What Henry George thinks about capitalism

@henry-george · 20 positions · On ppll ↗

American political economist (1839 to 1897); author of Progress and Poverty.

Henry George did not write this page.

We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.

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Only Henry George on capitalism. See everyone on capitalism

5 dated positions, c. 1877–1880, in their own words. Our reading of what Henry George has said — not written or endorsed by them.

1. c. 1877–1880

   Our readingProgress whose added wealth only builds great fortunes is not real and cannot last

   Their wordsSo long as all the increased wealth which modern progress brings goes but to build up great fortunes, to increase luxury and make sharper the contrast between the House of Have and the House of Want, progress is not real and cannot be permanent.

   ↗Progress and Poverty (1879; Memorial Edition)gutenberg.org All 20 from this book

3. c. 1877–1880

   Our readingRent is a monopoly price for owning natural elements that labor cannot produce or increase

   Their wordsRent, in short, is the price of monopoly, arising from the reduction to individual ownership of natural elements which human exertion can neither produce nor increase.

   ↗Progress and Poverty (1879; Memorial Edition)gutenberg.org All 20 from this book

5. c. 1877–1880

   Our readingRising land values always come at the expense of what labor earns

   Their wordsIn short, the value of land depending wholly upon the power which its ownership gives of appropriating wealth created by labor, the increase of land values is always at the expense of the value of labor. And, hence, that the increase of productive power does not increase wages, is because it does increase the value of land.

   ↗Progress and Poverty (1879; Memorial Edition)gutenberg.org All 20 from this book

7. c. 1877–1880

   Our readingEnding poverty requires replacing individual ownership of land with common ownership

   Their wordsTo extirpate poverty, to make wages what justice commands they should be, the full earnings of the laborer, we must therefore substitute for the individual ownership of land a common ownership. Nothing else will go to the cause of the evil—in nothing else is there the slightest hope.

   ↗Progress and Poverty (1879; Memorial Edition)gutenberg.org All 20 from this book

9. c. 1877–1880

   Our readingPrivate property in land is a grave wrong comparable to chattel slavery

   Their wordsThe truth is, and from this truth there can be no escape, that there is and can be no just title to an exclusive possession of the soil, and that private property in land is a bold, bare, enormous wrong, like that of chattel slavery.

   ↗Progress and Poverty (1879; Memorial Edition)gutenberg.org All 20 from this book