June 29, 2023
Troy D. Smith
“Dispossessing the Poor, Part 4- Let Them Eat Less Cake”
Before I expand this series into Appalachia, I want to look
closer at some of the prevailing arguments by 18th century
philosophers about labor and wealth.
Most educated people in England and her colonies by then were
in agreement that there were different LEVELS of society leading toward true
“civilization.” In that narrative, people were first hunter-gatherers, or
“savages.” Then they moved up to nomadic herdsmen, or “barbarians.” Thirdly,
they became sedentary farmers, or agrarians. Finally, as the pinnacle and
perfect end-point, they became urban, civilized, modern people who sell
everything they make and live on money rather than barter or the work of their
own hands. People who “use the earth properly” by extracting every single thing
of “value” from it, to be turned into money. People “stuck” at that third level
of agrarianism, whoever they were, were considered “backward” and in need of
civilizing. A century later, even Karl Marx subscribed to this thinking on
“levels of society” and “civilization.” He differed from the capitalists he
critiqued in that he believed that the workers should seize control of the “means
of production.”
Let’s pause a moment to narrow the definition of
capitalists. In a capitalist system, some people accumulate enough resources,
or capital, that they can invest that capital into profit-generating
enterprises. Money IS capital, or it can be used to buy other things that are
capital (real estate, factories, equipment, etc.). A person with capital owns a
business, but it is usually hired workers who do the actual labor. Marx said
that the capitalist should be cut out of the equation, because he doesn’t
physically do anything, and the workers should be cooperative owners of the
land/factories/etc. and benefit fully and equally from the profit. My point
here is that Marx, too, disapproved of the single, self-sufficient farmer as
not participating and cooperating fully with “civilization.”
Adam Smith was a Scottish economist who wrote an
earth-shattering book in 1776 called “Wealth of Nations.” Even if you’ve never
read it, you’re familiar with many of its ideas: laissez-faire, or government
keeping its hand out of business and not overly regulating it, and the
“invisible hand of the market” which will correct itself on its own if everyone
involved is seeking their own self-interests, which would actually serve to
balance things out. It served as the beginning of a change away from
mercantilism and toward industrial capitalism. The book had a big influence on
what I call “Founding Fathers: The Young Generation,” leaders who were IN the
Revolution but were far younger than Revolutionary leaders like Washington,
Adams, or Jefferson. Mainly, Alexander Hamilton (who loved the idea of
industrial capitalism) and James Madison (who loved the idea of checks and
balances).
But even Smith agreed that, without some measures from
government, the laborers themselves would be miserable and become “stupid and
ignorant” in their menial role. Many people of the time, though, agreed with
Smith’s fellow Scottish economist James Steuart, who maintained that suffering
and even a high mortality rate for laborers was a good thing, because it culled
the weak ones and forced the others to work harder than ever to stay alive,
thus generating more profit for those at the top. By no means should small
farmers be allowed to own their own farms, because that was an unnatural state
in which servants were masters. Peasants are naturally lazy, Steuart and his
ilk said (because they stopped working when they had enough); only HUNGER was a
strong enough tool to make them work to the maximum. This line of reasoning is
similar to the Social Darwinism movement of a century later.
Stop and think about that in modern terms. A large segment
of current society believes: poor people are lazy and should work harder; their
kids should not get free lunch at school, their families should not get SNAP/food
stamps; they are not quite “like us.”
--Troy D.
Smith, a White County native, is a novelist and a history professor at
Tennessee Tech. His words do not necessarily represent TTU.
A list of other historical essays that have appeared on this blog can be found HERE
Author's website: www.troyduanesmith.com
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