Power structure along the tour route (Henry George School photo0
Originating as a field trip for students completing our Progress & Poverty course, this stroll thru downtown Chicago examines some of the ways that average people, and the community as a whole, are deprived of their just earnings. Among other things we’ll see who benefits from the expensive infrastructure and “economic development” projects, how Thomas Jefferson wanted Chicago to fund its public schools, what happens when a well-located building burns down, and how land speculators get productive workers to pay their taxes. Expect to walk about 2 km, maybe we’ll stop for snacks (individual settlement) along the way.
A $10 donation is requested from those who are not recent or current HGS students or donors, but nobody will be excluded due to lack of funds. You can make your donation by credit card here, or bring cash or a check.
Stolen Statue Repossessed/Henry George School photo
Originating as a field trip for students completing our Progress & Poverty course, this stroll thru downtown Chicago examines some of the ways that average people, and the community as a whole, are deprived of their just earnings. Among other things we’ll see who benefits from the expensive infrastructure and “economic development” projects, how Thomas Jefferson wanted Chicago to fund its public schools, what happens when a well-located building burns down, and how land speculators get their taxes paid by productive workers. Hardcopy sourced notes will be provided. Expect to walk about 2 km; maybe we’ll stop for snacks (individual settlement) along the way.
A $10 donation is requested from those who are not recent or current HGS students or donors, but nobody will be excluded due to lack of funds. If you have a paypal account, you can make your donation by credit card using the link below, or better yet bring cash or a check.
An injudicious tax offers a great temptation to smuggling. But the penalties of smuggling must rise in proportion to the temptation. The law, contrary to all the ordinary principles of justice, first creates the temptation, and then punishes those who yield to it…
— Adam Smith
Book V of Adam Smith’s classic is entitled “Of the Revenue of the Sovereign or Commonwealth,” includes the above as well as many thoughtful passages about what we nowadays call public finance. Our Political Economy Book Club will discuss this final part of Wealth of Nations on Wednesday, November 12. You can download or read the book on line from severalsources, borrow it from many public libraries, or purchase a copy inexpensively.
For further information or to let us know you’re coming, email PEBC coordinator Bob Matter or call 312 450 2906.
Between 1948 and 1973, Americans’ real wages rose almost as fast as their productivity. After 1973, productivity grew 147% but wages rose only 19%. This raises two questions:
(1) If workers getting less, who is getting more?
(2) Is there a way to restore the balance?
To solve the problem of poverty, and the many other problems that follow from it, ordinary workers need higher wages. George Menninger describes how to raise wages without interfering in the free market and without taking anyone’s earnings.
George Menninger is an instructor at the Henry George School of Chicago, and attendees at this free program will have the opportunity to sign up for his Progress & Poverty course.
Between 1948 and 1973, Americans’ real wages rose almost as fast as their productivity. After 1973, productivity grew 147% but wages rose only 19%. This raises two questions:
(1) If workers getting less, who is getting more?
(2) Is there a way to restore the balance?
To solve the problem of poverty, and the many other problems that follow from it, ordinary workers need higher wages. George Menninger describes how to raise wages without interfering in the free market and without taking anyone’s earnings.
George Menninger is an instructor at the Henry George School of Chicago, and attendees at this free program will have the opportunity to sign up for his Progress & Poverty course.
No reservation is required, but you can let us know by email that you’re coming.
Between 1948 and 1973, Americans’ real wages rose almost as fast as their productivity. After 1973, productivity grew 147% but wages rose only 19%. This raises two questions:
(1) If workers getting less, who is getting more?
(2) Is there a way to restore the balance?
To solve the problem of poverty, and the many other problems that follow from it, ordinary workers need higher wages. George Menninger describes how to raise wages without interfering in the free market and without taking anyone’s earnings.
George Menninger is an instructor at the Henry George School of Chicago, and attendees at this free program will have the opportunity to sign up for his Progress & Poverty course.
No reservation is required, but you can let us know by email that you’re coming.
This presentation has been cancelled. We will let you know when it’s been rescheduled. There will be no presentation February 21, 2019.
The Battle of Lincoln Park tells the story of how people with clashing visions and values fought to determine the path gentrification would take before anyone was using that word. Calling on the power of private funds, public policy, moral appeals, and both nonviolent and violent protest, residents of Old Town and Lincoln Park struggled over the meaning of “desirable” homes, “neighborhood character”, and what kind of city Chicago should be. The outcomes set the tone for profound changes to the city that are still unfolding today.
Acclaimed author Daniel Kay Hertz has written extensively on subjects relating to gentrification, housing, urban demographics, and transportation. This is his first book.
Registration is required for this free event. Building security will print a badge for you to go upstairs. If you plan to come, or are just considering the possibility, please let us know by email events@hgchicago.org or by phoning us at 312 362-9302.
This presentation has been rescheduled and will now take place Thursday, March 7, 2019, at 6:15 pm.
The Battle of Lincoln Park tells the story of how people with clashing visions and values fought to determine the path gentrification would take before anyone was using that word. Calling on the power of private funds, public policy, moral appeals, and both nonviolent and violent protest, residents of Old Town and Lincoln Park struggled over the meaning of “desirable” homes, “neighborhood character”, and what kind of city Chicago should be. The outcomes set the tone for profound changes to the city that are still unfolding today.
Acclaimed author Daniel Kay Hertz has written extensively on subjects relating to gentrification, housing, urban demographics, and transportation. This is his first book.
Registration is required for this free event. Building security will print a badge for you to go upstairs. If you plan to come, or are just considering the possibility, please let us know by email events@hgchicago.org or by phoning us at 312 362-9302.
Decades before Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith wrote what he seems to have considered a superior work, Theory of Moral Sentiments. He wrote:
How selfish soever man may be supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him in the fortune of others, and render their happiness necessary to him, though he derives nothing from it except the pleasure of seeing it.
Wikipedia asserts:
Smith critically examines the moral thinking of his time, and suggests that conscience arises from dynamic and interactive social relationships through which people seek “mutual sympathy of sentiments.”[74] His goal in writing the work was to explain the source of mankind’s ability to form moral judgement, given that people begin life with no moral sentiments at all. Smith proposes a theory of sympathy, in which the act of observing others and seeing the judgements they form of both others and oneself makes people aware of themselves and how others perceive their behaviour.
The Theory of Moral Sentiments has been printed in numerous editions, and is also available free on line. Smith revised the book throughout his lifetime; it’s best to avoid the first edition, and choose one published after his death in 1790.
In this session we’ll discuss parts 1-3 of the book, taking up parts 4-7 on November 20,
