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Economics and the Pursuit of Happiness

5 Parts, 15 Lessons, 51 Videos   3H 30M
Parts
  • Introduction
  • Political Economy and Public Choice
    • Lesson 1: Political Implications of Economic Systems
    • Lesson 2: The Public Choice Perspective
    • Lesson 3: Bureaucracy and the Commercial Order
  • Moral Dimensions of Property and Trade
    • Lesson 4: Justice in Exchange
    • Lesson 5: Social Aspects of Justice and Commerce
    • Lesson 6: Property, Production, and Distribution
  • The Contest of Ideas: Keynes and Hayek
    • Lesson 7: John Maynard Keynes: Radical Conservative
    • Lesson 8: Hayek: Conserving Freedom
    • Lesson 9: Keynesianism and the Limits of Economics
  • The Contest of Ideas: Free to Choose?
    • Lesson 10: Freedom of Choice
    • Lesson 11: Hayek: Libertarian Paternalism
    • Lesson 12: On the Nature of Liberty
  • The Moral Dimensions of the Market Economy
    • Lesson 13: Moral Norms
    • Lesson 14: Justifying Income, Wealth, and Capitalism
    • Lesson 15: Market Freedom, Efficiency, and Tradition

Lesson 6 Lesson 6: Property, Production, and Distribution

Presented by: Dr. Jay Richards
Busch School of Business and Economics at the Catholic University of America and George Mason University

Playlist

  1. Lesson 6, Video 1 - Dr. Jay Richards
  2. Lesson 6, Video 2 - Dr. Jay Richards
  3. Lesson 6, Video 3 - Dr. Jay Richards

J. S. Mill and the Rise of Socialism

A perennial question considered in this lesson is the connection between production and distribution. To what extent can these two functions of an economic system be separated? Writing at the dawn of Communist and Socialist movements, John Stuart Mill evaluated alternatives to individual property and schemes of common ownership and distribution in light of principles of justice and human nature.

Key Concepts: (1) Socialism, (2) Individual Property, (3) Distribution of Wealth, (4) Utopian Schemes, (5) Rights to Property

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EPH Lesson 6: Property, Production, and Distribution

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“We have here to consider, not the causes, but the consequences, of the rules according to which wealth may be distributed. Those, at least, are as little arbitrary, and have as much the character of physical laws, as the laws of production.”

J. S. Mill

“The objection ordinarily made to a system of community of property and equal distribution of the produce, that each person would be incessantly occupied in evading his fair share of the work, points, undoubtedly, to a real difficulty. But those who urge this objection, forget how great an extent the same difficulty exists under the system on which nine-tenths of the business of society is now conducted.”

J. S. Mill

“But to make the comparison applicable, we must compare Communism at its best, with the regime of individual property, not as it is, but as it might be made. The principle of private property has never yet had a fair trial in any country.”

J. S. Mill

“Private property, in every defence made of it, is supposed to mean, the guarantee to individuals of the fruits of their own labour and abstinence.”

J. S. Mill

“When the ‘sacredness of property’ is talked of, it should always be remembered, that any such sacredness does not belong in the same degree to landed property.”

J. S. Mill

“If a conjecture may be hazarded, the decision will probably depend mainly on one consideration, viz. which of the two systems [individual agency or Socialism] is consistent with the greatest amount of human liberty and spontaneity.”

J. S. Mill

Learn More

h Link

John Stuart Mill, Principles of Political Economy, Book II, Chapters I and II, “Of Property” and “Of the Same Subject Continued.”

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h Link

John Stuart Mill, “Of the Same Subject Continued” (from Principles of Political Economy)

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h Video

“Principles of Political Economy by John Stuart Mill” with Lynne Kiesling

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h Video

“John Stuart Mill--On Liberty” from the Academy of Ideas

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