Crisis of Alienation

[Rasputin]

[Rasputin]

[Rasputin]

From the last quarter of nineteenth century--age of industrial capitalist, speculators, monopolies and trusts, financiers, real estate tycoons, rubber barons ruled with impunity. While technological development took off, so did the corruption and anti-public and unethical behavior of the major bearers of capital. The American Economist, Albion W. Small in his elaborate discussion of democracy and capitalism delivered an unusually harsh (at least for the American context), of the rule of private property. To Small nature and labor were the two most important source of value and not capital. Therefore, labor must be given the right to formulate industrial and social policy. Small criticized the notion of unlimited private property as an ethical and legal consideration. His contention was that capitalism and democracy are antithetical and as an undemocratic system, capitalism particularly the unfettered one or the one that the private sector is the dominant sector is incompatible with democracy. One of his contemporaries John A. Ryan a devout Catholic and a seminarian wrote essays on the necessity of legislating and regulating wages and income as early as 1890s. His Ph.D. dissertation (1906) A Living Wage: Its Ethical and Economic Aspect was a reflection of his conviction that an unbridled private sector can wreak havoc on people and the public sphere. Ryan advocated minimum wage, eight hour work per day, provision of housing, illness and unemployment assistance and support for women and children (see http://libraries.cua.edu/achrcua/bis...yan_intro.html

[Rasputin]

[Rasputin]

[Rasputin]

[Rasputin]

[Rasputin]

www.smh.com.auhttp://www.stateofnature.org/womenAndWork2.html

http://www.monthlyreview.org/1297petr.htm

http://www.stateofnature.org/womenAndWork2.html