This is my first time reading Marx and Engels. I’m amazed by their prescient predictions of world capitalist development, penetrating descriptions of the Bourgeoisie and criticisms of capitalism. However, I find their economic theory of property, capital and wage-labor perplexing and far less persuasive. It is a diagnosis without cure. Portrait of a Bourgeoisie The bourgeoisie has put an end to all feudal, patriarchal, idyllic relations. It has left no […]
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Tolstoy on Slavery
“The misery of a worker, does not consist in his long hours and small pay, but in the fact that he is deprived of the natural conditions of life in touch with nature, is deprived of freedom, and is compelled to compulsory and monotonous toil at another man’s will.” –Leo Tolstoy The Slavery of Our Times
Read more“Economics” by Aristotle
The Source of Wealth Of occupations attendant on our goods and chattels, those come first which are natural. Among these precedence is given to the one which cultivates the land; those like mining, which extract wealth from it, take the second place. Agriculture is the most honest of all such occupations; seeing that the wealth it brings is not derived from other men. Herein it is distinguished from trade and […]
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Plutarch: Life of Lycurgus
The Laws of Lycurgus Long before Adam Smith developed the idea that commerce was necessary for the accumulation of wealth, Lycurgus, the legendary Spartan lawgiver, had used this principle to curb the avarice of his countrymen, and laid down a constitution for one of the most eminent commonwealths in the ancient world. The Spartan Constitution, according to Plutarch, was also the model for Plato’s Republic. After creating the senate to […]
Read more“Economics” by Xenophon
The word economics is derived from Greek roots meaning literally “household management”. Praise of Husbandry For the pursuit of [husbandry] is in some sense a luxury as well as a means of increasing one’s estate and of training the body in all that a free man should be able to do. For, in the first place, the earth yields to cultivators the food by which men live; she yields besides […]
Read more“On the Significance of Science and Art” by Leo Tolstoy
Ever since men have been in existence, they have been in the habit of deducing, from all pursuits, the expressions of various branches of learning concerning the destiny and the welfare of man, and the expression of this knowledge has been art in the strict sense of the word. Ever since men have existed, there have been those who were peculiarly sensitive and responsive to the doctrine regarding the destiny […]
Read more“Losing My Virginity” by Richard Branson
The subtitle of the original version reads, “How I’ve Survived, Had Fun, and Made a Fortune Doing Business My Way”. Branson certainly delivered the goods. I can’t imagine anybody else having more fun doing business than he has. He described his strategies and adventures in such a straightforward and engaging manner, that I’m convinced this is how all business should be done. Life is a series of challenges for Branson, […]
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