1
2
3
| Wealth and Want | |||||||
| ... because democracy alone is not enough to produce widely shared prosperity. | |||||||
| Home | Essential Documents | Themes | All Documents | Authors | Glossary | Links | Contact Us |
|
Rights
Henry George: The Land Question (1881)
Henry George: Ode to Liberty (1877 speech)
In the very centers of our civilization today are
want and suffering enough to make sick at heart whoever
does not close his eyes and steel his nerves. Dare we
turn to the Creator and ask Him to relieve it? Supposing
the prayer were heard, and at the behest with which the
universe sprang into being there should glow in the sun a
greater power; new virtue fill the air; fresh vigor the
soil; that for every blade of grass that now grows two
should spring up, and the seed that now increases
fifty-fold should increase a hundredfold! Would poverty
be abated or want relieved? Manifestly no! Whatever
benefit would accrue would be but temporary. The new
powers streaming through the material universe could be
utilized only through land. And land,
being private property, the classes that now monopolize
the bounty of the Creator would monopolize all the new
bounty. Land owners would alone be benefited. Rents would
increase, but wages would still tend to the starvation
point!
This is not merely a deduction of political economy; it is a fact of experience. We know it because we have seen it. Within our own times, under our very eyes, that Power which is above all, and in all, and through all; that Power of which the whole universe is but the manifestation; that Power which maketh all things, and without which is not anything made that is made, has increased the bounty which men may enjoy, as truly as though the fertility of nature had been increased.
What has been the result? Simply
that land owners get all the gain. The wonderful
discoveries and inventions of our century have neither
increased wages nor lightened toil. The effect has simply
been to make the few richer; the many more
helpless! Can it be that the gifts of the Creator
may be thus misappropriated with impunity? Is it a light
thing that labor should be robbed of its earnings while
greed rolls in wealth — that the many should want
while the few are surfeited? Turn to history, and on
every page may be read the lesson that such wrong never
goes unpunished; that the Nemesis that follows injustice
never falters nor sleeps! Look around today. Can this
state of things continue? May we even say, “After
us the deluge!” Nay; the pillars of the state are
trembling even now, and the very foundations of society
begin to quiver with pent-up forces that glow underneath.
The struggle that must either revivify, or convulse in
ruin, is near at hand, if it be not already begun. The
fiat has gone forth! With steam and electricity, and the
new powers born of progress, forces have entered the
world that will either compel us to a higher plane or
overwhelm us, as nation after nation, as civilization
after civilization, have been overwhelmed before. It is
the delusion which precedes destruction that sees in the
popular unrest with which the civilized world is
feverishly pulsing only the passing effect of ephemeral
causes. Between democratic ideas and the
aristocratic adjustments of society there is an
irreconcilable conflict. Here in the United
States, as there in Europe, it may be seen arising. We
cannot go on permitting men to vote and forcing them to
tramp. We cannot go on educating boys and girls in our
public schools and then refusing them the right to earn
an honest living. We cannot go on
prating of the inalienable rights of man and then denying
the inalienable right to the bounty of the
Creator. Even now, in old bottles the new wine
begins to ferment, and elemental forces gather for the
strife! ... read the
whole speech William Ogilvie: An Essay on the Right of Property in Land (Scotland, 1782)
All Right of property is founded either in
occupancy or labour. The earth having been given to
mankind in common occupancy, each individual seems to
have by nature a right to possess and cultivate an equal
share. This right is little different from that which he
has to the free use of the open air and running water;
though not so indispensably requisite at short intervals
for his actual existence, it is not less essential to the
welfare and right state of his life through all its
progressive stages. ... Read the entire
essay D. C. MacDonald: Preface (1891?) to Ogilvie's Essay (circa 1782)
Do we not find the Birthright of Man stereotyped
in the words “OUR FATHER”? The Faiths of the
world, ancient and modern, whether considered natural or
revealed, have all something in them, in common with
genuine Christianity, which declares “Equality of
Rights” between man and man. ...
Read the entire preface Nic Tideman: A Bill of Economic Rights and Obligations
Preamble
Our nation was founded on the idea that we are all created equal, that we are endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights, and that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. In living, expressing our liberty,
and pursuing happiness we sometimes conflict with one
another, so we need a shared understanding of the extent of
the sphere of equal rights given to every person, and
beyond that sphere our obligation to respect the rights of
others. This Bill is concerned with the economic aspects of
these rights and obligations. Read the
entire article
I. Taxing Land as Ethics and
Efficiency
II. What is Land? III. The simple efficiency argument for taxing land IV. Taxing Land is Better Than Neutral V. Measuring the Economic Gains from Shifting Taxes to Land VI. The Ethical Case for Taxing Land VII. Answer to Arguments against Taxing Land There is a case for taxing land based on ethical principles and a case for taxing land based on efficiency principles. As a matter of logic, these two cases are separate. Ethical conclusions follow from ethical premises and efficiency conclusions from efficiency principles. However, it is natural for human minds to conflate the two cases. It is easier to believe that something is good if one knows that it is efficient, and it is easier to see that something is efficient if one believes that it is good. Therefore it is important for a discussion of land taxation to address both question of efficiency and questions of ethics. This monograph will first address the efficiency case for taxing land, because that is the less controversial case. The efficiency case for taxing land has two main parts. ... To estimate the magnitudes of the impacts that additional taxes on land would have on an economy, one must have a model of the economy. I report on estimates of the magnitudes of impacts on the U.S. economy of shifting taxes to land, based on a mathematical model that is outlined in the Appendix. The ethical case for taxing land is based on two ethical premises:
1) every person has a right to himself or herself,
and
2) all persons have equal rights to the natural opportunities that are not embodied in persons.
The first premise leads to the conclusion that
taxing people according to the products of their efforts
or the products of their saving can only be just if
people voluntarily agree, individually, to be subject to
such taxes. Taxing land, on the
other hand, does not involve such an intrusion on
individual rights. In fact, taxing land is a
way equalizing the advantages of access to land, as
required by the second premise. The ethical case for taxing land ends with a discussion of the reasons why recognition of the equal rights of all to land may be essential for world peace. After developing the efficiency argument and the ethical argument for taxing land, I consider a variety of counter-arguments that have been offered against taxing land. For a given level of other taxes, a rise in the rate at which land is taxed causes a fall in the selling price of land. It is sometimes argued that only modest taxes on land are therefore feasible, because as the rate of taxation on land increases and the selling price of land falls, market transactions become increasingly less reliable as indicators of the value of land. ... Another basis on which it is argued that greatly increased taxes on land are infeasible is that if land values were to fall precipitously, the financial system would collapse. ... Apart from questions of feasibility, it is sometimes argued that erosion of land values from taxing land would harm economic efficiency, because it would reduce opportunities for entrepreneurs to use land as collateral for loans to finance their ideas. ... . Another ethical argument that is made against taxing land is that the return to unusual ability is “rent” just as the return to land is rent. This argument represents a refusal to make a distinction that begs to be made. The first principle of economic justice is that people have rights to themselves. While some scholars have asserted that people have rights to themselves but not to their talents, this is nonsensical. Without talents, there is no self. Talents are fundamentally different from land. The equal rights of all to land can consistently be asserted while still asserting that every person has right to the use of his or her talents. But before developing any of these arguments, I must discuss what land is. ... The Ethical Case for Taxing Land The ethical case for taxing land is based on two premises. The first is that people have rights to themselves. This has not been controversial since the end of slavery, so I will simply assume that this is agreed. The second premise is that all people have equal rights to natural opportunities. This is not so widely agreed. ... Justice requires that we acknowledge the equal rights of all persons to the gifts of nature. At the level of relations among nations, this requires every nation to determine whether it is using more than its share of natural opportunities, and if it is using more than its share, to compensate other nations that therefore have less than their shares. ... An additional ethical reason for recognizing equal rights to natural opportunities is that it may be necessary to secure world peace. Nations have arisen through violence. While the world condemns violence among nations, it has persistently acquiesced to regimes established by violence. The greater the natural resources of a nation, the greater is the attraction to potential tyrants of the possibility of taking over the nation. If the world is able to establish an understanding, backed up by the threat of economic boycotts, that nations have an obligation to share the value of natural opportunities in proportion to population, and that people are free to leave nations that they find unacceptable, then the return to violent appropriation of power will be removed. As long as we accept the continued exercise of disproportionate power over natural opportunities by those who acquired that power through violence, we will have difficulty persuading potential usurpers of power that we will not accept their conquests. ... It is sometimes suggested that collecting all of the rental value of land is not feasible because it would bankrupt the financial system, which uses land as collateral for loans. The use of land as collateral for loans is a fact that would need to be weighed carefully in working out a feasible transition to a system of collecting nearly all rent publicly, but it does not make public collection of rent impossible. Public collection of the rental value of land, and the consequent elimination of other taxes, would represent redistribution from the old to the young and unborn. It is equivalent to saying that each person enters the world with a more complete right to himself or herself (to the extent the income and value added taxes are reduced) and with a right to an equal share of the gifts of nature. If we are to acknowledge that every newborn person does have such rights, we must reduce the wealth of previously born persons, corresponding to the expectation of collecting the shares of rent of the newborns. The question that then arises is, Who should pay? This can be interpreted as a question of who should pay the cost of an accident. We have had a moral accident. We have been living under the delusion that it is possible for a person to have a respectable claim to a disproportionate share of the gifts of nature. This is akin to the delusion under which humanity long lived, that it was possible for one human being to own another. In recovering from such a delusion, we need to disappoint some people. If not the slave owners, then the people who compensate the slave owners. If not the land owners, then the people who compensate the land owners. I propose that the cost be divided among land owners, shareholders in financial institutions that made loans with land as collateral, and owners of wealth in general. ... Morality requires that we acknowledge the equal rights of all to the gifts of nature. Doing so is feasible and promotes efficiency as well. Read the whole article Fred Foldvary: Underprivileged or Rights-Deprived?
Poor folk are often labeled "underprivileged" and
richer folk are called "privileged." For example, there
is a book titled "One Nation,
Underprivileged: Why American Poverty Affects Us
All." But "privileged" and "underprivileged" are
confused and misleading expressions. If you think the
poor are "underprivileged," then you don't really
understand poverty. What is a "privilege?" The term originally meant "private law." A privilege is a special advantage or prerogative or immunity or benefit given only to some people only because they have power or are favored by those with power. If everyone is entitled to something, like freedom of expression, or if everyone may obtain an item such as a passport with the same rules applying to all, then it is not a privilege but a right. Whether a rich person is "privileged" depends on how he got the money. ... So if a person is poor, it is not because he is lacking in special protections, subsidies, and other privileges. A person is usually poor because he has been deprived of the natural right to work. Governments world-wide impose barriers between labor and productive resources, keeping some workers deprived of labor and others who do work deprived of their earnings from labor. Taxes on wages create a wedge between the cost of labor to employers and the take-home pay of the worker. More costly labor results in less employment. Taxes on the income from capital goods and on the sale of goods has the same effect. There are unemployment taxes, disability taxes, and payroll taxes that increase the tax wedge. On top of that, there are minimum-wage laws that prevent the least productive workers from getting hired. There are permits, zoning, and other rules and costs that also prevent some workers from becoming self-employed. Deprived of the full natural right to peaceful enterprise and labor, and the natural right to fully keep one's earnings, the poor have little or no income, and depend on charity and governmental assistance. To call them "underprivileged" is a lie. The rights-deprived poor do not need privileges. They just need government to stop interfering with their right to work and save! The biggest privilege world-wide is subsidies to landowners. ... There has been confusion about what is a right and what is a privilege.... Real privileges are favors arbitrarily given to some groups and not others. ... The really underprivileged folks are all consumers, taxpayers and those who are restricted from peaceful and honest practices or have to pay extra to the government while others are unrestricted and non-taxed. These people lack privileges which others have. The proper remedy is not to expand privileges, but to eliminate all governmental privileges. That is why libertarians and geoists alike have the motto: "Equal rights for all; privileges for none!"Read the whole article |
|
|
to email this page to a friend: right click, choose
"send"
|
||||||
|
Wealth and Want
|
www.wealthandwant.com
|
|||||
|
... because democracy alone hasn't yet led to a society
in which all can prosper
|
||||||