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About this site About this siteMy name is Chris Tolworthy. This is my home page, and this is my original AnswersAnswers.com site. I first heard about land rent a few years ago, via the excellent globalissues.org. It made perfect sense. At first I thought that land rent would be part the ideal economic system. As I read more on the subject, it became obvious that land rent is not part of the ideal economic system. Land rent is the entire ideal economic system. We don’t need to push for anything else. If we have land rent, then we have justice, and everything else follows naturally. There are a many great books and web sites on land rent. But I couldn’t find one that just said in simple terms why land rent is so important. So I decided to make one. I don’t know if I succeeded, but at least I tried. The hand drawn pictures and animations on this site are by me. The photos, other than well known faces, are from a 1997 Romtech collection that has no mention of copyright. Romtech was since bought by Greenstreet Software, whose web site says the images are free to use on noncommercial web sites. Thanks, Greenstreet!
If land rent is so good, why don’t we have it already?The simple answer is that many land owners don’t like the idea of paying rent, and land owners have a lot of power. Another answer is that progress takes time. A hundred years ago, many western countries did not even let women vote. But this is not the whole story. Land rent was a popular idea before the Second World War. Winston Churchill, for example, campaigned for it. But then the war took all his attention. And after the war, the rise of communism took his attention. Critics of land rent made it sound like socialism (even though land rent is the purest form of private property), and that made it politically impossible to sell. Does land rent mean society owns the land?Land rent is the purest form of private property. Each individual owns everything they create, and nobody can take it from them. You can choose to be part of a society if you wish, and that society owns whatever it creates, organized as a private company. You can choose which society to join, or you can choose not to be part of society. Of course, if you make a choice that inconveniences your neighbors, then you are privately responsible for all the costs you create. So land rent is pure private property. In contrast, most current governments are socialist or communist to some extent. That is, the leaders assume that they own everything. They may allow citizens to act like they own things, but if a citizen breaks the rules made by the government, the government can take their property, their liberty, and sometimes even their life. Is land rent the same as libertarianism?It depends what you mean by libertarianism. Some libertarians assume that either we have no responsibilities to the wider world, or we can decide what those responsibilities are. Land rent allows us to calculate those responsibilities objectively. All of the arguments about individuals within society also apply to each society within the wider world. The principles are universal. We can choose how we act toward other people (or other societies) but we cannot avoid the costs - or rewards - of your actions. How much would land rent cost me?You can calculate how much land rent would cost by calculating how much your land would be worth if it had no buildings or other improvements. And remember that you would not have to pay that all at once. And remember that, if you had bought the land from someone who had stolen it (i.e., they did not pay land rent either), you could claim damages from them. And remember that, apart from land rent, you would be under no obligation to pay anything else, ever. As for detailed examples, this web site is about the broad principles, not details. Theft is wrong, regardless of how much is stolen or who steals it. If you ask a thief to return your stolen goods, “how much it will cost” is not an issue. But don’t worry. Other web sites contain ideas for a smooth and painless transition to a fair society. “I have a lot more questions, and I want examples”For all the answers, with examples, and message boards, visit www.progress.org or www.henrygeorge.org or any of the many Georgist/Geoist web sites. This site is only to get your interest. |
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