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Economic Thoughts
• Adam Smith and The Wealth of Nations – Laissez-Faire Economics• The Free Market would
help everyone• More goods at lower
prices• A growing economy• The successes of the
industrial age
Economic Thoughts
• Thomas Malthus• Predicted population would outpace food supply.• War, disease and famine the only checks on
population growth• As population increased, poor would continue to
suffer• Encouraged families to have fewer kids
Economic Thoughts
• David Ricardo – “Iron law of wages”• Higher wages = families have more kids• More kids = more labor supply• Increased labor supply = lower wages and higher
unemployment• No hope for working class
Economic Thoughts
• Malthus’ and Rocardo’s gloomy predictions about life lead economics to being called the “dismal” science.
• Both felt that individuals should be left to improve their own lives through thrift, hard work, and smaller families.
The Utilitarians
• Jeremy Bentham (1800) The goal of society should be:
“The greatest happiness for the greatest number.”
• All laws or actions should be judged on their “utility.”
The Utilitarians
• John Stuart Mill – Bentham follower• Actions are right if they promote happiness, wrong if
they promote pain• Wanted government to improve the lives of workers• Worker’s and women’s suffrage• Social reforms
Socialism
• The people rather than individuals own the means of production
• Enlightenment ideas – Goodness of man• Individuals would work for the benefit of all
Communism• “Scientific Socialism”• Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels
• Communist Manifesto 1848• Class struggle between owners and workers is
inevitable• History is a history of struggles between “haves” and
“have nots”• Bourgeoisie v. Proletariat• Despised capitalism• “Workers of the world unite”