Chris, You said:
"For a transition from the present system, it is indeed "not necessary to confiscate land". It would be sufficient to abolish inheritance of land, i.e. the community inherits it when the land owner dies." Trouble is that much of the best land contains improvements. Will your community inherit the improvements as well, or do you think that the house or factory belongs to the person who built them, or bought them? Harry ******************************** Henry George School of Los Angeles Box 655 Tujunga CA 9104 818 352-4141 ******************************** -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Christoph Reuss Sent: Tuesday, October 19, 2010 11:31 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [Futurework] private land ownership (was Re: Questions on the "Bit Tax") Harry quoted Henry George: > "I do not propose either to purchase or to confiscate private property > in land. The first would be unjust; the second, needless. Let the > individuals who now hold it still retain, if they want to, possession > of what they are pleased to call their land. Let them continue to call > it their land. Let them buy and sell, and bequeath and devise it. We > may safely leave them the shell, if we take the kernel. It is not > necessary to confiscate land; it is only necessary to confiscate rent." If you keep private land ownership, you keep injust (inherited) privilege -- feudalism, basically --, massive inequality and land speculation -- which ultimately has led to the famous "crisis" in the whole economy. And there is no reason for private land ownership. The land is a commons and should be just that. But to ensure that good use is made of the land, it shouldn't be "collectivized" as in Marxism (so that no one feels responsible), but allocated to individuals/families (not for ownership, but for lease) according to their ability to work it. For a transition from the present system, it is indeed "not necessary to confiscate land". It would be sufficient to abolish inheritance of land, i.e. the community inherits it when the land owner dies. Chris _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [email protected] https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [email protected] https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
