The Economics of the Colour Bar (Large Print Edition): A Study of the Economic Origins and Consequences of Racial Segregation in South Africa

by W.H. Hutt

LARGE PRINT EDITION! More at LargePrintLiberty.com. Who were the original and most passionate opponents of apartheid in South Africa? The classical liberals, and this book was their most important weapon against the problem of racial injustice. William H. Hutt, an Austro-classical economist in South Africa (later he taught at the University of Dallas), explains that apartheid originated as a labor-union mechanism for artificially restricting the supply of labor and thereby driving up wages for the privileged. He further explains that nearly all the ensuing legal disabilities for blacks in South Africa stemmed from the problem of labor union political influence. As an old-time liberal, he urged the dismantling of the system to forestall a revolutionary environment that would have nationalized industry and socialized the economy. The study first appeared in 1964, and it was incredibly prescient. It remains the definitive study.

Genres: Economics

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1964

Reviews

[Don Lim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hutt uses this conclusion at the end of one of his chapters but it could most certainly be used as a thesis throughout the book: "the inescapable conclusion [...] is that the private market [...] tended to work wholly for the material advancement of the African people. The intervention of the centralised state, on the other hand, had worked almost entirely in the opposite direction." Many black South Africans became dissatisfied with capitalism because they believed the system in which they were put under was capitalism, when it was, in fact, over-encroachment by the state. Industrialists seek to maintain a satisfied labor force in order to minimize turnover rates and to maintain higher production but because of legislation forbidding hiring black workers, restricting living arrangements, imposing high minimum wages, and a plethora of other laws that the white minority were able to prevent black progress. As one of the reviews mentioned, the information is quite outdated now as it was written in the 1960s and apartheid ended in the 1990s, but the book is nonetheless useful in learning about past mistakes and gives current understanding to a similar situation in the United States.

[Brak · Rating 1 out of 5]

Libertarian/Liberal analysis of apartheid, apartheid is the cause of lack of competition and a "socialist" state. The solution? Free markets, no state intervention cause the market is colour blind! The premise of this book has clearly been disproven by the actual end of apartheid, and the continuation of informal racial segregation and inequality.

[Zachary Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hutt demonstrates in this short, easily readable work that the blame for South Africa's apartheid system rests with the country's demagogic politicians and from labor union pressures to exclude African competition. The work was written in the 1960s, so readers will need to turn elsewhere for an account of more recent developments, but this is a solid history of the period from the beginnings of South Africa's industrialization up to the creation of the first Bantustans.