Capitalism, Socialism, Communism, and Everything in between

Bellringer

• What were the conditions like for workers during the Industrial Revolution?

• Answer with detail.

Laissez-Faire Economics

• Stemmed from the Enlightenment

• Free trade• No government

regulations on business

The Capitalists

• What is the definition of capitalism?

Adam Smith

Wealth of Nations (1776)

• Three natural laws of economics• Law of self-interest• Law of Competition • Law of Supply and Demand

Thomas Malthus

An Essay on the Principles of Population (1798)

• Without wars and epidemics the population will increase faster than the food supply

• Most people are destined to be poor and miserable

David Ricardo

Principles of Political Economy and Taxation (1817)

• Permanent underclass of people that will always be poor

• Believed that under the market system wages would continue to go down as the population increased

Jeremy Bentham

• Came up with the idea of utilitarianism

• What is the definition of utilitarianism?

John Stuart Mill

John Stuart Mill

• Led the utilitarian movement in the 1800s• Wanted more equal division of the profits• Favored cooperative system in agriculture• Wanted to give women the right to vote

Robert Owen and Utopia

• Owned factory in Scotland

• Gave workers inexpensive housing

• Lived in cooperative community in New Harmony, Indiana

The Socialists

Charles Fourier Saint-Simon

Karl Marx and Communism

The Communist Manifesto

• 23 page pamphlet• History divided into two classes • Bourgeoisie – Have’s• Proletariat – Have Not’s • History is a class struggle

The future according to Marx

• Capitalist system would destroy itself• Small artisans would be destroyed• Workers would unite against the small number

of rich in the world• Dictator of Proletariat would rule until

government and class no longer existed• People would share everything

1848 Revolutions

• Many countries in Europe had revolutions in 1848.

• Revolutions failed to unite workers• Factors that divided workers: religion,

nationalism, and family

Labor Unions

• By 1800s labor unions began to form• Workers join together to bargain for better

working conditions, hours, and pay• Workers go on strike if unable to compromise• First unions were for skilled workers

Reformers

William Wilberforce Jane Addams Horace Mann

Reform Laws

• Many in government wanted to help factory workers

• 1833 Factory Act: Children under the age of 9 could not be hired to work in factories, limited number of hours children ages 9-17 could work in the factories

• 1842 Mines Act: Women and children do not have to work in the mines

• 1847 Ten Hours Act: Women and Children cannot work more than 10 hrs in a factory