Seminar on Socialism, Capitalism, & Populism

*OPENING QUESTION: Is progress quantifiable?

*CORE QUESTIONS:

1. From Henry George's Progress and Poverty: According to George, why is it that man cannot rightfully own land?

According to George, the reason why he cannot own land is because he did not produce the land himself and man should only be entitled to the fruits of his own labor. Because land was created by someone other than man (God, Mother Nature, or some divine deity, perhaps), man cannot not claim land for his own---which is the same belief held by many American Indians even today. George writes that "If production give to the producer the right to exclusive possession and enjoyment, there can rightfully be no exclusive possession and enjoyment of anything not the production of labor, and the recognition of private property in land is a wrong" (66). George feels that a distinction should be made between things that are earned and things that are gifts from nature, or, as he phrases it, a distinction should be made between "wealth and land" (67) because wealth is earned; land is not. To classify both things as property is a mistake because one is a product of hard work while the other belongs to no one but nature. In George's terms then, wealth should be measured by the fruits of one's labors, not by his amount of inherited land (which required no labor to procure).

2. From Andrew Carnegie's "Wealth": According to Carnegie, what are the three ways surplus wealth can be distributed?