《前进与贫困》是1879年亨利·乔治撰写的一本书，探讨了工业化和经济发展并未消除贫困和压迫的原因。这本书提出了关于土地、劳动和资本的新颖观点，为理解现代危机提供了深刻见解。

🤔 **土地、劳动和资本的辩证关系:** 乔治认为，土地是所有生产的最终来源，而劳动和资本则依赖于土地。他指出，土地价值的增长并非源于劳动或资本，而是源于社会进步和人口增长，这种价值增长并未惠及所有劳动者，而是被土地所有者所捕获。他主张对土地征收“单一税”，以解决贫困和不平等问题。

🏘️ **土地问题与现代危机:** 乔治的思想在现代社会依然具有深刻的现实意义。他分析了土地所有权对社会的影响，并指出土地价格上涨、住房短缺和贫困问题之间存在着密切的联系。他的观点可以帮助我们理解现代城市发展中的“NIMBY”与“YIMBY”之争，以及高房价对社会造成的负面影响。

💡 **超越资本主义与社会主义:** 乔治的思想超越了传统的“资本主义”与“社会主义”的范式，为解决社会问题提供了新的思路。他认为，土地所有权的制度性问题是导致社会不平等和贫困的重要原因，而并非资本主义制度本身。他倡导将土地视为社会共同的财富，而非私有财产，并主张通过税收机制将土地价值分配给社会，以实现公平与正义。

🎩 **亨利·乔治的影响力:** 亨利·乔治的思想影响了后世的许多经济学家和社会学家，并启发了诸如“基本收入”等政策理念的兴起。他的著作不仅具有学术价值，更具有重要的社会意义，为解决现代社会面临的各种挑战提供了宝贵的启示。

https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/your-book-review-progress-and-poverty

 

[This is the third of many finalists in the book review contest. It’s not by me - it’s by an ACX reader who will remain anonymous until after voting is done, to prevent their identity from influencing your decisions. I’ll be posting about two of these a week for several months. When you’ve read all of them, I’ll ask you to vote for your favorite, so remember which ones you liked. - SA]

In 1879, a man asked "How come all this new economic development and industrialized technology hasn't eliminated poverty and oppression?" That man was Henry George, his answer came in the form of a book called Progress & Poverty, and this is a review of that book.

Henry George is variously known for leading an early movement that popularized Universal Basic Income, sporting a fancy beard while shouting "The Rent Is Too Damn High!" and inspiring a popular board game that was shamelessly ripped off and repackaged as Monopoly.

But he didn't just write a book. He also ran for Mayor of New York city in 1886, beating out some rando Republican named "Theodore Roosevelt," but ultimately losing to the favored candidate of Tammany Hall, who saw George's radical economic ideas as a threat to their well-oiled political machine (Andrew Yang take note). He ran again in 1897 but died just 4 days before the election, prompting a national outpouring of mourning. According to Ralph Gabriel's Course of American Democratic Thought, in New York alone 200,000 people came to see his body lying in repose, half of which had to be turned away. For context, that one crowd was roughly the size of 1% of the entire population of New York at the time.

I'm writing this book review for three reasons:

George's arguments about land, labor, and capital present a fresh alternative to conventional ideas about "Capitalism" and "Socialism" (and whatever we mean by those on any given day)

The book has timeless advice for navigating modern crises such as ever-rising rents, homelessness, and the NIMBY vs. YIMBY wars.

This is a golden opportunity to shamelessly over-use the catchy phrase "By George!"