Write your own political economy: exercises for colleges, high schools, and independent students by Taylor W

Author:Taylor, W[illiam] G[eorge] Langworthy. [from old catalog]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: Economics
Publisher: Lincoln, Neb., The University publishing co.
Published: 1900-03-25T05:00:00+00:00

is not reasoning in a circle to select a single category, like economic life, from the whole mass of social phenomena which environs it, and then to look upon the condition of that environment as a cause of the various classes of incomes.

The question now arises (in the popular mind, at least) whether it is right that the natural* laws existing should be "permitted to act," and whether persons do right in acting according to those natural laws or in participating in the operation and maintenance of those laws. Is the market price a just price? Are market wages just wages? Economists have been fond of asserting that their science has nothing to do with right or wrong; it is merely a method of establishing the nature and mechanism of industrial laws. But, since it can be of little use to establish such laws unless they enlighten our sense of justice and guide the actions of the citizens and of the legislator, it is useless longer to hold back from frank discussion of the moral question. It is possible that the doctrine of morality evolved from economic study may help out the general principles of ethics.

In the first place, we shall doubtless agree in renouncing intuition as a proper basis and sanction of moral action. Doubtless our actions do actually follow intuitions, partly hereditary and partly acquired. We are creatures of habit. We rise, attend the shop and the market place, and retire, with regularity, uniformity, and naive spontaneity. But our actions are, nevertheless, explainable from our circumstances and

♦"Natural," not "statute," laws.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.