Stuart Chase (March 8, 1888, Somersworth, New Hampshire - November 1985) was an American economist and engineer trained at MIT.[1] His writings covered topics as diverse as general semantics and physical economy. His hybrid background of engineering and economics places him in the same philosophical camp as R. Buckminster Fuller. Chase's thought was shaped by Henry George, Thorstein Veblen and Fabian socialism.[2] Chase spent his early political career supporting "a wide range of reform causes: the single tax, women's suffrage, birth control and socialism." [2] Chase's early books The Tragedy of Waste (1925) and Your Money's Worth (1928) were notable for their criticism of corporate advertising and their advocacy of consumer protection.[3] Although not a Marxist, Chase admired the planned economy of the Soviet Union, being impressed with it after a 1927 visit. Chase stated that "The Russians, in a time of peace, have answered the question of what an economic system is for".[2] It has been suggested that he was the originator of the expression a New Deal, which became identified with the economic programs of American president Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He had a cover story in The New Republic entitled "A New Deal for America", during the week that Roosevelt gave his 1932 presidential acceptance speech promising a new deal, but whether Roosevelt's speechwriter Samuel Rosenman saw the magazine is not clear.
His 1938 book The Tyranny of Words was an early (perhaps the earliest, predating Hayakawa) and influential popularization of Alfred Korzybski's general semantics.
Chase supported the isolationist movement and was against US entry in World War II, advocating this position in his 1939 book The New Western Front.[1]
In the 1960s, Chase lent his support to the Johnson administration's Great Society policies.[1]
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Chase is famous for the quote at the end of his book A New Deal, "Why should Russians have all the fun remaking a world?" — a reference to the "socialist experiment" in the USSR.[4]
He is quoted in S. I. Hayakawa's Language in Thought and Action as having said, "Common sense is that which tells us the world is flat."
In The Road We Are Traveling, Chase compiled a list of 18 trends in contemporaneous politics around the world, largely opposed by both capitalists and socialists, which he felt constituted a new political paradigm he referred to as 'X'. Chase argued that the increasing prevalence of these trends would make a return to the status quo after the war unlikely, for better or for worse.
1. A strong, centralized government.
2. An executive arm growing at the expense of the legislative and judicial arms.
3. The control of banking, credit and security exchanges by the government.
4. The underwriting of employment by the government, either through armaments or public works.
5. The underwriting of social security by the government – old-age pensions, mothers’ pensions, unemployment insurance, and the like.
6. The underwriting of food, housing, and medical care, by the government.
7. The use of deficit spending to finance these underwritings.
8. The abandonment of gold in favor of managed currencies.
9. The control of foreign trade by the government.
10. The control of natural resources.
11. The control of energy sources.
12. The control of transportation.
13. The control of agricultural production.
14. The control of labor organizations.
15. The enlistment of young men and women in youth corps devoted to health, discipline,community service and ideologies consistent with those of the authorities.
16. Heavy taxation, with special emphasis on the estates and incomes of the rich.
17. Control of industry without ownership.
18. State control of communications and propaganda.
Vangermeersch, Richard G. J. The Life and Writings of Stuart Chase (1888–1985): From an Accountant's Perspective. Amsterdam: Elsevier JAI, 2005. ISBN 978-0762312139