An Inquiry Into The Principles Of The Distribution Of Wealth Most Conducive To Human Happiness - Softcover

William Thompson

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0461359553 ISBN 13: 9780461359558

Publisher: HardPress, 2021

Synopsis

An Inquiry Into The Principles Of The Distribution Of Wealth Most Conducive To Human Happiness by William Thompson. This 19th-century reformist treatise argues that wealth is produced by labour and should be distributed to maximize human happiness, balancing security with equality through voluntary exchange and mutual cooperation rather than coercion or monopolies. It contrasts three modes of labour—coercive labour, unrestricted competitive labour, and labour through mutual cooperation—and endorses the latter as the superior basis for cooperative ownership and shared profits. The work posits three natural laws of distribution: free labor, security of the laborer’s products, and free, voluntary exchanges. It rejects monopolies and elite privileges as detrimental to happiness and production, and envisions a transitional society in which capital and labor merge into worker-managed enterprises with common ownership of land and means of production. Education and diffusion of knowledge are central to rational, benevolent distribution; gender equality and universal schooling are advocated; and reform proceeds through representative institutions and public persuasion rather than force. Part I lays out the foundation for a cooperative, happiness-centered economic order.

Edition details

• Publisher: HardPress
• Publication date: 2021
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0461359553
• ISBN 13: 9780461359558
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 505