The Acquisitive Society · Chapter
The "Vicious Circle" explained
This chapter critiques the argument that workers' demands for higher wages and shorter hours are incompatible with the need for cheap goods and efficient production, labeling it a 'vicious circle' fallacy.
What happens
This chapter critiques the argument that workers' demands for higher wages and shorter hours are incompatible with the need for cheap goods and efficient production, labeling it a 'vicious circle' fallacy. Tawney argues that the real cause of economic confusion is not a conflict between producer and consumer, but the existence of functionless property and a leisure class that lives on the labor of others. He contends that appeals for increased production are hypocritical when made by those who benefit from unearned income, and that true industrial democracy and efficiency require abolishing functionless property, turning all men into producers, and giving workers collective responsibility for their industry.
Themes in this chapter
Function vs. Rights
Tawney argues that property and income must be justified by service (function), and that functionless property (unearned income) is the root cause of economic conflict and inefficiency.
Critique of the Acquisitive Society
The chapter criticizes a society where production is driven by profit and dividends rather than community need, and where a leisure class lives on the labor of others.
Inequality and Waste
Tawney highlights the waste and inefficiency caused by functionless property, unnecessary middlemen, and the leisure class, arguing that these prevent increased production and fair distribution.
Characters to notice
- Mr. Justice Sankey
Referenced indirectly via 'the most eminent official witness before the Coal Commission,' who stigmatized the 'extravagance and waste' in the coal industry.
Key passages
“The demand for the participation of the workers in the control of industry is usually advanced in the name of the producer, as a plea for economic freedom or industrial democracy.”
Calls for worker control are framed as a quest for economic freedom and democracy for producers.
Tawney introduces the concept of industrial democracy as a central demand.
“The control of a large works does, in fact, confer a kind of private jurisdiction in matters concerning the life and livelihood of the workers, which, as the United States' Commission suggests, may properly be described as 'industrial feudalism.'”
Running a large factory gives owners a private power over workers' lives that amounts to industrial feudalism.
Tawney uses the term 'industrial feudalism' to criticize the concentration of authority in capitalism.
“The truth is that only workers can prevent the abuse of power by workers, because only workers are recognized as possessing any title to have their claims considered.”
Only workers themselves can check the power of other workers, since only they have a legitimate claim to be heard.
Tawney argues that self-regulation among workers is possible only when all are producers.
“The ideal of a united society in which no one group uses its power to encroach upon the standards of another is, in short, unattainable, except through the preliminary abolition of functionless property.”
A society where groups don't exploit each other can only be achieved by first eliminating property that yields income without service.
Tawney identifies functionless property as the key obstacle to social unity.