Hobson, John Atkinson

Hobson, John Atkinson (b. 6 July 1858, d. 1 Apr. 1940). British economist Born in Derby, and educated in Derby and at Oxford. In the 1880s and 1890s he taught classics at various schools, and was a lecturer in Oxford and London. From the publication of his first work, The Physiology of Industry (1889), he was a prominent advocate of progressive taxation, as a way of developing welfare schemes and tackling poverty. He also argued that redistribution of wealth throughout all levels of society was necessary, since the economy needed large numbers of people to be able to consume its products if it were to thrive. The absence of consumption caused not only unemployment, but also imperialism, as the owners of capital were forced to look for new markets. Together with Hobhouse, his views were influential on the Liberal Party in developing ‘New Liberalism’, which sought to adapt the classic tenets of individual liberalism to a modern, industrial society. His most famous work was Imperialism: A Study (1902), which partly reflected his distaste for Britain's part in the South African (Boer) War. Despite this devastating critique of capitalism, for many years he pinned his hopes on gradual reforms through Liberal governments, though he was close to Ramsay MacDonald and other leaders of the Labour Party.