1. Thomas Malthus saw the effects of the population explosion- crowded slums, unemployment, etc. “Essay on the Principle of Population” – poverty and misery were unavoidable because of the population was increasing faster than food supply

2.  Middle class business leaders embraced a Laissez-faire or “hands off” approach.  Adam Smith – The Wealth of Nations  Free market, unregulated exchange of goods, would help everyone not just rich  More goods at lower prices; growing economy helps everyone; free-enterprise capitalism

3.  Malthus’s writings shaped economic thinking for generations  Predicted population would outpace food supply  Urged families to have fewer children  Population boom continued but food supply grew even faster.

4.  David Ricardo-British economist, like Malthus, did not hold out hope for the working class to escape poverty.  Both opposed government help for the poor and supported a laissez-faire economy  Individuals should be left to oneself to improve life

5.  BY 1800, Jeremy Bentham called for utilitarianism or idea that the goal of society should be “greatest happiness for the greatest number”  Based on utility- did it provide more pleasure than pain?  Government to become involved under certain circumstances

6.  Mill was a follower of Bentham’s ideas  Wanted government to step in to improve hard lives of working people  Believed middle class business were entitled to increase their happiness but prevent them from doing so in a manner that harmed workers  Called for giving the vote to women and workers

7.  The people as a whole rather than private individuals would own and operate the means of production- the farms, factories, railways, other large businesses that produced and distributed goods.  Early socialists were called Utopians after Thomas Mores’ ideal community

8.  Poor but became a successful mill owner  Refused to use child labor  Campaigned for laws against child labor and for labor unions  Factory in Scotland was model  Built homes for workers  Opened a school for children

9.  In the 1840’s, Marx, a German philosopher, condemned ideas of Utopians as unrealistic.  New theory- “Scientific socailism”  He and Freidrich Engels wrote a pamphlet, “The Communist Manifesto”  Communism- a form of socialism that sees class struggle between employers and employees as unavoidable.

10.  “haves” and “have-nots”  Class struggle and working class would win because they controlled production  Classless, communist society  Wealth and power shared equally  Despised capitalism- prosperity for few and poverty for many

11.  At first, Marxism gained support but his theories would never be practiced exactly as he had hoped  Reforms won over revolution  Nationalism won over class warfare  For much of the 1900’s, revolutionaries adapted his ideas but by late in the century every nation would incorporate elements of free market capitalism