In
one paragraph
or at least briefly!
Henry George: The Wages of
Labor
This world is the creation of God!
The men brought into it for the brief period of their earthly lives
are the equal creatures of His bounty; the equal subjects of His provident
care.
By his constitution a man is beset by physical wants on the satisfaction
of which depends not only the maintenance of his physical life, but also the
development of his intellectual and spiritual life.
God has made the satisfaction of these wants dependent on man’s
own exertions, laying on him the injunction and giving him the power to labor – a
power that of itself raises him far above the brute, since we may reverently
say that it enables him to become, as it were, a helper in the creative work.
God has not put on man the task of making bricks without straw. With
the need for labor and the power to labor He has also given to man the material
for labor. This material is land!
Man, physically, can live only on and from land, and can use elements
such as air, sunshine, and water, only by the use of land.
Being the equal creatures of the Creator, equally entitled under His
providence to live their lives and satisfy their needs, men are equally entitled
to the use of land, and any adjustment that denies this equal right to the
use of land is morally wrong. ... read the whole article
Nic Tideman: Global Economic Justice,
followed
by Creating Global
Economic Justice
Henry George's theory of economic justice — that every person
has a right to his or her productive powers, and that all persons have
equal
rights
to all natural opportunities — provides a simple formula around
which opinion about the shape of a peaceful world can
coalesce.
Nic Tideman: Applications
of Land Value Taxation to Problems of
Environmental Protection,
Congestion, fficient Resource Use, Population, and Economic Growth
Land value taxation generalizes into the principle that people
should pay for all of their appropriations of natural opportunities, according
to the
opportunity costs of those appropriations, and the resulting revenue should
be shared equally. —
Weld Carter: An
Introduction to Henry George
... man is always dependent upon
land
for life and living, both as the source of raw materials for his
products and as the place on which to fashion, trade, service, and
enjoy these products. Private property in land is inexpedient, for by
inducing speculation in land in good times, it brings on bad times;
however, private property in products is expedient because it
provides the incentive to produce. Private property in land is
morally wrong, first because it denies land to mankind in general,
and second because it provides a primary way for nonproducers to levy
toll on producers. However, private property in products is morally
right, deriving as it does directly from the right of a man to
himself. The taxation of land values is expedient because it
stimulates production whereas the taxation of products is inexpedient
because it checks production. The taxation of land values is
naturally right, for through it the community levies on the precise
values community has created. However, the taxation of products is
morally wrong because it deprives labor and capital of their just
earnings.
... read the whole article