What our politicians could learn about poverty from the first-hand experiences of economist Alfred Marshall

Have you heard of Alfred Marshall?

He was an English economist (1842-1924) who changed the discipline of economics.

He was the originator of the famous diagram that depicts “supply and demand” curves.

His most famous student, John Maynard Keynes, eventually revolutionised economics in his own way, after the Great Depression of the 1930s.

But it was Marshall’s work habits that contributed to his stature as a towering figure of the profession.

He did what most members of his profession rarely did: He obsessively travelled the countryside, visiting hundreds of factories and industrial towns, mines, dockyards, and steelworks, to talk to businessmen, managers, trade union leaders and workers to see for himself how the economy was evolving and how…