The Dismal Science (David Ricardo and Thomas Malthus)

INTRODUCTION

Today we will discuss the ideas of David Ricardo and Thomas Malthus. Ricardo and Malthus were contemporaries, who disagreed often. However, both men had a gloomy view of life for the average man in the newly industrialized world. It is largely due to them that people refer to economics as "the dismal science."

Question of the Day

Why was the analysis of Malthus and Ricardo so much more pessimistic about the fate of society than Adam Smith's?

Focus Questions

• What is the iron law of wages?

• What is meant by the Malthusian trap?

VOCABULARY

• 1. Industrial Revolution

  2. Enclosure

  3. Crop rotation

  4. Industrialization

  5. Factors of production

  6. Factory

  7. Entrepreneur

  8. Urbanization

  9. Middle class

  10. Stock

  11. Corporation

  12. Laissez-faire

  13. Adam Smith

  14. Capitalism

  15. Utilitarianism

  16. Socialism

  17. Karl Marx

  18. Communism

  19. Union

  20. Strike

  21. Suffrage

  22. Chartist Movement

  23. Queen Victoria

  24. Third Republic

  25. Iron law of wages

  26. Malthusian trap

  27. Invisible hand

  28. Competition

  29. Price mechanism

  30. Dominion

  31. Penal colony

  32. Home rule

  33. U.S. Civil War

  34. Assembly line

  35. Charles Darwin

  36. Theory of evolution

WHAT IS DUE TODAY?

1. Read Chapter 4 in The Worldly Philosophers by Robert Heilbroner.

2. Take notes on the reading. Organize your notes using the Question of the Day and today's Focus Questions. For each one, note at least one passage and any other information from the text that helps to answer the question.

ASSESSMENTS AND ACTIVITIES

1. Scored discussion of the reading

2. DBQ activity. We will continue working on the DBQ activity that we started last week. Click here to find it again. Work from the draft that you started as a Google doc last class ("Why England First"). Try to write one of your body paragraphs today. This PowerPoint may be helpful, as it explains how to write a DBQ response.

WHAT IS DUE NEXT CLASS?

1. Be prepared for a matching quiz on vocabulary terms 21-36.

2. Read Chapter 26 (Sections 3 and 4) in the blue textbook.

3. Take notes on the reading. You should organize your notes around the statements below. Under each statement in your notes should be SHE from the reading that supports the statement. If you cannot find support for a statement, do not include it in your notes.

   • Statement #1: The Industrial Revolution altered the goods that Americans produced.

   • Statement #2: The Industrial Revolution changed how Americans produced goods.

   • Statement #3: The Industrial Revolution changed the ways that people waged war.

ENRICHMENT

• For more background, sign up for this Coursera class and watch the video lectures.

Related readings:

• 20th Century Man

• Rage Against the Machine