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2/12/2008
History of Economic Thought
The section of Science known as political economy is, compared to other sciences,
fairly new. But Mill starts his work by stating that the item examined by political economy
is hardly new. It is one of the oldest discussions around. The subject critiqued by
political economy is wealth. It is wealth according to Mill that drives economies. Political
economy however does not look at how much wealth, but rather how wealth is
produced. Mill says that a society is often shaped by the way wealth is produced. Mill
than examines the use of property in the pursuit of wealth. When a member of society
refuses to work, that member only hurts the society as a whole. Only by contributing to
the overall good of society, by working, can that member make a change in the status of
the wealth of the society. Mill states that the distribution of wealth relies solely on the
societys rules and laws. This can give rise to the question of what laws are the best to
promote wealth. Mill describes to ways in which this can be done, by freedom and by
joint ownership. If a society as a whole is free to choose what they wish to do, than
every member would be free to choose how to make use of their individual talents and
land. Joint ownership, endeavors to create a system that a few governing people have
come to develop.
Mill later presents the differences in a number of the utopian societies that writers
had dreamed up. These utopian societies ensured that all members were equal in the
community. However the negative side to this is that not all member are willing or
capable to contribute the same amount of resources. This could, or quit possibly would,
lead to dissent in the community. After presenting these ideas, Mill says that the only
way to have any community is to ensure that all members have some liberty to make
decisions for themselves. Than you will make the community healthier when every
After Mill presents his ideas on societies, he presents the idea of the Stationary
State. Although most writers would say that a Stationary State is bad, Mill says that in
some cases in can be beneficial for the society. A specific case would be if the
community needed to be educated. So that will the population is taught, the economy is
kept at a constant. After which, a more educated population makes decisions to move
forward.
Mill goes on to discuss a new view of the role of the lower class in the economy. In
years before Mill, the lower class had been solely expected to do their job and not ask
questions. They were told by their masters what and when to do their tasks. Mill
presents the idea of matching the labor to the task. By doing this, a community would
get a better response form the lower class because they would apply themselves wholly
government may use the authoritative interference method, where society is told how to
do everything, Mill says that the better way is to let the government step in and offer
advice. This then allows the community to still make free decisions. If, however, the
society proves that they can not or will not make the correct decisions, than the
government can step in and steer the population. This can be achieved by leveling
taxes or by instituting a government body, such as a state run bank etc. By doing this,
the government ensures that population is allowed as much freedom as possible or is
After reading his works, I can definitely see that Mill was highly influenced by
previous thinkers such as Smith, Ricardo etc. He seems to exhibit a definite leaning
towards some of the same principles that Ricardo taught. Through the whole writing
though, Mill has one main theme, freedom of the people to choose. Even though he
doesnt say it directly, Mill is alluding to a market system. His thoughts on the
government intervention seem to echo somewhat with what Ricardo said about the