Harris and his anachronistic attack

Explores William Torrey Harris's (1835-1909) critique of Henry George's economic analysis in Progress and Poverty (1954 edition). Harris, an American educator, editor, & philosopher, believed that his arguments against George's ideas were never successfully refuted. Harris's belief in Henry C. Carey's theory of income distribution, & his rejection of the deductive method of analysis & the Ricardian rent theory, placed him in opposition to George's single tax theory. Harris argued that George relied entirely on deduction & had not applied reliable statistical tests to his theories. He sought to prove through census data that George's proposed remedy would be detrimental to the public. While it was true that George assumed things that should have been tested empirically &, especially, that George made large assumptions about the links between progress & poverty, & assumed land speculators would hold land idle, Harris proposed to test other issues. He sought to prove issues related to rent, land value, & real wages with unreliable & poorly handled data. Harris never fully understood George's proposal, &, therefore, he could not successfully test it. L. A. Hoffman