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| Portrait of
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712 - 1778) by Charles Gleyre (1806 – 1874) |
“The first man who, having enclosed a piece of ground, bethought himself of saying This is mine, and found people simple enough to believe him, was the real founder of civil society. From how many crimes, wars and murders, from how many horrors and misfortunes might not any one have saved mankind, by pulling up the stakes, or filling up the ditch, and crying to his fellows, 'Beware of listening to this impostor; you are undone if you once forget that the fruits of the earth belong to us all, and the earth itself to nobody.'” ~Rousseau
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If you agree with Rousseau, then you'll appreciate the research of Lars A. Doucet, who believes that it is "only a slight exaggeration to say that humanity's history is defined by a struggle over land" and we need to tax "those who gatekeep the most valuable locations and natural resourcs, things which were not brought into existence by anyone's hard work or investment" (xi, 160).
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In his book, Land is a Big Deal Doucet reviews the work of Henry George (1839 - 1897), including his book Progress and Poverty (1879), his article "The Science of Political Economy" (1897), and his influence on the original version of the boardgame Monopoly.
If, like me, you were always the worst in your family at Monopoly and Settlers of Catan, allow Doucet to help you understand the intricacies of land acquisition. For example, "When you sell a piece of land to someone, you're participating in a chain of peacful land sales that began at some point in the past with a violent seizure" (xi). Doucet has a lot of fun with the phrase "By George" as he explains Georgism and Land Value Tax to the beginner.
A few highlights:
p 4: "If I had to summarize George's book in a single sentence, I would put it this way: "Poverty and wealth disparity appear to be perversely linked with progress; The Rent is Too Damn High, and it is all because of land."
p 6: "He [George] then explains why the existing system causes poverty to advance alongside progress, and why we see industrial depressions. Then, he identifies the root cause of the problem (land ownership and speculative rent) and presents his solution (the Land Value Tax)."
pp 7 - 8, 62: "If we finally have the necessary material conditions and technology for utopia, why this suffering, waste, and inefficiency? . . . the man lays the blame at the feet of progress itself . . . the resiliance of poverty, oppression, and inequality in the face of advancing econimic development is . . . an inescapable consequence of our socioeconomic system. . . . where the value of land is highest, civilization exhibits the greatest luxury side by side with the most piteous destitution."
[Likewise Karl Marx: "From day to day it thus becomes clearer . . . that in the selfsame relations in which wealth is produced, poverty is produced also; that in the selfsame relations in which there is a developent of the productive forces, there is also a force producing repression . . ."]
p 13 - 14: “Yes, greed, evil, and human nature will always be with us, but isn’t it weird that we haven’t eliminated these economic problems the same way we’ve eliminated Smallpox, Scurvy, and having to write your scathing polemics about Thomas Jefferson by candlelight with a goose feather?”
p 15 - 16: "By George, what is wealth?
Wealth is produced when nature's bounty is touched by human labor resulting in a tangible product that is the object of human desire. . . .
[quoting Henry George 1897] 'It is never the amount of labor that has been exerted in bringing a thing into being that determines its value, but always the amount of labor that will be rendered in exchange for it.' In other words, 'a thing's value is whatever someone is willing to pay for it.' "
89: "Does this mean that there can never be profitable landlords ever again? Of course not -- they just have to earn their living honesty like everyone else." [See also, Evicted]
p 102, 167, 247: "The purpose of Land Value Tax is not just to raise revenue, but to end speculation, rent - seeking, unaffordable housing, and wasteful, environmentally damaging sprawl. LVT is worth doing for those good effects alone. . . . By George, a Land Value Tax would solve this! . . . [because] Land can't run or hide. Best of all, you can't evade Land Value Taxes by obscuring land ownership though shell corporations, because the tax doesn't care who owns it."
246: "The right question is not 'can the rich game this system?' but rather, 'can they game it less than the existing one?' This is why we should keep standardized tests, even though rich people can and do game them. (The evidence shows that, on balance, standardized tets are one of the few ways a minority student from a poor background even has a chance to move upwards) . . . "
247: "Finally, defeatism is corruption's best friend. If you believe everything I'm saying here, and your only obstacle is fear of corruption, and you accept that LVT's vulnerability to corruption is not any worse than the status quo's -- then why not just get out there and fight for the world you want to see? Nothing good ever came without a struggle."
& Is There A World You Long To See?
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| The Spirit of Voltaire and Jean Jacques Rousseau
leads them to the Immortality Temple Anonymous, French School, ca 1794 |
Adam Gopnik: "As Tocqueville saw half a century later, home-making, which ought to make people more selfish, makes them less so; it gives them a stake in other people’s houses. It is not so much the establishment of a garden but the ownership of a gate that moves people from liking a society based on favors to one based on rights. Enclosing his garden broadened Voltaire’s circle of compassion. When people were dragged from their gardens to be tortured and killed in the name of faith, he began to take it, as they say, personally.
from "Voltaire's Garden: The Philosopher as a Campaigner for Human Rights"
