The Conquest of Poverty

242 Pages·2007·10.389 MB·English

by  Henry Hazlitt

The Conquest of Poverty

THE
Conquest
of
Poverty
HENRY HAZLITT
The Foundation for Economic Education, Inc.
Irvington-on-Hudson, New York 10533
The Conquest of Poverty
Copyright © 1996 by the Foundation for Economic Education, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photo-
copying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval systems
without permision in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer,
who may quote brief passages in a review.
The Foundation for Economic Education, Inc.
30 South Broadway
Irvington-on-Hudson, NY 10533
[phone]
Publisher's Cataloging in Publication
(Prepared by Quality Books, Inc.)
Hazlitt, Henry, 1894-1993
The conquest of poverty / Henry Hazlitt
p. cm.
Originally published: New Rochelle, N.Y.: Arlington House,
1973
Includes biographical references and index.
ISBN: 1-57246-006-7
1. Poverty—History. 2. Welfare Economics. 3. Trade-unions.
I. Title
HC79.P6H39 1996 362.5'09
QBI95-20826
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 72-9123
Third Printing, March 1996
Cover design by Beth R. Bowlby
Manufactured in the United States of America
Acknowledgments
I wish to express my gratitude to the Principles of Freedom
Committee, and also to the Institute for Humane Studies of
Menlo Park, California, for their help and encouragement to
me in writing this book.
The Committee has promoted a series of books on economic
issues that seek to clarify the workings of the free market and
the consequences of governmental intervention. I am proud to
find my book in the company of the five previous volumes in the
Principles of Freedom Series: Great Myths of Economics
(1968), by Don Paarlberg, The Strange World of Ivan Ivanov
(1969), by G. Warren Nutter, Freedom in Jeopardy: The Tyr-
anny of Idealism (1969), by John V. Van Sickle, The Genius of
the West (1971), by Louis Rougier, and The Regulated Con-
sumer (1971), by Mary Bennett Peterson.
The substance of Chapter 13, "How Unions Reduce Real
Wages," was delivered as a talk before the international Mont
Pelerin Society at Munich, West Germany, in 1970.
HENRY HAZUTT
Wilton, Connecticut
August, 1972

Contents
1 THE PROBLEM OF POVERTY 13
2 POVERTY AND POPULATION 20
3 DEFINING POVERTY 31
4 THE DISTRIBUTION OF INCOME 40
5 THE STORY OF NEGRO GAINS 59
6 POOR RELIEF IN ANCIENT ROME 66
7 THE POOR LAWS OF ENGLAND 72
8 THE BALLOONING WELFARE STATE 85
9 WELFARISM GONE WILD 93
10 THE FALLACY OF "PROVIDING JOBS" 105
11 SHOULD WE DIVIDE THE WEALTH? 113
12 ON APPEASING ENVY 125
13 HOW UNIONS REDUCE REAL WAGES 131
14 FALSE REMEDIES FOR POVERTY 143
15 WHY SOCIALISM DOESN'T WORK 150
16 FOREIGN INVESTMENT VS. "AID" 159
17 WHY SOME ARE POORER 178
18 THE ROLE OF GOVERNMENT 187
19 PRIVATE PROPERTY, PUBLIC PURPOSE 210
20 THE CURE FOR POVERTY 229
INDEX 235

The Conquest of Poverty