Economics Volume II: Modern Economic Problems

Politico-economic problems. § 2. American economic problems inthe past. § 3. Present-day problems: main subjects. § 4. Attemptsto summarize the nation's wealth. § 5. Average wealth and the problem ofdistribution. § 6. Changes in the price-standard. § 7. A sum of capital,not of wealth. § 8. Sources of food supply. § 9. The sources of heat, light,and power. § 10. Transportation agencies. § 11. Raw materials for clothing,shelter, machinery, etc.§ 1. #Politico-economic problems.# The word "problem" is often on ourtongues. Life itself is and always has been a problem. In every time andplace in the world there have been questions of industrial policy that chal-lenged men for an answer, and new and puzzling social problems that calledfor a solution. And yet, when institutions, beliefs, and industrial processeswere changing slowly from one generation to another and men's lives wereruled by tradition, authority, and custom, few problems of social organiza-tion forced themselves upon attention, and the immediate struggle for exis-tence absorbed the energies and the interests of men. But our time of rapidSome human problems are for the individual to solve, as, whether it is betterto go to school or to go to work, to choose this occupation or that, to emi-grate or to stay at home. Other problems of wider bearing concern the wholefamily group; others, still wider, concern the local community, the state, orthe nation. In each of these there are more or less mingled economic, politi-cal and ethical aspects. Economics in the broad sense includes the problemsof individual economy, of domestic economy, of corporate economy, and ofnational economy. In this volume, however, we are to approach the subjectfrom the public point of view, to consider primarily the problems of "po-litical economy," considering the private, domestic, and corporate problemsonly insomuch as they are connected with those of the nation or of the com-munity as a whole. Our field comprises the problems of national wealth andof communal welfare.What then are our politico-economic problems in America? They are prob-lems that are economic in nature because they concern the way that wealthshall be used and that citizens are enabled to make a living; but that are like-wise political, because they can be solved only collectively by political action.§ 2. #American economic problems in the past.# With the first settlementsof colonists on this continent politico-economic problems appeared. Take,for example, the land policy. Each group of colonists and each proprietarylandholder had to adopt some method of land tenure whether by free grantor by sale of separate holdings or by leasing to settlers. In one way and an-other these questions were answered, but rapidly changing conditions soonforced upon men the reconsideration of the problem as the old solution