Book contents
- Frontmatter
- PREFACE TO FOURTH EDITION
- Contents
- INTRODUCTORY
- BOOK I WAGES AND CAPITAL
- BOOK II POPULATION AND SUBSISTENCE
- BOOK III THE LAWS OF DISTRIBUTION
- BOOK IV EFFECT OF MATERIAL PROGRESS UPON THE DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH
- BOOK V THE PROBLEM SOLVED
- BOOK VI THE REMEDY
- BOOK VII JUSTICE OF THE REMEDY
- BOOK VIII APPLICATION OF THE REMEDY
- Chapter I Private property in land inconsistent with the best use of land
- Chapter II How equal rights to the land may be asserted and secured
- Chapter III The proposition tried by the canons of taxation
- Chapter IV Indorsements and objections
- BOOK IX EFFECTS OF THE REMEDY
- BOOK X THE LAW OF HUMAN PROGRESS
- CONCLUSION
- INDEX
Chapter II - How equal rights to the land may be asserted and secured
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 September 2011
- Frontmatter
- PREFACE TO FOURTH EDITION
- Contents
- INTRODUCTORY
- BOOK I WAGES AND CAPITAL
- BOOK II POPULATION AND SUBSISTENCE
- BOOK III THE LAWS OF DISTRIBUTION
- BOOK IV EFFECT OF MATERIAL PROGRESS UPON THE DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH
- BOOK V THE PROBLEM SOLVED
- BOOK VI THE REMEDY
- BOOK VII JUSTICE OF THE REMEDY
- BOOK VIII APPLICATION OF THE REMEDY
- Chapter I Private property in land inconsistent with the best use of land
- Chapter II How equal rights to the land may be asserted and secured
- Chapter III The proposition tried by the canons of taxation
- Chapter IV Indorsements and objections
- BOOK IX EFFECTS OF THE REMEDY
- BOOK X THE LAW OF HUMAN PROGRESS
- CONCLUSION
- INDEX
Summary
We have traced the want and suffering that everywhere prevail among the working classes, the recurring paroxysms of industrial depression, the scarcity of employment, the stagnation of capital, the tendency of wages to the starvation point, that exhibit themselves more and more strongly as material progress goes on, to the fact that the land on which and from which all must live is made the exclusive property of some.
We have seen that there is no possible remedy for these evils but the abolition of their cause; we have seen that private property in land has no warrant in justice, but stands condemned as the denial of natural right—a subversion of the law of nature that as social development goes on must condemn the masses of men to a slavery the hardest and most degrading.
We have weighed every objection, and seen that neither on the ground of equity or expediency is there anything to deter us from making land common property by confiscating rent.
But a question of method remains. How shall we do it? We should satisfy the law of justice, we should meet all economic requirements, by at one stroke abolishing all private titles, declaring all land public property, and letting it out to the highest bidders in lots to suit, under such conditions as would sacredly guard the private right to improvements.
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- Progress and PovertyAn Inquiry into the Cause of Industrial Depressions and of Increase of Want with Increase of Wealth; The Remedy, pp. 362 - 366Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009First published in: 1881