Tesco
Progress and Poverty
Book

Progress and Poverty

An Inquiry into the Cause of Industrial Depressions and of Increase of Want with Increase of Wealth; The Remedy

Henry George
CreateSpace, 2017
First Edition: 1879

Read or listen offline

  • 0.5×
  • 0.75×
  • 1×
  • 1.25×
  • 1.5×
  • 1.75×
1×

Editorial Rating

9

Qualities

  • Bold
  • For Experts
  • Hot Topic

Recommendation

Political economist Henry George’s 1879 treatise on landownership was controversial, but it quickly became a bestseller in both the United States and Great Britain. It even inspired one of the most successful board games of all time, Monopoly. Yet its insights remain evergreen. George’s central message is that income inequality and poverty in a society become more acute as its wealth increases. His penetrating observations of the 19th-century settlement of the American West easily apply to the 21st century’s new Wild West — the global digital economy.

Take-Aways

  • Wealth is the outcome of the factors of production: land, labor and capital.
  • When the United States had plenty of unclaimed land, wages for labor were high and rents on land were low.
  • As communities become richer, rents rise in step to capture that wealth.

About the Author

Henry George (1839–1897) was an American political economist who achieved enormous popularity with this book and its themes. He toured the United States and elsewhere, gaining acclaim in Europe and particularly in Ireland. He also ran, unsuccessfully, for public office.

Comment on this summary or Diskussion beginnen