Some panaceas are real
Panaceas are not fashionable. We are supposed to say “there are no easy answers.” But sometimes there are easy answers, simple ideas that make everything better. Some panaceas include:
- Law - this allows people to plan ahead and build comforts. Without law, life is nasty, brutal and short.
- Trade - this is the fastest way to create wealth, and changed the world from iron age farming to advanced civilization.
- Democracy - this has been a very successful way to get wealth, peaceful and ethical societies.
Land rent is perhaps the greatest panacea of all, because it makes the big three panaceas even more effective:
- Law - law favors the rich. Land rent gives everyone an equal chance to become rich.
- Trade - land rent increases trade by bringing more land into the market and making everyone work for their money.
- Democracy - poverty is the enemy of democracy because it makes people ignorant, desperate, easily threatened, and unable to compete with well funded parties. Land rent attacks poverty at its root.
Anyone who wants to solve the world’s problems must start with the most basic issues. There is nothing more basic than land. If we get the economics of land right, then employment, justice, wealth, and equality all follow naturally
Examples of how land rent fixes everything
The following are the main news items from the last few months (this is written in November 2005). In every single case, land rent would either solve the problem or make it much better.
Earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, etc.
Natural disasters hurt the poor the most. Poor countries have poor buildings, poor communication, poor preparation, poor short term responses, poor infrastructure, and so on. If an earthquake or flood hits a rich country, hundreds die. If a “natural” disaster hits a poor country, millions die. It is poverty that kills, not the earthquake or hurricane or flood. Land rent attacks the real problem, poverty
Plane crashes and other man-influenced disasters
Poor countries have the worst safety records. Once again, land rent solves the problem by solving poverty.
AIDS and other diseases
The same principle as above. The biggest factor in whether you die is your income. The real problem is poverty,
Political incompetence
Even in rich countries, mistakes are made. Often it appears that the wrong person was in the top job. Either they were not a good leader, or they were in the wrong job, appointed by someone who was not a good leader. As explained elsewhere, land rent gives us better leaders.
The Iraqi constitution
The Iraqi opposition fears that increased autonomy means the oil-rich states can keep wealth instead of sharing it with oil-poor regions. With land rent, the value of all land is, in effect, equalized. So no region has an advantages over another region simply because it sits on an oil field.
Israel and Palestine
If land rent was applied between Israel and Palestine, Israel would have no economic benefit in occupying the prime land, and Palestinians would find their standard of living raised. With less desire to grab territory and fewer desperate unemployed youths, the Israel-Palestine problem would be solved, or at least improved beyond all recognition.
Secret service scandals
Control of resources decides wars and policies, control of resources decides wealth and poverty, control of resources decides justice and misery, control of resources involves trillions of dollars taken from the poor and given to the rich. That is why land rent, the just allocation of resources is vastly more important than any silly games over who said what. In comparison, the whole existence of the CIA and other secretive organizations is irrelevant and probably counter productive by creating distrust.
Terrorism
The annual death toll from terrorism (even if we include the one-off event of the twin towers) is much lower than the annual death toll from road accidents, heart disease, gun crime, or a hundred other things. So terrorism should be a lower priority But if we do ant to tackle it, land rent is the answer. Practically all terrorists (including religious terrorists) are motivated by land control. They want land, or they don’t want foreigners controlling their land. With land rent, nobody can control any land without paying the local people a large price in cash. With land rent, al the anger is diffused. How can you be angry at someone who pays you huge sums of money? The religious extremists will still be angry, but they rely on the common people for sympathy. Land rent removes their support.
Aggressive land grabs
If we have land rent, whoever occupies the land must pay the full market rate for depriving others of its use. Aggressive thugs cannot afford to occupy land, tanks or no tanks.
Tyrants
With land rent, tyrants cannot come to power - all tyrants rely on economic injustice to give them popular support. And with land rent, tyrants are more easily removed (see the page on saving the world for details.)
Murderers and rapists
Whenever a mass murderer is caught, investigations show that there were plenty of warnings that were missed. People ignore the warnings because they know that if they acted on every hint then a lot of innocent people would be falsely suspected. Most important, those people could lose their jobs. But land rent changes the rules. With land rent there are more jobs, so you don’t have to be so afraid of saying no to someone who might be innocent. You can afford to be more cautious, because the economy is stronger.
Illegal immigrants
With land rent there is no black economy because there is no tax avoidance. There is no problem with allowing in more immigrants, because everyone who uses resources pays their way, and besides, jobs are cheap to create. So the problems associated with illegal immigrants disappear.
And so on.
We could go on and on. It should be clear by now that land rent can make any problem improve. Land rent really is the universal panacea.
Too good to be true?
These may seem like bold claims. But remember that the diference bwteen success and failure is often very small. The difference between survival and starvation is often just a few calories. The difference between war and peace is often just a few votes. The difference between chaos and security is just a little bit more trust. Teh difference between recession and economic boom is just a few percentage points. Land rent makes just a modest difference, but it makes the difference that counts.
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