At this session PEBC concludes its discussion of Henry George, Jr.’s The Menace of Privilege. We’ll focus on Books VI thru IX, including discussion of how Privilege controls not just land, but the press, the university, the churches, and of course the government itself, making poverty and war unavoidable. The reading is less than 200 …
Continue reading “March 20 Wed: Political Economy Book Club”
Sean Connery stars as a leader of the Molly Maguires, a secret society of Irish mineworkers in Pennsylvania in the 1870s, who battle their exploitation by mine owners with violence. This 1970 American film, based on a 1969 novel by Arthur H. Lewis, also stars Richard Harris and Samantha Eggar. Set just a decade prior …
What George Menninger did was completely legal. He stole over a million dollars. Many people do it, perhaps including some of your neighbors, so if George hadn’t then someone else would have. You and fellow Chicagoans have already paid George so he is far beyond the need to earn a living. Now he volunteers some …
What George Menninger did was completely legal. He stole over a million dollars. Many people do it, perhaps including some of your neighbors, so if George hadn’t then someone else would have. You and fellow Chicagoans have already paid George so he is far beyond the need to earn a living, so now he volunteers …
We gather to talk about one of Henry George, Jr.’s important works, The Menace of Privilege. From the Preface: What is the cause of the grave changes that are coming over the American Republic — the extraordinary inequality in the distribution of wealth manifested on every hand; the rise of class feeling; the growth …
Continue reading “Jan 23 Wed 6 PM: Political Economy Book Club discusses the Menace of Privilege”
New kinds of privilege are extracting wealth from people who produce. Historically, owners of land extracted tribute in exchange for the resource everyone needs to produce or even live. But more recently, imaginary property “rights,” really just the power to levy a toll on production, and which were well-understood by Henry George, have taken an …
Continue reading “Wed Dec 5 at 6 PM: The Invisible Cost of Imaginary Property”
The Communist Manifesto (Das Kommunistische Manifest), originally titled Manifesto of the Communist Party is a short 1848 publication written by the political theorists Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. It has since been recognized as one of the world’s most influential political manuscripts. Commissioned by the Communist League, it laid out the League’s purposes and program. …
Continue reading “Thurs Nov 8 6 PM: Political Economy Book Club discusses The Communist Manifesto”
Originating as a field trip for “Progress & Poverty” students, our Invisible Robbery Tour is now open to all. See how the community and its infrastructure produce value. See who collects this value, and how it affects us all. We’ll walk about two kilometers, in about an hour and a half. You’ll get detailed, sourced, …
Continue reading “Oct 27, Sat, 1 PM: Invisible Robbery Tour”
This 1984 feature by Bill Duke “tells the little-known true story of the struggle to build an interracial labor union in the Chicago Stockyards” nearly a century ago. Find the above-quoted University of Chicago review here, links to some published reviews here. 118 minutes. Not to be confused with the 2007 Israeli movie of the …
Originating as a field trip for “Progress & Poverty” students, our Invisible Robbery Tour is now open to all. See how the community and its infrastructure produce value. See who collects this value, and how it affects us all. We’ll walk about two kilometers, in about an hour and a half. A $10 donation is …
Continue reading “July 16 Monday 6 PM: Invisible Robbery Tour”
