This was the age of 14 hour days for workers, with no pensions, healthcare or education. In any case, it was a clear case of the wealthy using a scientific theory as a metaphor to justify their predatory behaviour and avoid paying more taxes. The trouble with applying natural selection to human economic relations is that the eventual goal of a capitalist is to create a monopoly, at which point competition and evolution cease. Herbert Spencer, who popularised some of Darwin’s work, coined the phase ‘the survival of the fittest’, which soon became a slogan for unrestrained and ruthless economic competition. They also said that government should not spend their taxes on helping the lower classes, as it would just give the poor less reason to compete by working hard.ĭarwin’s theory of natural selection was seized upon as scientific proof that fierce competition was nature’s method for improving the world. They thus argued that society should allow everyone to compete freely for power and wealth, with the most competent emerging on top, by which they meant themselves. In the 19th century, the emerging middle class of industrialists and bankers were anxious to attack hereditary privilege, in order to undermine the lingering power of the aristocracy. Before Darwin ever sailed to the Galapagos Islands, economists were singing the praises of competition.
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