Laboulaye rejects the "statism" of Louis Blanc as well as the "anti-statism" of the Anglophile economists, and shows that the role of the state is precisely to encourage progress, by fostering technological development and education. He clearly differentiates the British from the American model:-Dino De Paoli"The creation of large companies must be avoided; the British-style industrial expansion which leads to pauperization and demoralization must be stopped. . .. In England, the country which, to this day, is still the most affected by the feudal era, where the descendants of the Normand have become large landowners ... and have permitted the building of British industry in a most aristocratic fashion ... industry is found to be organized on the model of ever-divisible territorial property, on the model of its fully aristocratic political society, totally feudal."Laboulaye lists several prescriptions for reaching that goal, including the following:
"In the United States of America ... the organization of industry is totally democratic. The worker only works today, so to speak, in the hope of being his own master tomorrow, and the industrial enterprises grow in number more than in size. In the two countries, the industrial organization is the faithful image of the political laws; it is aristocratic in the first, democratic in the second .... The feeling that one's elevation in society is impossible has indeed largely contributed to the revolution of 1848, the laboring classes always hearing talk about the increase in bankers' wealth, in that of rich speculators, and amidst the crisis of industry, never seeing one of their own ranks rise into property through labor and innovation. Those are the unhappy seeds planted in times of demoralization, which have produced the false ideas that today pose the greatest dangers to the country. Oh, if we could get all the theoreticians to look at the beautiful American industrial scene! ... Either the plain, dumb desire for improvement will lead us into communism ... or it will surely lead us into a frightening equality of misery, through the degradation of everything and everyone; or we shall see an industrial democratic power with a broad base, gifted with an immense energy for productive work, well-being becoming the ensured reward of talent. ... [This] will bring about growth in the wealth of the nation, to undreamed-of proportions.""Credit. The only country with the goal of putting credit at the disposal of any capability that will make it bear fruit, is America. Thus have we seen that country, in a few years, realize undreamed-of progress . . .. Of course, the goal was sometimes missed ... and that nearly always happened when credit was turned into an instrument of speculation, instead of a means of fostering labor. "- Laboulaye "Dictionary of Arts and Manufactures"
22 comments:
"In the United States of America ... the organization of industry is totally democratic. The worker only works today, so to speak, in the hope of being his own master tomorrow, and the industrial enterprises grow in number more than in size. In the two countries, the industrial organization is the faithful image of the political laws; it is aristocratic in the first, democratic in the second .... The feeling that one's elevation in society is impossible has indeed largely contributed to the revolution of 1848, the laboring classes always hearing talk about the increase in bankers' wealth, in that of rich speculators, and amidst the crisis of industry, never seeing one of their own ranks rise into property through labor and innovation. Those are the unhappy seeds planted in times of demoralization, which have produced the false ideas that today pose the greatest dangers to the country. Oh, if we could get all the theoreticians to look at the beautiful American industrial scene! ...
Cor' blimey, Guvner!
Had he not heard of the Age of the Robber Barons?
This fellow Laboulaye must have written his observations prior to WWI before the so-called Progressive Era regrettably took hold on American shores, is that right?
We could never hope to repay the debt we owe to the so-called "Robber Barons" of the "Gilded Age" –– two terms conjured up by muckraking, rabble-rousing, power-hungry, self-righteous, hypocritical leftists determined to upend the Establishment and grab hold of the levers of power to serve their rotten, grim, neo-Puritanical, faux-humanitarian agenda.
My dirt poor immigrant grandparents REALIZED the American Dream. What they achieved more than a century ago in the late 1800's and early 1900's could not possibly be replicated today thanks to Siren Song of Marxism marshaling to the forces of Envy, Discontent, Base Ingratitude, Insolence, Truculence, Spite, Malice and Lust for Vengeance against imaginary enemies invented by the master propagandists of the Left.
We are reaping that bitter harvest today.
Laboulaye wrote around the Civil War era. He was anti-slavery pro-North, during a period when the nation was largely agricultural. My father's family, during the period, were farmers in Ohio. It would be 20 years before my mother's family would relocate from OStrfiesland to Iowa, to farm.
So yes, the "robber barons" were on the rise at the time, but the vast, VAST majorty were farmers, small business men (ownership society).
In the interest of full disclosre, one of my uncle's grandfathers was Leland Stanford's clerk, who's kids all graduated from Boldt Hall Law School (UC Berkeley), one later becoming a state senator in the California legislature. My uncle inherited his house and property in San Jose, and sold them for millions in the 80's (Silicon Valley) in order to pay the taxes he could no longer afford. He relocated their family Victorian home to the foothills above Placerville.
I don't want to understate the problem of Neoliberalism in the UK and Europe but the problem is far more acute in the US. I'm sure the imbecile Free Stinker will find a way to blame the left for that too. Or Da Joooos, of course...
Which brings me to two comments made by you at the Free Stinker and rispostes by me promptly deleted by one of the vilest bloggers in existence.
Coal & Oil made slavery obsolete. Jersey wants to go back to the good old days.
and:
This notion fundamentally refutes the mechanical interpretation of the laws of thermodynamics, as well as the simplistic interpretation of the principle of conservation of energy attributed to Carnot. It also destroys the stupid arguments of today's ecology movement for solar energy, for new "diffuse" sources of energy.
If man wants to progress, he must create new forms of energy of greater and greater densities. -Carnot, "Eloge de Vauban" ("In Praise of Vauban") (1784)
The first snark shows that you either don't understand science or slavery or both. It's precisely this vile type of apocalyptic hyperbole coming out of the US ConservaBubble that makes any dialogue between left and right simply impossible.
The cost (in the broad sense of the word) of changing over to carbon neutral energies doesn't by the longest stretch of the imagination require a return to slavery, the abolition of motorised work, the destruction of the free market or the end of civilisation. You know that too, so stop the strawmanning.
As regards Carnot, nicely pulled out of context!
Of course that's broadly true and yet renewables already have a place in energy production (but it's not a silver bullet).
Talking of much higher density energies, when fusion will eventually come online and be far far more profitable than Big Oil, what objection to going carbon neutral will you throw up then?
More full disclosure, he was Leland Stanford's "office boy" not his "clerk".... and he was only related by marriage, not GF.
And I'm sorry FT deleted your comments, or I would have responded.
Perhaps we can agree that onlocking the inherent stored energy in coal/oil made the Industrial Revolution possible. It (tractors specifically) also freed up millions of agricultural workers who formerly worked on family farms, and let to a great relocation of work, from rural areas to cities, factories and mines. Yes, large scale slavery on southern cotton plantations had been fueled by the proliferation of cotton mills, but these were also largely HYDRO powered, and not "necessarily" steam/energy dependent. The cotton gin's invention in the late 1790s also contributed to demand for cotton, but you'll have to admit that it was a "labor-SAVING" device. Yes, all this new labour was all highly specialized, repetitive, etc. and its "efficiencies" dependent upon a division of labour. But it is also true that the people who got PAID to do it, made those forced to do it (slaves), seem increasingly inefficient and unproductive by comparison. And slavery existed long-LONG before the Industrial Revolution.
And fyi, I've no objection to going carbon neutral if we switch to nuclear tomorrow. Let fusion come when it's ready. The problem with the Left is that "better tomorrow" is the enemy of "good enough for now". It's always bashing "what we have" for "what we don't". Don't like what we have? Then invent and bring to market something better. Only do it without a government subsidy and all the "world's going to end" drama.
wow my folks worked to the bone as immigrants as well! Happiest holidays to you my loyal patriot friend!!! xoxoxox :0
I'm sorry, Thersites, but I would never permit your rude, boorish, utterly obnoxious friend, Mr. MYERS, –– obviously a classic, self-abosrbed, paranoid Jew of the sort that gives all poor Jews a Bad Name –– to assert his arrogant, condescending, vitriolic presence in my space. PERIOD!
I regret your welcoming him into yours, but that is your affair not mine.
He is always welcome here, FT, as are you. We may not agree on much, but I hope that I can learn more from him. You can't learn much from those views that you're never or seldom exposed to.
My family (the white side of it) has been in America for over 400 years. I am a direct descendant of the brother of the man who surveyed the original map of Jamestown colony.
The non-white side of my family has been in America for over 12,000 years ;)
Insults, personal attacks, and pointedly rude remarks never have been –– and never should be –– considered a legitimate part of debates or exchanges of varying points of view.
The Left perpetually plays The Son of a Bitch Game. Another name for it could be The Baiting Game. In essence it's the Bully in the Schoolyard crying "FOUL!" whenever one of his intended victims has the effrontery to stand up to him.
The bullyboys of the Left are welcome to their game.
It is not a possible source of Enlightenment.
PS: I neglected to say that the Right –– or some of those who purport to be on the Right –– have their fair share of thugs and bullies too. I believe the phenomenon in modern times has arisen in response to the incessant badgering, insidious schemes and outright rabble-rousing from the Left against nearly everything the Right loves and considers sacred. However, bullying –– like ALL forms of aggression –– should be roundly despised, rejected and eschewed by anyone who considers himself a civilized person. I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for it to happen, however. ;-)
_____ I’M AN INDIAN TOO _____
Like the Seminole, Navajo, Kickapoo
Like those Indians
I'm an Indian too
A Sioux
A Sioux
Just like Battle Axe, Hatchet Face, Eagle Nose
Like those Indians
I'm an Indian too
A Sioux
A Sioux
Some Indian summer's day
Without a sound
I may hide away
With Big Chief Hole-in-the-Ground
And I'll have totem poles, tomahawks, pipes of peace
Which will go to prove
I'm an Indian too
A Sioux
A Sioux
With my chief in his teepee
We'll raise an Indian family
And I'll be busy night and day
Looking like a flour sack
With two papooses on my back
And three papooses on the way
Like the Chippewa, Iroquois, Omaha
Like those Indians
I'm an Indian too
A Sioux
A Sioux
Just like Rising Moon, Falling Pants, Running Nose
Like those Indians
I'm an Indian too
A Sioux
A Sioux
Some Indian summer's day
Without a care
I may run away
With Big Chief Son-of-a-Bear
And I'll wear moccasins, wampum beads, feather hats
Which will go to prove
I'm an Indian too
A Sioux
A Sioux
~ Irving Berlin (1888-1989)
By the way I really am an Indian too. One of my ancestors, who was among the first English settlers to arrive in what became the State of Maine back in the early 1630's married an Indian woman. I am descended from at one of their children. I wish there were a way I could learn more about them –– what they did, how they lived, what they ate, how they got along as a family, how they related to the community of colonists, etc.
__ COMPETING VIEWS? __
____________ I _____________
Obama gonna pay my bills
Obama gonna cure my ills
Obama gonna give to me
Everything I want for free.
On me and mine Obama dotes
Dat's why he's gonna get our votes.
We's gonna suck da white man dry
And laugh to see him sit and cry.
We laugh and laugh 'cause its so funny
Dat our bills be paid wiff white man's money.
~ Ima Mauron
________________ II ________________
Once "The Rich" have been unseated
ALL of us will be defeated,
'Cause once "The Rich" have been destroyed,
Naught will be left, except a Void ––
A Bottomless Pit –– A Big Black Hole
Where everyone lives on the Dole,
And I don't mean ol' RINO Bob,
Who’s just a lackey to Those Who Rob.
I'm talkin 'bout The Oligarchs,
Whose money once created parks
And enhanced universities,
Built hospitals to fight disease,
Palaces where Opera's housed ––
Places at which no one's groused,
Libraries and Railroad Stations
Fit for endless celebrations,
Until that old New Deal was struck.
That changed the rules and killed Good Luck.
Since then "The Rich," forced to connive
To find a way they might survive,
Have joined with Statists to despise,
Deter, discourage those who'd rise.
We call it Crony Capitalism,
And it has caused the mammoth schism
Yawning now twixt rich and poor,
'Cause we let Marxists in the door.
~ FreeThinke
COMMUNISM KILLS.
IT CANNOT CURE OUR ILLS!
You might be surprised how much you can learn from a snark filled bully, FT. I speak from long experience.
And you both have more American blood in you than I do. My ancestors were all Europeans.
I'm sorry, Thersites, but I would never permit your rude, boorish, utterly obnoxious friend, Mr. MYERS, –– obviously a classic, self-abosrbed, paranoid Jew of the sort that gives all poor Jews a Bad Name –– to assert his arrogant, condescending, vitriolic presence in my space. PERIOD!
I'm not even Jewish (as if that matters one iota), you fucking twit!
"Don't like what we have? Then invent and bring to market something better. Only do it without a government subsidy and all the "world's going to end" drama."
Plenty of Companies world-wide, US included, are already doing that. But this is one problem that the 'invisible hand' is not going to solve all by itself.
Research into a complex problem like climate change is expensive, must be internationally coordinated and G'ment subsidised. If one of the jobs of G'ment is to keep us safe then logic dictates that.
Drama? For quite a few people the drama is unfolding as I'm writing this but these poor souls are far from our beds. When they come a knocking on our doors as refugees, we can put up a YOOOOOGE wall of course, let them drown and keep the party going, if we want to.
In a long bygone era humans could move to higher ground or to warmer climes (in the case of an ice age). Today we've practically full Apartheid (to paraphrase old Slavoj).
Agreed fully on fission, BTW...
"However, bullying –– like ALL forms of aggression –– should be roundly despised, rejected and eschewed by anyone who considers himself a civilized person. I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for it to happen, however. ;-)"
No, I wouldn't either, because for one you don't even REMOTELY live by it. Vile comments by those on the Right get a free pass almost always on your stench-trench, but anything from the left gets admonished in the most hyperbolic of tones. Not to mention the company you keep at 'Lisa' and your sock-puppetry there and elsewhere. A bigger hypocrite is hard to find.
You fancy yourself as a bit of a belletrist, don't you? Stick to that, it's what you're moderately good at.
If I could raise a pulley
Or push down on a lever
To jettison a bully
I would rejoice forever. }:-)>
Only pussies call people bullies.
And vice versa.
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