Charles Laboulaye, "Dictionary of Arts and Manufactures" [source]
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:Laboulaye lists several prescriptions for reaching that goal, including the following:"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 Normans 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.
"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."
9 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! ... 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."
ROFLOL. Is it really useful to reprint ye very olde scrolls? I mean this guy obviously hadn't heard from Amazon/Google/Meta/Big Tech?
No one ever said that it has remained so. The text was published in 1854 and provides a point of reference.
...and yes, such references are useful if one cares about "originalism".
It speaks to the "proletariatization" of the American worker since the mid-nineteenth century. The petit bourgeoise never had a chance...
The British always did love their downstairs servants... and successfully filled the world with them.
Herman Melville, "The Paradise of the Bachelors and Tartarus of the Maids" (1855)
As I commented at Elizabeth's blog vis China the other day.... For many years Americans believed that democracy was absolutely necessary for capitalism to succeed. They were both right and wrong. What’s needed for capitalism to succeed is only a “marketplace” with wealthy customers. The “producers” of goods for this wealthy marketplace don’t necessarily have to be “democrats”. Democracy merely helps keep the members of the marketplace wealthy enough to consume goods produced for it. If money doesn’t flow back to a marketplace’s consumers, after a while, they become poor and capitalism “fails”.
Mr. Chang merely expressed the “collective desire” amongst American experts that the link between capitalism and democracy was both inviolable and absolute. That to adopt capitalism meant to inevitably become a democracy China has proven that it is not inevitable so long as there’s a market of wealthy customers to exploit. Only once all the wealth from the marketplace has been extracted, will it fail.
Sadly, I believe we are seeing capitalism and democracy now failing in America and I see no turning back. I am not a pessimist, but if we keep having weak leaders like Biden, or big mouth bullies like Trump we will go nowhere but down.
What is failing is global corporate capitalism, which democracy is no longer capable of sustaining (it requires autocracy).
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