Thomas Babington Macaulay Quotes
But the time will come when New England will be as thickly peopled as old England. Wages will be as low, and will fluctuate as much with you as with us… hundreds of thousands of artisans will assuredly be sometimes out of work. Then your institutions will be fairly brought to the test.
1st Baron Macaulay. He was right, and since then American institutions have been tested repeatedly regarding unemployment and recessions and depressions.
Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1800-1859, British Historian & Secretary of War (Liberal), Member of Parliament, Letter to Henry Stephens Randall, May 23, 1857
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
The debate in America around jobs during the Great Recession in 2012 may have seemed like a new issue for many Americans. The government wanted to economize, but there was a very high unemployment. Should the government spend money to employ more people or cut back on government jobs. The same issue faced the British in 1848. Most of the politicians and the Parliament wanted to reduce government spending. The Prince (husband of Queen Victoria) and the Queen observed that the economy solution would fall more heavily on the working class. At this time, the British monarchy was far more liberal than most of the politicians.
This is a statement that in the early 21st century would be made only by ultra liberals. But in the in the late 1940’s this was not only standard democratic party thinking, but a large number of Republicans thought of the Government as the employer of last resort including their Presidential standard bearer.
At the time there was great demand for skilled computer programmers and other technical skills. But there was insufficient demand for many of the skills that the American Workforce such as airplane mechanics, or TV Camera people for example.
The nation was divided over the issue of immigration. Many observed that the vast majority of the immigrants—especially the illegal immigrants performed jobs for which American workers could not be hired. Opponents like the congressman, claimed that if better wages were paid Americans would be doing the jobs, and as long as there were immigrants who would work for low wages, there was little reason for employers to pay more.
New York’s highest court
At the time most people did not realize that the ability of a nation or land area to support a population was dependent more on agricultural and industrial productivity than on population size. In the most affluent and developed countries, land outside of the cities is quite affordable and available, whereas in poor, underdeveloped nations, land distribution and reform is still a factor. The majority of citizens of many developed, affluent nations do not own any land.
Well over a century ago, this prescient economist pointed out that in a very competitive economy, people would have to develop and have multiple skills to remain employable. The competition also produces technological obsolescence.
Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay, FRS FRSE PC was a British historian and Whig politician. He wrote extensively as an essayist, on contemporary and historical sociopolitical subjects, and as a reviewer. His The History of England was a seminal and paradigmatic example of Whig historiography, and its literary style has remained an object of praise since its publication, including subsequent to the widespread condemnation of its historical contentions which became popular in the 20th century.
