for several papers, including four years (1871–1875) as editor of his own newspaper, the San Francisco Daily Evening Post , and for a time running the Reporter , a Democratic anti-monopoly publication. George experienced four tough years of trying to keep his newspaper afloat and
5402-556: Was one of the earliest and most prominent advocates of the secret ballot in the United States. Harvard historian Jill Lepore asserts that Henry George's advocacy is the reason Americans vote with secret ballots today. George's first article in support of the secret ballot was entitled "Bribery in Elections" and was published in the Overland Review of December 1871. His second article was "Money in Elections," published in
5476-442: Was opposed to tariffs , which were at the time both the major method of protectionist trade policy and an important source of federal revenue, the federal income tax having not yet been introduced. He argued that tariffs kept prices high for consumers, while failing to produce any increase in overall wages. He also believed that tariffs protected monopolistic companies from competition, thus augmenting their power. Free trade became
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