19th-CENTURY LABOR MONEY SCHEMES, SELF-REALIZATION THROUGH LABOR, AND THE UTOPIAN IDEA
<p class="first" id="d355672e59">In 19th-century European socialist political economic theory, the money system was widely viewed by reformers as the root of social evil. Robert Owen (1771-1858) and Joseph Proudhon (1809-1865), among others, proposed...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Pluto Journals
2012-06-01
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| Series: | World Review of Political Economy |
| Online Access: | https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.2307/41931977 |
| Summary: | <p class="first" id="d355672e59">In 19th-century European socialist political economic theory, the money system was
widely viewed by reformers as the root of social evil. Robert Owen (1771-1858) and
Joseph Proudhon (1809-1865), among others, proposed replacing existing money systems
with a currency based on labor time instead. This type of social scheme, which tried
to reform both social labor and economic relations by introducing equitable labor
exchange, was called "labor money" and became popular among 19th-century European
Utopian socialists. Often, equitable labor exchange programs were joined with the
idea of self-realization through work in proposals for Utopian communities. While
the "labor money" concept has only enjoyed modest intellectual, political, or economic
life over the last 150 years, the idea is revived periodically by those seeking a
more cooperative way of life. In the 1980s Dr. Edgar Cahn wrote a book proposing "time
dollar" exchange programs and a labor credit system is at the heart of the United
States' most successful secular intentional community, Twin Oaks Community, Louisa,
Virginia.
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| ISSN: | 2042-891X 2042-8928 |