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19039523 No.19039523 [Reply] [Original]

What happened to Henry George and the movement of Georgism? Why was Progress and Poverty practically memory-holed?

>Progress and Poverty, George's first book, sold several million copies, exceeding all other books sold in the United States except the Bible during the 1890s. It helped spark the Progressive Era and a worldwide social reform movement around an ideology now known as 'Georgism'. Jacob Riis, for example, explicitly marks the beginning of the Progressive Era awakening as 1879 because of the date of this publication.

>George's popularity was more than a passing phase; even by 1906, a survey of British parliamentarians revealed that the American author's writing was more popular than Walter Scott, John Stuart Mill, and William Shakespeare.

>Among many famous people who asserted that it was impossible to refute George on the land question were Winston Churchill, Leo Tolstoy, John Dewey, and Bertrand Russell. Tolstoy and Dewey, especially, dedicated much of their lives to spreading George's ideas. Tolstoy was preaching about the ideas in Progress and Poverty on his death bed.

Nobody talks about Georgism today. I didn't hear about Progress and Poverty in any of my econ classes or in economic debates. Tried posting this on /biz/ but it immediately gets buried under near the crypto posts and is archived right away. I'm not an expert in his theory, just find the amnesia over his work bizarre.

>> No.19039584

>>19039523
Excellent taste, OP.
I guess it just didn't have the sex appeal of Marxism. Georgism is inherently a liberal idea, so it's not going to convince the people who are naturally inclined to radicalism, even if it is a better idea. Without that vocal grassroots movement, it won't grab the attention of anyone in power.

>> No.19040176
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19040176

>>19039523
He's capitalism's last resort... okay? Don't you DARE give workers their taxes back and tax landowners instead. That would - GRR - improve their living standards! And reconcile them with capitalists! Then they wouldn't be angry enough to participate in destructive revolutionary violence. STOP!

>> No.19040206

Sorry man I want to larp about the guns I dont own and probably never will while arming the working class and about putting rich people in guillotines

>> No.19040378

>>19039523
>why don’t land-holding universities teach that landholders should be taxed instead of wage earners?
you know why

>> No.19040393

>>19039523
>What happened to Henry George and the movement of Georgism?
The marginalist revolution happened... also the end of the frontier expansion in America.
>Why was Progress and Poverty practically memory-holed?
It wasn't anymore than other 19th century ideas. Mill supported worker owned enterprises over shareholder corporations... why was that memory-holed?
>Nobody talks about Georgism today.
Wrong. The difference is the people into it today aren't the same as the types. George was popular with liberals at one point but nowadays mostly leftists are into the idea of taxing land.
>I didn't hear about Progress and Poverty in any of my econ classes or in economic debates.
That has to do with the fact you're not going to learn anything much about history there

>>19040176
>Don't you DARE give workers their taxes back and tax landowners instead
That might of been true when (or where) taxes were more reactionary... but you do realize there exists a (flawed but nonetheless) progressive taxation system today? Where do you think most middle class wealth is tied up? Getting rid of all forms of taxation except on land would make the middle class poorer by driving down the value of their primary investment and the rich richer by lowering their overall tax burden... the people to benefit the most would be the poor who own no wealth and pay no taxes (except reactionary sales taxes). It's similar to UBI in the sense that the people who would benefit the most absolutely aren't going to vote and the people who vote the most would lose out marginally the most relatively.

>> No.19040687

>>19039523
no class in has a great practical interest in implementing what he preached, so he's just ignored. there's no mystery here