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The world economy is based on theft

Nearly all land in the world is stolen. Every government funds itself through theft. We all obtain a part of our income from theft. No wonder the world has problems!

Nearly all land is stolen

Theft means obtaining property by force or deception. If we look back in history, practically every nation obtained its land in violent wars. In other words, by force.

Even if we ignore the original theft, land creates value every day, by allowing work to be done and by increasing its sale price. Some of this value is created by society, yet landowners keep the money for themselves, so every day the value of the land continues to be stolen. (And the landowners themselves are victims of theft, which brings us to the subject of taxation.)

Traditional taxation is theft

Governments fund themselves through taxes. In other words, they take money that they did not earn.

If a citizen chooses not to pay some taxes, they are fined, and if necessary property is taken by force. Some people talk of a contract between the citizen and the state, but the citizen has no choice in the matter. Governments will claim that taxes are used for moral purposes, but this does not change the fact that it is the citizen’s money, obtained by the threat of force.

The moral argument for taxation is a moral argument for theft. Does that make it acceptable? If a burglar explains that he needs your money for good reasons, would you invite him back to steal something else? If he told you there was no alternative, would you believe him?

There is an honest alternative to taxation, and it is makes more sense as a way to solve problems, create wealth, and save the world. It is called land rent.

We all take property by force and don’t pay for it

Most of us own some land, even if it just a mortgaged apartment. We benefit from this land - it has value created by society yet we don’t pay for it. And our ownership is supported by the police and the full force of the state. We take from society, without paying for it, using the threat of force against anyone who disagrees.

But we don’t benefit from this theft. We pay inflated land prices and have huge mortgages around our necks. Then we pay taxes on almost everything. And if we don’t own property, still we rely on a government which relies on taxation.

Please do not be offended

We are all part of this system, so we have no choice. Land owners and government are not villains - we would all be land owners or in government if we could. It is perfectly healthy and natural to do our best in whatever system we find ourselves in. But the system is at fault.

There is a better choice, a system that would not rely on taking others’ property by force. It pays the fair price for any property we take, and allows us to keep everything we create. It is called land rent.

No wonder the world has problems!

Our land is stolen. We continue to gain wealth from the land without paying its owners, society. And society, through the government, takes whatever money from us that it can. We steal from them, they steal from us. There is no basis in ownership for the amounts we take - each side, in the immortal way of thieves, tries to take as much as it can get away with.

Al this theft, without any basis in ownership, leads to mistrust. Other nations must hold us (and everyone else) in suspicion. The rich don’t trust the poor. The poor don’t trust the rich. Everyone is out for what they can get, using any means to hand. Our own society cannot trust us, and we cannot trust our government. Our economy is modeled after a den of thieves. No wonder we have problems!

Land rent is the alternative to theft. With land rent, we pay the full price for any land we occupy, and nobody has any right to take more than that from us. With land rent we can trust and respect each other. Land rent is the sane and just alternative to an economy based on theft.

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