Daniel Morrow

2/12/2008
History of Economic Thought

The section of Science known as political economy is, compared to other sciences,

fairly new. But Mill starts his work by stating that the item examined by political economy

is hardly new. It is one of the oldest discussions around. The subject critiqued by

political economy is wealth. It is wealth according to Mill that drives economies. Political

economy however does not look at how much wealth, but rather how wealth is

produced. Mill says that a society is often shaped by the way wealth is produced. Mill

than examines the use of property in the pursuit of wealth. When a member of society

refuses to work, that member only hurts the society as a whole. Only by contributing to

the overall good of society, by working, can that member make a change in the status of

the wealth of the society. Mill states that the distribution of wealth relies solely on the

societys rules and laws. This can give rise to the question of what laws are the best to

promote wealth. Mill describes to ways in which this can be done, by freedom and by

joint ownership. If a society as a whole is free to choose what they wish to do, than

every member would be free to choose how to make use of their individual talents and

land. Joint ownership, endeavors to create a system that a few governing people have

come to develop.

Mill later presents the differences in a number of the utopian societies that writers

had dreamed up. These utopian societies ensured that all members were equal in the

community. However the negative side to this is that not all member are willing or

capable to contribute the same amount of resources. This could, or quit possibly would,
lead to dissent in the community. After presenting these ideas, Mill says that the only

way to have any community is to ensure that all members have some liberty to make

decisions for themselves. Than you will make the community healthier when every

member contributes what they can.

After Mill presents his ideas on societies, he presents the idea of the Stationary

State. Although most writers would say that a Stationary State is bad, Mill says that in

some cases in can be beneficial for the society. A specific case would be if the

community needed to be educated. So that will the population is taught, the economy is

kept at a constant. After which, a more educated population makes decisions to move

forward.

Mill goes on to discuss a new view of the role of the lower class in the economy. In

years before Mill, the lower class had been solely expected to do their job and not ask

questions. They were told by their masters what and when to do their tasks. Mill

presents the idea of matching the labor to the task. By doing this, a community would

get a better response form the lower class because they would apply themselves wholly

to the job at hand.

Finally, Mill introduces his views on government intervention in society. While

government may use the authoritative interference method, where society is told how to

do everything, Mill says that the better way is to let the government step in and offer

advice. This then allows the community to still make free decisions. If, however, the

society proves that they can not or will not make the correct decisions, than the

government can step in and steer the population. This can be achieved by leveling

taxes or by instituting a government body, such as a state run bank etc. By doing this,
the government ensures that population is allowed as much freedom as possible or is

good for them.

After reading his works, I can definitely see that Mill was highly influenced by

previous thinkers such as Smith, Ricardo etc. He seems to exhibit a definite leaning

towards some of the same principles that Ricardo taught. Through the whole writing

though, Mill has one main theme, freedom of the people to choose. Even though he

doesnt say it directly, Mill is alluding to a market system. His thoughts on the

government intervention seem to echo somewhat with what Ricardo said about the

governments obligation to Public Works. These writings seem to be building up to a

development of the current market system economy.