Hobson, John Atkinson

John was born on July 6, 1858 in the English city of Derby , the second son in the family, his elder brother - the future mathematician (1856-1933). Father William Gobson owned a local newspaper of the Liberal Party . Mother - Josephine Atkinson. The Hobson brothers received secondary education in a ^[4] .

In 1876-1880 he studied at Lincoln College at Oxford University ^[5] .

In 1880–1882, he was a teacher at the secondary school in , then in 1882–1887 at the secondary school in Exeter , where he met his future wife, Florence, Edgar.

In 1887–1897, he taught political economics at the University of Oxford and the London School of Economics , but after publishing the first book, “The Physiology of Industry: Exposing Certain Misconceptions in Existing Economic Theories,” written in 1889, together with businessman A.F. Mummery , he was excommunicated. from teaching and publishing in academic journals on economics forever ^[6] .

In 1890–1895, he was a member of the London Ethical Society, which he left to join the more radical and became the founder of the Radical Intellectuals ’Club of Radical Intelligence.

In 1899, as a full-time journalist of The Guardian, he visited South Africa , after which a number of articles appeared in the newspaper about the situation in the country, and in 1900 published the book War in South Africa ^[4] .

In the early 1900s, Hobson and his friend Leonard Gobhaus sought to imbue the Liberal Party, of which they were intellectual leaders, with economic theory justifying the abandonment of the classical laissez faire methods in favor of income redistribution policies aimed at enhancing social justice. In foreign trade matters, Hobson defended free trade and, during World War I, left the Liberal Party when he decided that she had betrayed the free trade cause ^[7] .

In 1919 joined the Independent Labor Party . In 1938 he published the autobiography “Confessions of an Economic Heretic” (“Confession of an Economic Heretic”).

Hobson was a shy man, had a painful look, had a speech impediment that prevented lecturing. The few remaining details of his biography indicate that Hobson was created for a solitary existence in a prestigious educational institution, but his dissent made him an outcast in the academic world ^[8] .

Hobson died on April 1, 1940 ^[4] .

Although Hobson did not sympathize with either Marxists or their goals, his analysis of the influence of economic factors on politics was close to Marxist and had a decisive influence on the work of V.I. Lenin " Imperialism as the highest stage of capitalism " (1916). According to Lenin Hobson, in his work "Imperialism" of 1902 gave a detailed description of the main economic and political features of imperialism . The factual material and the separate conclusions of Hobson were used by Lenin in the book Imperialism, as the Highest Stage of Capitalism ^{[8] [6]} . Unlike Lenin, Hobson denied that imperialism was a structural need for the economy of the metropolis , considered possible and necessary a policy of redistributive taxation that would cut the excess savings of the upper strata in favor of consumption of the lower strata, which would stimulate domestic demand ^[7] .

In 1936, Keynes noted in his book The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money that Hobson’s work “The Physiology of Industry: Exposing Certain Misconceptions in Existing Economic Theories” anticipated his own theory that society could save too much of it under certain circumstances. their income, and then frugality has a negative effect ^[6] . However, Keynes preferred the public works policy as a means of increasing investment, while Hobson showed more interest in redistribution as a way to stimulate consumption ^[7] .

Hobson, a representative of the , and in his work The Industrial System: A Study of Earned and Unearned Income of 1909, condemns the theory of marginal productivity, replacing it with the concept of "unproductive surplus" redundant in order to maintain labor and provide improvements and the growth of human and physical capital. Hobson proposes to use the tax system to collect and redistribute this surplus ^[6] .

• Hobson, JA. The Evolution of Modern Capitalism - St. Petersburg: O. N. Popova’s Edition, 1898 (English The evolution of modern capitalism, 1894)
• Hobson J.A. John Reskin, as a social reformer - M., 1899. - 353 p.
• Hobson, J. A. Problems of Poverty and Unemployment - St. Petersburg: O. N. Popova's Edition, 1900 (eng. Problems of Poverty, 1891 and The problem of the unemployed, 1896)
• Hobson JA. Economics of distribution, M., 1903 (English The economics of distribution, 1900)
• Hobson JA. Imperialism. - L .: Working Publishing "Priboy", 1927 (English Imperialism, 1902)
• Hobson JA, Mummery AF: The Physiology of Industry: An Exposure of Certain Fallacies in Existing Theories of Economics, 1889
• Hobson JA The War in South Africa: Its Causes and Effects, 1900
• Hobson JA The Industrial System: An Inquiry into Earned and Unearned Income, 1909
• Hobson JA Confessions of An Economic Heretic, 1938.

• Blaug, M. Hobson, John Atkinson // 100 Great Economists before Keynes = Great Economists. - SPb. : Economikus, 2008. - p. 84-87. - 352 s. - (Library of the "Economic School", vol. 42). - 1 500 copies - ISBN 978-5-903816-01-9 .