A History of Greek Economic ThoughtTrever, Albert Augustus
History
A History of Greek Economic Thought
Trever, Albert Augustus
Economics -- Greece -- History; Thesis (Ph. D.)
development; that reciprocity is the fundamental principle in exchange,
as also in the social structure; that exchange performs a legitimate
social function in creating time and place values; that industrial
expansion is limited by a law of diminishing returns; that the primary
purpose of exchange should not be profit, but satisfaction of economic
need; that commerce merely for its own sake does not necessarily
increase the national store, but may produce only economic inequalities;
that extremes of wealth and poverty cause industrial inefficiency,
social strife, and crime; that excessive individual wealth is not
usually compatible with just acquisition or just expenditure; that it
also necessarily implies corresponding extremes of poverty; that the
commercial spirit in nations is the chief cause of international
differences; that the goal of economics is consumption rather than
production, and that foolish consumption results in great economic
waste; that all economic problems are moral problems; that private
property is not a natural right, but a gift of society, and therefore
that society may properly control its activities; that there is a
certain unity in human nature, which is opposed to the doctrine of
natural slavery; that the individual should have opportunity for
personal development in accord with his capacities, aside from the mere
struggle for physical existence; that true economic equality does not
demand equal shares for all, but shares proportioned to capacities and
services; and that gifts of charity merely for consumption are fruitful
causes of poverty and indolence.
Besides the recognition of such principles, we have seen that many
practical suggestions for the amelioration of economic and social
conditions, which are being seriously presented today, were first
proposed by Greek thinkers. Measures for the divorce of government from
big business, state control of natural monopolies, conservation of
natural resources, state supervision of trade and commerce, including
regulation of prices and rates, publicity in business, pure food laws,
and the socialization of industry and its products were all first
proposed by Greeks. On the other hand, we have seen that practically all
the modern stock arguments against socialism were long ago presented by
Aristotle, and that the ideal of the Greek socialist was not primarily
materialistic and selfish, as the modern, but moral and social.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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