Rae: a journalist out of his depth

Explores John Rae's (1845-1915) critique of Henry George's economic theory in Progress and Poverty (1954 edition). Rae, best known for his biography of Adam Smith, was a successful British author & journalist. His popular book, Contemporary Socialism (1908 [1884]) criticized the centralist & anarchist forms of social democracy. One chapter is devoted to a critique of George, whose ideas he erroneously assigned to being closely allied with socialism. This fact, alone, points out Rae's weakness as a theorist. Rae attacked George's reasoning in respect to population theory, the wages-fund theory, & the concept of economic rent. He also critiqued his opposition to the Malthusian population theory & its relationship to diminishing returns & his interpretation of Ricardian rent theory. While Rae's strong criticism of George refers to his rejection of the wage-fund theory, this is actually one of George's soundest analytical accomplishments. Rae's criticisms are also surprising since, as a leading expert of Adam Smith, he should have recognized George's incorporation of Adam's conceptual foundations in his own economic analysis. L. A. Hoffman