Talk:David Ricardo
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i do not have time to go in to detail but there are some questionable assertions in this.
The undoing of vandalism on 10 Dec seems to have also undone some well intentioned edits. I have reverted to the version of 8 December for the reasons below. I can't see any other edits I undo by doing so.
1. Contrary to the current version, Ricardo never spoke to his mother again but was reconciled to his father. According to D. Weatherall, David Ricardo: A Biography, 1976, p.27: "But so far as is known, from the day of his marriage to the day of her death, David Ricardo never saw or spoke or wrote to his mother again ... With the other members of the family reconciliation was gradual ... We are assured on the word of a son-in-law that before Abraham Ricardo died in 1812, reconciliation was complete."
2. This paragraph is about his religion and marriage and Ricardo was religiously a Unitarian not a utilitarian. Again from Weatherall, p.63: "He had become a Unitarian and he had remained a Unitarian." Ricardo was friendly with several utilitarians (Mill, Bentham) but that does not mean he was one. In any case he did not know them at age 21 - he didn't meet Mill until 1810 when he was 38 (again see Weatherall p.75).
IP 12/12/05 (128.40.90.1 13:48, 12 December 2005 (UTC))
[edit] Iron Law of Wages
The claim that Ricardo is associated with the Iron Law of Wages has made the rounds and appears on this page. I think a number of the references come indirectly from Wikipedia itself. Ricardo never referred to an Iron Law of Wages. He did say that the "natural" price of labor is the cost of subsistance. However, he held that the market price of labor, or the actual wages paid, could remain elevated above subsitance level indefinitely provided the economy was advancing:
- "Notwithstanding the tendency of wages to conform to their natural rate, their market rate may, in an improving society, for an indefinite period, be constantly above it; for no sooner may the impulse, which an increased capital gives to a new demand for labour, be obeyed, than another increase of capital may produce the same effect; and thus, if the increase of capital be gradual and constant, the demand for labour may give a continued stimulus to an increase of people...." (On the Pinciples of Political Economy, Chapter 5, On Wages).
This article has contained considerable inaccuracies on this issue over time. At one time it was claimed that Ricardo wrote a book or pamphlet entitled "The Iron Law of Wages". I would prefer that if the article mentions "The Iron Law of Wages" at all, it should be stated the "Law" is frequently attributed to Ricardo, but this should not be stated as fact. --BostonMA 00:57, 7 March 2006 (UTC)
