Capital In The 21St Century

Front 1

Arthur Young

Back 1

English Agronomists in France

1787-1788

Wrote a travel diary on the French countryside, was concerned about the rising population of the peasant population. Showed clear signs of national favoritism and thought the local population were disagreeable. Believed that the British system of a dual houses in parliament for aristocrats and peasants with vetos for nobility was the solution.

Front 2

Reverend Thomas Malthus

Back 2

Essay on the Principle of Population (1798)

Used Arthur Young’s travel diary as a primary source. Believed that overpopulation was the primary problem.

Front 3

David Ricardo

Back 3

Principles of Political Economy and Taxation (1817)

Believed that landlord would steadily take an increasing share of output and income through the steady increase of land prices and land rents. The steady increase in population and thus demand for land would wildly increase the price of land rents. Believed that a tax on land rents was the solution.

His apocalyptic predictions was for not because he did not predict the improvement of technology that would remove the need for an ever increasing amount of farm land.

Scarcity Principle

Front 4

Infinite Accumulation

Back 4

Thomas Pikety’s term for Marx’s idea that capital tends to accumulate and become concentrated in ever fewer hands, with no natural list. This would, in Marx’s mind, create the end of capitalism either through diminishing returns of the rate of profit from new capital leading to violent conflicts between capitalists or the share of capital in national income would increase indefinitely until workers revolt.

Front 5

Karl Marx

Back 5

Capital (1867)

The Communist Manifesto (1848)

Began writing when the Industrial Revolution was fully formed.

Front 6

Friedrich Engels

Back 6

The Condition of the Working Class in England (1845)