"Progressive societies outgrow institutions as children outgrow clothes"
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Progress, in Henry George's hands, is not a polite march of better policies but a biological fact: growth makes yesterday's fit feel like today’s constraint. The line works because it demotes institutions from sacred architecture to mere garments - useful, temporary, and ultimately a little embarrassing when they pinch. It’s a deceptively gentle metaphor that carries a sharp accusation: if a society is genuinely developing, institutional loyalty quickly becomes a form of sentimental hoarding.
George wrote in the late 19th century, when industrial capitalism was swelling cities, concentrating land ownership, and producing the era’s signature contradiction: unprecedented wealth alongside grinding urban poverty. His broader project, culminating in Progress and Poverty, was to explain why “progress” seemed to intensify inequality rather than relieve it. The child-and-clothes comparison signals his diagnosis that the problem isn’t human nature or scarcity; it’s the institutional fit. Legal frameworks around land, taxation, and political power were tailored for an earlier stage of economic life, then left on as the body grew.
The subtext is also strategic: George wants reform to feel like maturity, not revolt. Changing institutions becomes as normal as buying a larger coat, rather than desecrating tradition. Yet there’s a quiet warning embedded in the image. A child kept in outgrown clothes doesn’t just look ridiculous; they’re restricted, chafed, and slowed. George implies that clinging to obsolete structures isn’t conservatism - it’s developmental sabotage, dressed up as respectability.
George wrote in the late 19th century, when industrial capitalism was swelling cities, concentrating land ownership, and producing the era’s signature contradiction: unprecedented wealth alongside grinding urban poverty. His broader project, culminating in Progress and Poverty, was to explain why “progress” seemed to intensify inequality rather than relieve it. The child-and-clothes comparison signals his diagnosis that the problem isn’t human nature or scarcity; it’s the institutional fit. Legal frameworks around land, taxation, and political power were tailored for an earlier stage of economic life, then left on as the body grew.
The subtext is also strategic: George wants reform to feel like maturity, not revolt. Changing institutions becomes as normal as buying a larger coat, rather than desecrating tradition. Yet there’s a quiet warning embedded in the image. A child kept in outgrown clothes doesn’t just look ridiculous; they’re restricted, chafed, and slowed. George implies that clinging to obsolete structures isn’t conservatism - it’s developmental sabotage, dressed up as respectability.
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