Henry George (economist)

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Henry George (1865)
Henry George
Tomb in the Green-Wood cemetery

Henry George (born September 2, 1839 in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , † October 29, 1897 in New York City ) was an American political economist and the most influential proponent of a flat tax on land ownership. He is the author of the 1879 bestselling book Progress and Poverty ( Progress and Poverty ) . There the image of the " earth as a ship in space " is used for the first time .

Life

Henry George was married to Annie Corsina Fox George and had four children: Henry George Jr., Jennie Teresa George, Richard Fox George, and Anna Angela George De Mille.

After a trip to New York City , George found that while New York was far more economically developed than California , the poor in New York were in a much worse situation. In 1879 he processed this knowledge in the book Progress and Poverty , which sold more than three million copies. He saw the unequal distribution of land (the presence of large landowners ) and monopolies as the reason for the high levels of poverty in New York .

In 1880 he moved to New York City. There he ran for mayor in 1886 , nominated by the Independent Labor Party . The goals of his platform included equal pay for women and men for equal work, the abolition of property regulations in order to become a member of a jury and the introduction of public transport ( trams ). He won 31 percent of the vote in the election, overshadowed by falsification allegations, more than the Republican candidate , Theodore Roosevelt , with 27 percent. The from the environment of Tammany Hall originating Democratic candidate Abram Hewitt won the vote with 41 percent.

George inspired the Georgian philosophy named after him , according to which everyone should own what they have created themselves and the goods found in nature (especially land) should belong equally to all people. He was also an opponent of protectionism and a critic of land rent .

influence

In Leo Tolstoy's novel The Resurrection , the aristocratic protagonist Nechliudow acts in the spirit of Henry George by giving up his land to the peasants and introducing a corresponding flat tax. Based on the ideas of George or refer in some aspects among others Martin Luther King , Ralph Nader and Dennis Kucinich . Part will be made to George because of his advocacy of free trade also positive from the very liberal camp, such as by William F. Buckley, Jr. .

Franklin D. Roosevelt extolled him as "one of the really great thinkers who made our country" and complained that his writings are not better known and better understood.

Albert Einstein wrote of Henry George: “Men like Henry George are rare, unfortunately. One cannot imagine a nicer combination of intellectual sharpness, artistic form and ardent love for justice. Every line is like it was written for our generation. The dissemination of these works is a really worthy reason, especially our generation has many and important things to learn from Henry George. "

Works

Science of political economy , 1898
  • 1871, San Francisco : Our land and land policy, national and state .
  • 1877, San Francisco: The American republic. Its dangers and its possibilities
  • 1879, San Francisco: Progress and poverty; an inquiry into the cause of industrial depressions, and of increase of want with increase of wealth - The remedy
    • 1881, Berlin , German translation by CDF Gütschow: Progress and Poverty. An investigation into the cause of industrial crises and the increase in poverty with increasing wealth
  • 1881, New York: The Irish land question. What it involves, and how alone it can be settled
  • 1883, Belford , Chicago and New York: Social problems
    • 1885, Berlin, German translation by F. Stöpel: Social problems
  • 1884, New York: The land question
  • 1886, New York: Protection or free trade
    • 1887, Berlin, German translation by F. Stöpel: Investigation of the customs question with special regard to the interests of work
  • 1891, New York: The condition of labor
    • 1893, Berlin, German translation by Bernhard Eulenstein: For redemption from social need
  • 1892, New York: A perplexed philosopher: being an examination of Mr. Herbert Spencer's various utterances on the land question, with some incidental reference to his synthetic philosophy
  • 1897, New York and London : The science of political economy

Links and literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Henry George Jr .: The Life of Henry George . 1904.
  2. ^ Henry George: Progress and Poverty. Reprint of the edition of 1879, Verlag Cosimo, 2005, Book IV, Chapter 2, limited preview in Google Book Search, p. 173.
  3. ^ Howard Zinn: A People's History of the United States. Harper Perennial, New York 2005, ISBN 0-06-083865-5 , pp. 272-273.
  4. Martin Luther King, Jr: Final Words of Advice ( Memento of the original from December 28, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.progress.org
  5. ^ Albert Einstein: Henry George and his Principles (letter to Anna George De Mille, Henry George's daughter), 1934.