Progress and Poverty

Progress and Poverty

By Henry George.

Table of Contents

1. Titlepage
2. Epigraph
3. Imprint
4. Dedication
5. Epigraph
6. Preface to the Fourth Edition
7. Progress and Poverty
   1. Introductory
   2. Epigraph
   3. The Problem
   4. Book I: Wages and Capital
      1. Epigraph
      2. I: The Current Doctrine of Wages—Its Insufficiency
      3. II: The Meaning of the Terms
      4. III: Wages Not Drawn from Capital, but Produced by the Labor
      5. IV: The Maintenance of Laborers Not Drawn from Capital
      6. V: The Real Functions of Capital
   5. Book II: Population and Subsistence
      1. Epigraph
      2. I: The Malthusian Theory, Its Genesis and Support
      3. II: Inferences from Facts
      4. III: Inferences from Analogy
      5. IV: Disproof of the Malthusian Theory
   6. Book III: The Laws of Distribution
      1. Epigraph
      2. I: The Inquiry Narrowed to the Laws of Distribution—The Necessary Relation of These Laws
      3. II: Rent and the Law of Rent
      4. III: Of Interest and the Cause of Interest
      5. IV: Of Spurious Capital and of Profits Often Mistaken for Interest
      6. V: The Law of Interest
      7. VI: Wages and the Law of Wages
      8. VII: The Correlation and Coordination of These Laws
      9. VIII: The Statics of the Problem Thus Explained
   7. Book IV: Effect of Material Progress Upon the Distribution of Wealth
      1. Epigraph
      2. I: The Dynamics of the Problem Yet to Seek
      3. II: The Effect of Increase of Population Upon the Distribution of Wealth
      4. III: The Effect of Improvements in the Arts Upon the Distribution of Wealth
      5. IV: Effect of the Expectation Raised by Material Progress
   8. Book V: The Problem Solved
      1. Epigraph
      2. I: The Primary Cause of Recurring Paroxysms of Industrial Depression
      3. II: The Persistence of Poverty Amid Advancing Wealth
   9. Book VI: The Remedy
      1. Epigraph
      2. I: Insufficiency of Remedies Currently Advocated
         1. I: From Greater Economy in Government
         2. II: From the Diffusion of Education and Improved Habits of Industry and Thrift
         3. III: From Combinations of Workmen
         4. IV: From Cooperation
         5. V: From Governmental Direction and Interference
         6. VI: From a More General Distribution of Land
      3. II: The True Remedy
   10. Book VII: Justice of the Remedy
       1. Epigraph
       2. I: The Injustice of Private Property in Land
       3. II: The Enslavement of Laborers the Ultimate Result of Private Property in Land
       4. III: Claim of Land Owners to Compensation
       5. IV: Private Property in Land Historically Considered
       6. V: Of Property in Land in the United States
   11. Book VIII: Application of the Remedy
       1. Epigraph
       2. I: Private Property in Land Inconsistent with the Best Use of Land
       3. II: How Equal Rights to the Land May Be Asserted and Secured
       4. III: The Proposition Tried by the Canons of Taxation
          1. I: The Effect of Taxes Upon Production
          2. II: As to Ease and Cheapness of Collection
          3. III: As to Certainty
          4. IV: As to Equality
       5. IV: Endorsements and Objections
   12. Book IX: Effects of the Remedy
       1. Epigraph
       2. I: Of the Effect Upon the Production of Wealth
       3. II: Of the Effect Upon Distribution and Thence Upon Production
       4. III: Of the Effect Upon Individuals and Classes
       5. IV: Of the Changes That Would Be Wrought in Social Organization and Social Life
   13. Book X: The Law of Human Progress
       1. Epigraph
       2. I: The Current Theory of Human Progress—Its Insufficiency
       3. II: Differences in Civilization—To What Due
       4. III: The Law of Human Progress
       5. IV: How Modern Civilization May Decline
       6. V: The Central Truth
   14. Conclusion
       1. Epigraph
       2. The Problem of Individual Life
8. Endnotes
9. Colophon
10. Uncopyright

Make for thyself a definition or description of the thing which is presented to thee, so as to see distinctly what kind of a thing it is, in its substance, in its nudity, in its complete entirety, and tell thyself its proper name, and the names of the things of which it has been compounded, and into which it will be resolved. For nothing is so productive of elevation of mind as to be able to examine methodically and truly every object which is presented to thee in life, and always to look at things so as to see at the same time what kind of universe this is, and what kind of use everything performs in it, and what value everything has with reference to the whole, and what with reference to man, who is a citizen of the highest city, of which all other cities are like families; what each thing is, and of what it is composed, and how long it is the nature of this thing to endure.

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus.

Imprint

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To those who,
seeing the vice and misery that spring from
the unequal distribution
of wealth and privilege,
feel the possibility of a higher social state
and would strive for its attainment.

San Francisco, March, 1879.

There must be refuge! Men
Perished in winter winds till one smote fire
From flint stones coldly hiding what they held,
The red spark treasured from the kindling sun;
They gorged on flesh like wolves, till one sowed corn,
Which grew a weed,