To those who, seeing the vice and misery that spring from the unequal distribution of wealth and privilege, feel the possibility of a higher social state and would strive for its attainment.San Francisco,
March, 1879Edited and abridged for modern readers by Bob DrakePublished by the Robert Schalkenbach Foundation, 2006
Prefaces
Publisher’s Foreword by Cliff Cobb
Editor’s Preface by Bob Drake
Author’s Preface to the Fourth EditionIntroduction: The Problem of Poverty Amid Progress
First Part: Wages and Capital
1. Why Traditional Theories of Wages are Wrong
2. Defining Terms
3. Wages Are Produced By Labor, Not Drawn From Capital
4. Workers Not Supported By Capital
5. The True Functions of CapitalSecond Part: Population and Subsistence
6. The Theory of Population According to Malthus
7. Malthus vs. Facts
8. Malthus vs. Analogies
9. Malthusian Theory DisprovedThird Part: The Laws of Distribution
10. Necessary Relation of the Laws of Distribution
11. The Law Of Rent
12. The Cause of Interest
13. False Interest
14. The Law Of Interest
15. The Law Of Wages
16. Correlating The Laws of Distribution
17. The Problem ExplainedFourth Part: The Effect of Material Progress
on the Distribution of Wealth18. Dynamic Forces Not Yet Explored
19. Population Growth and Distribution of Wealth
20. Technology and the Distribution of Wealth
21. SpeculationFifth Part: The Problem Solved
22. The Root Cause of Recessions
23. The Persistence of Poverty Despite Increasing WealthSixth Part: The Remedy
24. Ineffective Remedies
25. The True RemedySeventh Part: Justice of the Remedy
26. The Injustice of Private Property In Land
27. The Enslavement of Labor
28. Are Landowners Entitled to Compensation?
29. History of Land as Private Property
30. History of Property in Land in the USEighth Part: Application of the Remedy
31. Private Property in Land is Inconsistent with the Best Use of Land
32. Securing Equal Rights To Land
33. The Canons of Taxation
34. Endorsements And ObjectionsNinth Part: Effects of the Remedy
35. The Effect on Production
36. The Effect on The Distribution of Wealth
37. The Effect on Individuals and Classes
38. Changes in SocietyTenth Part: The Law of Human Progress
39. The Cause of Human Progress
40. Differences in Civilizations
41. The Law of Human Progress
42. How Modern Civilization May Decline
43. The Central Truth
44. Conclusion: The Individual LifeAfterword: Who Was Henry George? by Agnes George deMille
