Other Thinkers

John Ruskin

(1819-1900) was one of the most ambitious and impassioned English social reformers of the 19th century. He was also – at first sight – a deeply improbable reformer, because he seemed to care mostly about one thing – beauty – which has a reputation for being eminently apolitical and removed from ‘real life’. And yet the more Ruskin thought about beauty – the beauty of things humans make, ranging from buildings to chairs, paintings to clothes – the more he realised that the quest to make a more beautiful world is inseparable from the need to remake it politically, economically and socially. In a world that is nowadays growing not only ever more polluted and more unequal but also, though we seldom remark upon it, uglier, Ruskin’s emphasis on beauty and his understanding of its role in political theory make him an unusual yet timely and very necessary figure. Towards the end of his life, Tolstoy very accurately described Ruskin as, “one of the most remarkable men not only of England and of our generation, but of all countries and times.”

http://thephilosophersmail.com/perspective/the-great-philosophers-13-john-ruskin/

Jacob Riis

Born in Denmark in May 1849 and emigrated to the United States, he became a police reporter, a job he enhanced with his natural photographic skills. Led by his interest in New York City's tenement life and the harsh conditions people living there endured, he used his camera as a tool to bring about change. With his 1890 book How the Other Half Lives, Riis put those living conditions on display in a package that wasn't to be ignored, and his career as a social reformer was launched.

Agnes Macphail

First woman elected to the House of Commons, was born in rural Ontario. While working as a young schoolteacher she became involved with progressive political movements, including the United Farm Women of Ontario. She also began writing a newspaper column. She was elected to the Commons as a member of the Progressive Party of Canada in 1921. Her causes included rural issues, pensions for seniors, workers rights, and pacifism. She also lobbied for penal reform and established the Elizabeth Fry Society of Canada. She later was elected to Ontario’s Legislative Assembly, where she initiated Ontario’s first equal-pay legislation in 1951.

Modern Times (1936)

Charlie Chaplin Film

Chaplin was acutely preoccupied with the social and economic problems of this new age. In 1931 and 1932 he had left Hollywood behind, to embark on an 18-month world tour. In Europe, he had been disturbed to see the rise of nationalism and the social effects of the Depression, of unemployment and of automation.

He read books on economic theory; and devised his own Economic Solution, an intelligent exercise in utopian idealism, based on a more equitable distribution not just of wealth but of work. In 1931 he told a newspaper interviewer, “Unemployment is the vital question . . . Machinery should benefit mankind. It should not spell tragedy and throw it out of work”.

https://www.charliechaplin.com/it/articles/21-Overview-of-His-Life

Watch the film here: https://vimeo.com/216518743

William Morris

Embracing Marxism and influenced by anarchism, in the 1880s William Morris became a committed revolutionary socialist activist. In 1883 Morris joined the Democratic Federation (soon to be renamed the Social Democratic Federation (S.D.F.)). In December 1884, with the support of Friedrich Engels, Morris and eight out of the ten members of the executive of the S.D.F. resigned and set up the Socialist League. Morris’s Coach House at Kelmscott House then became the meeting place of the Hammersmith Socialist League, where speakers such as Peter Kropotkin, George Bernard Shaw and many other socialist pioneers lectured, usually followed by a rigorous debate lead by Morris. Morris left the Socialist League at the end of 1890 and continued to work in the Hammersmith Socialist Society, which was formed around the Hammersmith branch of the Socialist League.

https://williammorrissociety.org/about-william-morris/

Henry David Thoreau

As a social reformer whose words echo the principles on which the United States was founded — that it is a person’s duty to resist injustice where it is found — Thoreau’s writings influenced Gandhi's work in India, Tolstoy’s philosophy in Russia, and King's civil rights stand in the United States. Wherever in the world individuals and groups embrace human rights over political rights, they invoke the name of Henry David Thoreau and the words of his essay. "Civil Disobedience": "Can there not be a government in which the majorities do not virtually decide right and wrong, but conscience? . . . Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience, then?"

https://www.walden.org/thoreau/

A Christmas Carol and Charles DIckens .pdf

Charles Dickens

was born on 7 February 1812 in Portsmouth, the second of eight children. When he was nine years old his father was imprisoned for debt and all of the family except for young Charles were sent to Marshalsea, the debtors’ prison. Charles instead went to work in a blacking factory and suffered first hand the appalling conditions, loneliness and despair. During his lifetime – he died in June 1870 - industrialisation dramatically reshaped Britain, the population of London tripled and he saw the birth of the railways, the telegraph and the steamship.

He used his novels to bring to attention the social ills and abuses of Victorian England in such a way that the general public could relate and react to. For example, Oliver Twist attacked the workhouse system and portrayed a criminal underclass that captured the public’s imagination. In David Copperfield and Great Expectations he drew on his early experiences of the debtors’ prison and the blacking factory. He exposed the brutal Yorkshire schools in Nicholas Nickleby and the inadequacies of the law in Pickwick Papers and Bleak House.

https://www.rnib.org.uk/charles-dickens-and-social-reform-victorian-england

The Douglas Coldwell Foundation

The Foundation was named for and inspired by Tommy Douglas, the first federal leader of the New Democratic Party from 1961 to 1971, and M. J. Coldwell, leader of its predecessor Co-operative Commonwealth Federation from 1942 to 1960. Both had desired a Canadian counterpart to the Fabian Society.

Jacob S. Coxey and Coxey's Army

In protest of the federal government's failure to assist the American populace during this economic downturn, Coxey formed a protest march that became known as "Coxey's Army." The group left Massillon, numbering one hundred men, on Easter Sunday, with the intention of marching to Washington, DC, to demand that the United States government assist the American worker. As the group marched to Washington, hundreds more workers joined it along the route. Coxey claimed that his army would eventually number more than 100,000 men. By the time that the army reached Washington, it numbered only five hundred men.

Upon arriving in Washington, Coxey and his supporters demanded that the federal government immediately assist workers by hiring them to work on public projects such as roads and government buildings. The United States Congress and President Grover Cleveland refused. Law enforcement officials arrested Coxey for trespassing on public property. Coxey's Army quickly dispersed upon its leader's arrest.

"Coxey's Army" illustrates the harsh financial situation gripping the United States during the Panic of 1893. It also shows a growing desire among Americans for their government to play a more active role in solving the people's problems.

http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Coxey%27s_Army

The Famous Five

Emily Murphy (1868-1933), Nellie McClung (1873-1951), Irene Parlby (1868-1965), Louise McKinney (1868-1931) , and Henrietta Muir Edwards (1849-1931) were five female politicians and activists from Alberta who fought for women's rights in various ways. From 1927-1929 they were involved in a high-profile legal challenge known as the Persons Case that argued women should be eligible to be appointed to the Canadian Senate.

http://www.thecanadaguide.com/history/historical-figures/

Paul Samuelson and the neo-classical synthesis

Though regarded as America's leading standard-bearer for Keynesian economics, he called himself a “cafeteria Keynesian”, just picking the bits he liked. His combination of Keynesian and classical economic ideas became known as the “neoclassical synthesis”.

Paul Samuelson coined the expression “neoclassical synthesis” to refer to the new theory that blended Keynesianism with neoclassical microeconomics.

The neo-classical synthesis was the notion that monetary and fiscal policy could be used to solve the problem of recessions and depressions, and that once you did that, conventional microeconomics — with its favorable view of free markets — could go back to its old self.

He approved of massive government spending to help an economy escape from recession when monetary policy can do no more. The self-described “dull centrist” became a fierce critic of the libertarian Chicago School, and especially of Milton Friedman.

https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2009/12/17/paul-samuelson

Joseph Schumpeter and "creative destruction"

Creative destruction refers to the process in which technology and innovation create new ways of doing things and, in the process, leave the old ways behind. Technological innovation might destroy entire businesses, industries, or streams of employment while allowing new enterprises to grow in their wake. Schumpeter believed the process of creative destruction, “which essentially revolutionizes the economic structure from within” was the hallmark of capitalism. For Schumpeter, destroying the old ways of doing things was a necessary pre-condition for growth and continued profitability.

Schumpeter and the economists who adopt his succinct summary of the free market’s ceaseless churning echo capitalism’s critics in acknowledging that lost jobs, ruined companies, and vanishing industries are inherent parts of the growth system. The saving grace comes from recognizing the good that comes from the turmoil. Over time, societies that allow creative destruction to operate grow more productive and richer; their citizens see the benefits of new and better products, shorter work weeks, better jobs, and higher living standards.

Herein lies the paradox of progress. A society cannot reap the rewards of creative destruction without accepting that some individuals might be worse off, not just in the short term, but perhaps forever. At the same time, attempts to soften the harsher aspects of creative destruction by trying to preserve jobs or protect industries will lead to stagnation and decline, short-circuiting the march of progress. Schumpeter’s enduring term reminds us that capitalism’s pain and gain are inextricably linked. The process of creating new industries does not go forward without sweeping away the preexisting order.

https://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/CreativeDestruction.html

Creative Destruction in Roger and Me

http://www.criticalcommons.org/Members/AdrianFohr/clips/creative-destruction-in-roger-and-me

GM outsources their factory jobs and havoc ensues in the town of Flint, Michigan. What is not shown however is the wealth that is created wherever the factor jobs end up (Mexico). This torpid and painful process is what Joseph Schumpeter calls 'Creative Destruction.' It's also strange that the wealthy would hold a 'Great Gatsby' party, as the book was very, very critical of the wealthy.

Schumpeter versus Karl Marx

Although Marx saw how Capitalism could reinvent itself, he also felt it’s inherent tendency to self-destruction would eventually lead to its end. Schumpeter derived his ideas from a close reading of Marx. However, whilst Marx believed capitalists crisis and destruction would lead to its demise, Schumpeter saw creative destruction as a necessary and natural way to enable new markets and new growth.

https://www.economicshelp.org/blog/20255/economics/creative-destruction/

Example

Music

The music industry has seen numerous technological changes which have led to the rise and fall of several companies.

In the early 1980s, the cassette started to overtake vinyl, harming firms which relied on the manufacturer of vinyl. But the early 1990s, the compact disc had started to replace the cassette. For a short period, the compact disc was very profitable for record labels and manufacturers, such as Phillips and Sony.
However, from the early 2000s, electronic downloads wiped out the profitability of compact disc manufacturer and sale, creating a very different music industry, dominated by digital downloads and new companies like Napster and Apple taking the place of other more traditional music companies.

Creative Destruction and the Luddites

The Luddites protested against the introduction of new machines which took the jobs of skilled artisans. However, although jobs were lost in hand-spinning – new jobs were created in other areas of the economy.

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