The Industrial Reserve Army of Labor: Is It Time to Incorporate the Concept into Current Political Economy?

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Notes

1 Akerlof and Kranton (2010).

2 Akerlof and Kranton (2010, 8).

3 Akerlof and Kranton (2010, 80).

4 For a succinct statement about the roles of ideology in both religion and capitalism, see Mosk (2018, 3) where it is stated “… ideas have material forces interact in shaping economic, political, and religious behavior. … Capitalism consists of a bundle of ideas and material outcomes; religion consists of a bundle of bundle of ideas and material outcomes. Both are ideologies …”

5 The first edition of the Essay was published in 1798 anonymously, which was not unusual. As far as I can tell, many famous books and essays were first published anonymously in the England of the late 18th century. A reasonable guess is everyone in the “know” was well aware of the authorship. The first edition consisted of 19 chapters and specifically spelled out Malthus’s objections to “the speculations of Mr. Godwin and M. Condorcet” concerning “future improvements of society.” In 1803, the second edition was published under Malthus’s name. It consisted of four books. The first two dealt with his theory of population dynamics (the inverse relationship between the positive and preventive checks, the so-called immediate laws; the iron law of wages; and the ultimate law of population of diminishing returns to food production as cultivation of the land spread). Book I laid out the theory. Book II offered empirical evidence, largely for Europe although later editions expanded on this discussion. The second half consisted of two books. Book III dwelled on the “evils” resulting from the population laws insofar as they impact “expedients which have been proposed … to [improve] … Society” and Book IV took up his own agenda, largely focused on the gradual elimination of the Poor Laws. Four revisions followed. My guess is that the old dusty edition I possess is a faithful copy of the sixth and last edition. Clark (2007, 32) provides a picture of the church in Okewood where Rev. Malthus worked on the Essay.

6 Quotes taken from Malthus (no date, 50–51).

7 Quotes taken from Malthus (no date, 165).

8 Quote taken from Malthus (no date, 61).

9 Quote taken from Malthus (no date, 189).

10 Quote taken from Malthus (no date, 187).

11 Quote taken from Malthus (no date, 25).

12 Quote taken from Malthus (no date, 192).

13 Quote taken from Malthus (no date, 190).

14 Quote taken from Malthus (no date, 187).

15 On the development of the concept of pursuing “self-interest” as a check on the passions, see Hirschman (1977).

16 For the classic treatment of these riots and political movements, see Thompson (1968).

17 On Marx’s great achievement as a thinker, see Schumpeter (1947, 5–58). Schumpeter was an economist trained in the Austrian school that firmly rejected the equilibrium approach characteristic of both mainstream economics focused on markets and the approach pioneered by Keynes. Many Austrians were conservative in their approach, but not Schumpeter, who was attracted to Marx partly because the Marxist agenda included a serious discussion of economic history. Moreover, he accepted Marx’s notion that capitalism as a system incorporated an ideology that guided it. See, for instance, Schumpeter (1939, 279).

18 For the cycles in economic activity occurring during the nineteenth century, see Schumpeter’s classic treatment in his monumental volume Business Cycles abridged and edited as Schumpeter (1939).

19 For my treatment of accumulation of capital in postwar Japan, see Mosk (1995).

20 Marx (1961, 635).

21 Marx (1961, 641).

22 Marx (1961, 631–632).

23 See Mosk (2013a).

24 See Mosk (2018).

25 See Mosk (2005), especially Chapter 7 (“Into the maelstrom: the political economy that battled diversity and openness”). For restrictions of immigration from Japan, see Mosk (2013b).

26 See Chapter 7 (“The Rights Revolution”) in Pinker (2011).

27 On quasi-caste, see Mosk (2013b).

28 On pendulum swings in politics, see Mosk (2020).

29 See Komlos (2019b, 2019c) and Mosk (2020, 2021).