4. For Jack to _own_, have a thing for Jack's _own_, Jack must by his
_own_ force have subdued Nature, must have taken the thing by moving
the thing's atoms, or moving something relatively to the thing, or,
negatively, by not evading, but accepting, the thing in motion--a wind,
tide, light-wave; else Jack must have taken something (by as much work)
to purchase the thing from its (true) owner, or accepted it as a favour
from Nature in motion, or from its (true) owner. To say “own” is to say
“take”; to say “take” is to say “motion”, i.e., the doing of work: “work
done” being FD, i.e., Force used into Distance moved-over. I cannot own
the air: it is no good; I own the air in my lungs, having taken, moved,
it, done FD on it: it is very good; and I own the air which, doing FD,
moving to my face, I do not evade, but accept, take: it is very good.
I say to Jack “take a cigar”; he loudly says “yes!”, but does not move
it to his mouth, nor moves his mouth to it; instead, he moves a pen to
his mouth; this makes me laugh: he has not taken a cigar.
Jack is catching fish in a boat; Tom owns the boat: so Jack gives fish
to Tom, until Jack's FD done on the fish is equivalent to Tom's FD done
on the boat; and now Jack owns the boat. If “the law” says that Tom
still owns the boat, this makes me laugh: for how can Tom come to own
two boats' good by the FD done on one only?
Jack is ploughing the sea with a ship: just there he owns the sea, has
taken, is moving, it for his good. He does not own the sea before, nor
the sea behind, him: for the motions behind made by him have ceased to
do good.
Jack is ploughing soil: he owns the soil ploughed, has taken it, and
will own it while the motions he has made do good: so that, if Tom who
has not moved it says “I own the soil, for 'the law' declares that I
have taken it by moving a pen two inches”, this makes me laugh. Or, if
Jack says “I own it for ever”, this makes me laugh. Or, if anyone says
“I own both the soil and the site” (relative position), this makes me
laugh: for what can one man move to make a relative position good? He
can neither move a field toward anything nor move much toward a field.
If many men move railways that way, or move things to rear towns round
the field, this makes the site good, moving it from outside a community
to inside a community; and the many who make it good own it.
5. The site is the field's chief good: so the plougher owes something to
those who, making it good, own it, This something is named “rent”.
6. Suppose that the plougher, or dweller-on, is an Englishman: he owes
rent to the English. And, since the site of England is made good by
movements made in America, he owes rent to the Americans.
7. This the mind readily descries to be true: it is a “truism”, and
is necessarily the Fundamental Principle of Society throughout the
universe. So that, summing up, we may define: “Rent” is “right”, based
on truth when paid to those by whose movements a site is made good.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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