American capitalism 2 thinkers/IDs

Silvia Federici

• Housework is real economic labor, but hidden + unpaid

• Women exploited b/c their work is treated as natural female role

• Demand wages for housework to expose and challenge this exploitation

• Expands Marxism: worker class includes “wageless workers” (women in home)

Henry George

• Land value tax (“single tax”): tax the value of bare land (not anything on it) because it’s what landowners collect simply for owning it, not for doing anything

• Rising land values make owners rich without productive contribution

• Redistribute land rents, but still preserve capitalism

Thorstein Veblen - key work and ideas

• Wrote “The Theory of the Leisure Class”, 1889

• Capitalism creates a leisure class (wealth without productive labor)

• “Conspicuous consumption”: wasteful, visible spending to signal status

• Economy split into industry (production) vs business (profit/extraction) → tension between them

• “No approach to a definitive attainment is possible” → endless status competition

Karl Polanyi - key work and ideas

• Wrote “The Great Transformation”, 1944

• Free-market destroys soiety; “self-regulating” markets were created by the state

• Double movement: market expands, but society pushes back (regulations, unions)

• Capitalism prioritizes money, while democracy demands social proection —> constant tension

• “laissez-faire was planned; planning was not”

John Maynard Keynes - ideas

• Laissez-faire does not work in crisis because markets don’t self-correct

• Aggregate demand drives the economy

• Paradox of thrift: saving too much reduces overall demand

• Use public spending and monetary policy to boost demand

• “Engine is not Thrift, but Profit”

John Maynard Keynes - key works

• The Economic Consequences of the Peace (1919): Versailles reparations will destabilize Germany —> destabilize Europe

• General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money (1936): aggregate demand framework

Milton Friedman (not as impt)

FDR

“We Must Make Land Common Property”

• From “Progress and Poverty” by Henry George, 1879

• Progress and poverty co-exist b/c of rising land rents

• Single tax makes land “common property” without removing private ownership

• Anti-monopoly, but pro-capitalism (labor keeps full product)

“Omaha Platform"

• Platform by the Populist Party, 1892

• Farmers/workers vs. elite monopolies (banks, RRs, trusts)

• Demand free silver, graduated income tax, and government control of RR/telegraph

• Strong government intervention to stop monopolies and protect producers

• “The fruits of the toil of millions are boldly stolen to build up colossal fortunes for a few”

“Gospel of Wealth”

• Andrew Carnegie, 1889

• Inequality is natural and drives progress

• Rich should be “trustees” and voluntarily use their money for public goods (NOT inheritance or direct charity)

• “Man who dies rich dies disgraced”

“The Flint Strike”

• Source by Henry Kraus about the 1936 Flint Strike

• Sit-down strike targeting GM supply chain point

• State does not crush the strike and GM is forced to negotiate

• Major victory for labor —> rise of the United Auto Workers

“Wages Against Housework”

• Silvia Federici, 1975

• Housework = unpaid labor essential to capitalism

• Family is the “pillar of society”

“Second Fireside Chat”

• FDR, 1933

• Great Depression caused oversupply and underdemand

• Government intervention is necessary: pragmatism (reform when necessary) > ideology

• Explains public works and relief + recovery programs to restore jobs/purcahsing power

• “faced by a condition and not a theory”

“Emergency Measures”

• FDR, 1941

• Global fascism threatens democracy

• Victory of fascism —> no more free labor, only coerced labor

• Defending democracy requires economic coordination by state (and also defends capitalism)

“Executive Order 8802 / Order to Desegregate Wartime Production”

• FDR, 1941

• Bans racial discrimination in defense jobs + government contracts

• Issued under civil rights pressure from A. Philip Randolph

• Wartime production needs —> inclusion of Black workers

“Marshall Plan”

• George Marshall, 1948

• $13.3 billion to Europe to stabilize capitalism/democracy + prevent communism

• U.S. actively manages global capital

“Stages of Economic Growth”