Simon Patten
American economist and Wharton School chair who, in a 1908 Yale Review article, stated the recasting strategy explicitly: economic doctrine 'must be recast' to defeat the single-taxers — a line Mason Gaffney treats as the movement's own admission of intent.
Overview
Simon Nelson Patten (1852–1922) was an American economist who chaired the economics faculty at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania from 1887 until 1917, when his antiwar views forced his early retirement.[2] Trained in Germany under the historical-school economist Johannes Conrad, Patten became known for arguing that industrial society was shifting from an "economics of scarcity" to an "economics of abundance," a break from the classical assumption of permanent scarcity.[2]
Within the Georgist analytical tradition, Patten is discussed by economist Mason Gaffney as a figure who stated the anti-Georgist "recasting" strategy in unusually explicit terms. In "The Conflict Theory of Distribution" (Yale Review, 1908), Patten wrote that "[n]othing pleases a … single taxer better than … to use the well-known economic theories," and concluded that "economic doctrine must be recast" to deny Henry George's followers that rhetorical advantage.[1] Gaffney cites this line — quoting it via Charles Collier's essay on Patten and John Bates Clark — as evidence that the reshaping of economic theory around 1900 was not merely an unplanned drift but, for at least one participant, an avowed program.[1]
NPOV Note
The quotation is reported by Gaffney at second hand, via Collier (1979), rather than checked here against Patten's original 1908 article; it should be read as Gaffney's characterization of Patten's stated intent, not as independently verified original-source text. The publication venue is confirmed against The Yale Review's own Old-Series archive index, which lists: "Patten, Simon N. The Conflict Theory of Distribution. XVII, 156" — i.e. The Yale Review (Old Series) Vol. XVII (1908), article beginning at p. 156 (verified 2026-07-11, yalereview.org archive). Note: the internal page "p. 219" previously attached to the "must be recast" quotation cannot be correct, as the article begins at p. 156 and a Yale Review article of that period spans well under 60 pages; the exact in-article page of the quotation remains unverified pending a direct read of the original (Patten, "The Conflict Theory of Distribution," The Yale Review (O.S.) XVII (1908), pp. 156ff.).
See Also
- Neo-classical Economics as a Stratagem Against Henry George — Gaffney's essay in which the Patten quotation appears
- The Corruption of Economics (book) — the book collecting Gaffney's essay and its account of the recasting strategy
- John Bates Clark — the economist Gaffney treats as having executed the land-into-capital merger Patten's remark anticipates
- Henry George — the single-tax leader Patten's recasting strategy was aimed against
Sources
- Mason Gaffney, "Neo-classical Economics as a Stratagem Against Henry George," in Mason Gaffney, Fred Harrison & Kris Feder, The Corruption of Economics (Shepheard-Walwyn, 1994; 2022 revised edition). PDF — used for the Patten quotation and Gaffney's characterization of it as an admission of the recasting strategy.
- "Simon N. Patten," Wikipedia — used for basic biographical facts: dates, Wharton chairmanship 1887–1917, forced retirement, and the "economics of abundance" thesis.