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Economics & Society

Incentives, exchange, cooperation, and who carries the costs.

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Interests and exchange

Ten readings comparing exchange, innovation, status, opportunity, and the costs of economic progress.

10 readings

What you will practice: Compare economic arguments by tracing incentives, benefits, and costs rather than accepting a slogan.

  • The Wealth of Nations · Adam Smith
  • The Wealth of Nations · Adam Smith
  • Essays on Political Economy · Frédéric Bastiat
  • The Communist Manifesto · Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels
  • The Theory of the Leisure Class · Thorstein Veblen
  • Unto This Last · John Ruskin
  • Progress and Poverty · Henry George
  • Twenty Years at Hull-House · Jane Addams
  • Up from Slavery · Booker T. Washington
  • Looking Backward, 2000 to 1887 · Edward Bellamy
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Work, value, and recognition

Follow useful work through exchange, specialization, unpaid contribution, status, and unequal rewards.

10 readings

What you will practice: Distinguish productive contribution, payment, and power using evidence from contrasting economic arguments.

  • Progress and Poverty · Henry George
  • The Wealth of Nations · Adam Smith
  • Progress and Poverty · Henry George
  • Up from Slavery · Booker T. Washington
  • The Communist Manifesto · Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels
  • The Theory of the Leisure Class · Thorstein Veblen
  • The History of Mary Prince · Mary Prince
  • Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass · Frederick Douglass
  • The Theory of the Leisure Class · Thorstein Veblen
  • Looking Backward, 2000 to 1887 · Edward Bellamy
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Progress and its costs

Compare mutual dependence, visible benefits, hidden costs, institutions, and who gets a share of progress.

10 readings

What you will practice: Trace who benefits and who bears a cost, then defend a conclusion that acknowledges a real tradeoff.

  • Women and Economics · Charlotte Perkins Gilman
  • The Wealth of Nations · Adam Smith
  • Progress and Poverty · Henry George
  • The Communist Manifesto · Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels
  • Progress and Poverty · Henry George
  • Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass · Frederick Douglass
  • The New State · Mary Parker Follett
  • Twenty Years at Hull-House · Jane Addams
  • The History of Mary Prince · Mary Prince
  • The Narrative of Sojourner Truth · Sojourner Truth, narrated to Olive Gilbert
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