Distributive Justice: The Right and Wrong of Our Present Distribution of WealthRyan, John A. (John Augustine)
PhilosophyChristian
Distributive Justice: The Right and Wrong of Our Present Distribution of Wealth
Ryan, John A. (John Augustine)
Economic history; Income distribution -- Moral and ethical aspects; Wealth -- Religious aspects
Nevertheless this title is applicable only to those goods that exist
in unlimited abundance, not to those parts of the natural bounty that
are scarce and possess economic value. A general assumption by
producers that they were entitled to take possession of the gifts of
nature indiscriminately would mean industrial anarchy and civil war.
Hence Henry George tells us that the individual should pay rent to
"the community to satisfy the equal rights of all other members of
the community."[18] Inasmuch as the individual must pay this price
before he begins to produce, his right to the use of natural
opportunities is not "free," nor does his labour alone constitute a
title to that part of them that he utilises in production.
Consequently labour does not create a right to the concrete product.
It merely gives the producer a right to the value that he adds to the
raw material. His right to the raw material itself, to the elements
that he withdraws from the common store, and fashions into a product,
say, wheat, lumber, or steel, does not originate in the title of
labour but in the title of contract. This is the contract by which in
exchange for rent paid to the community he is authorised to utilise
these materials. Until he has made this contract he has manifestly no
full right to the product into which natural forces as well as his own
labour have entered. According to Henry George's own statements,
therefore, the right to the product does not spring from labour alone,
but from labour plus compensation to the community. Since the contract
by which the prospective user agrees to pay this compensation or rent
must precede his application of labour, it instead of labour is the
original title. Since the contract is made with a particular community
for the use of a particular piece of land, the title that it conveys
must derive ultimately from the occupation of that land by that
community,--or some previous community of which the present one is the
legal heir. So far as economically valuable materials are concerned,
therefore, the logic of Henry George's principles leads inevitably to
the conclusion that the original title of ownership is first
occupancy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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