It is useless to multiply instances. There is only one country in
which any square foot of land is as favorably situated for conducting
exchanges, or as richly endowed by nature for production, as any other
square foot; and the name of that country is Utopia. In Utopia alone,
therefore, would occupying ownership be just. In England, America
and other places, rashly created without consulting the Anarchists,
Nature is all caprice and injustice in dealing with Labor. Here you
scratch her with a spade; and earth's increase and foison plenty are
added to you. On the other side of the hedge twenty steam-diggers will
not extort a turnip from her. Still less adapted to Anarchism than
the fields and mines is the crowded city. The distributor flourishes
where men love to congregate: his work is to bring commodities to
men; but here the men bring themselves to the commodities. Remove
your distributor a mile, and his carts and travellers must scour the
country for customers. None know this better than the landlords. Up
High Street, down Low Street, over the bridge and into Crow Street, the
toilers may sweat equally for equal wages; but their product varies;
and the ground rents vary with the product. Competition levels down
the share kept by the worker as it levels up the hours of his labor;
and the surplus, high or low according to the fertility of the soil or
convenience of the site, goes as high rent or low rent, but always in
the long run rack rent, to the owner of the land.
Now Mr. Tucker's remedy for this is to make the occupier--the actual
worker--the owner. Obviously the effect would be, not to abolish his
advantage over his less favorably circumstanced competitors, but simply
to authorize him to put it into his own pocket instead of handing it
over to a landlord. He would then, it is true, be (as far as his place
of business was concerned) a worker instead of an idler; but he would
get more product as a manufacturer and more custom as a distributor
than other equally industrious workers in worse situations. He could
thus save faster than they, and retire from active service at an age
when they would still have many years more work before them. His
ownership of his place of business would of course lapse in favor
of his successor the instant he retired. How would the rest of the
community decide who was to be the successor--would they toss up for
it, or fight for it, or would he be allowed to nominate his heir, in
which case he would either nominate his son or sell his nomination for
a large fine? Again, his retirement from his place of business would
leave him still in possession, as occupying owner, of his private
residence; and this might be of exceptional or even unique desirability
in point of situation. It might, for instance, be built on Richmond
Hill, and command from its windows the beautiful view of the Thames
valley to be obtained from that spot. Now it is clear that Richmond
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account