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
The second preliminary consideration is that the community does not
create _all_ land values nor _all_ rent. These things are as certainly
due to nature as to social action. In no case can they be attributed
exclusively to one factor. Land that has no natural qualities or
capacities suitable for the satisfaction of human wants will never
have value or yield rent, no matter what society does in connection
with it: the richest land in the world will likewise remain valueless,
until it is brought into relation with society, with at least two
human beings. If Henry George merely means to say that, without the
presence of the community, land will not produce rent, he is stating
something that is perfectly obvious, but it is not peculiar to land.
Manufactured products would have no value outside of society, yet no
one maintains that their value is all created by social action.
Although the value of land is always due to both nature and society,
for practical purposes we may correctly attribute the value of a
particular piece of land predominantly to nature, or predominantly to
society. When three tracts, equally distant from a city, and equally
affected by society and its activities, have different values because
one is fit only for grazing, while the second produces large crops of
wheat, and the third contains a rich coal mine, their relative values
are evidently due to nature rather than to society. On the other hand,
the varying values of two equally fertile pieces of land unequally
distant from a city, must be ascribed primarily to social action. In
general, it is probably safe to say that almost all the value of land
in cities, and the greater part of the value of land in thickly
settled districts, is specifically due to social action rather than to
differences in fertility. Nevertheless, it remains true that the value
of every piece of land arises partly from nature, and partly from
society; but it is impossible to say in what proportion.
Our present concern is with those values and rents which are to be
attributed to social action. These cannot be claimed by any person,
nor by any community, in virtue of the individual's natural right to
the bounty of nature. Since they are not included among the ready made
gifts of God, they are no part of man's birthright. If they belong to
all the people the title to them must be sought in some historical
fact, some fact of experience, some social fact. According to Henry
George, the required title is found in the fact of production.
Socially created land values and rents belong to the community because
the community, not the private proprietor, has produced them. Let us
see in what sense the community produces the social value of land.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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