Friday 20 May 2011

The government is the owner of the land

The only legitimate function of a government is to allocate land rights, which can be done by seizing the land from those with an excess. But this type of action is not the action of a government which seeks to act in the place of the populace, to seize land is adversarial. It (such an agency) would need to be a defensive agency reclaiming land.

The government should share the land with the people

There is a level (of excessive land ownership) beyond which land ownership becomes illegitimate. If our land ownership is excessive this means that others are not able to live independently (and feed themselves) which violates the categorical imperative. It is not best for everyone if some own an excess, whereas it is best if we all recognise personal property. If the categorical imperative is violated in this way it means that the justification to own the land becomes invalid, so there is an upper bound for land ownership and we cannot rightfully own land above a certain upper bound. Land is able to be owned (with universal utility) only up to an upper limit. We cannot own an excess of land. Not any amount of land can be legitimately owned.

The land must be shared to maximise its utility.

It is the government which allocates land rights

The government is what owns the land. Everything which is not constructed by a person is ‘owned’ and allocated according to the collective. The land is owned by the government. If we do not have sufficient access to the land it is the government which is at fault, since they allocate land rights.

Wednesday 4 May 2011

No one should suffer for want of land

There should be no one who suffers for want of land.

Land is a common good. It cannot fairly be owned privately since it has been created by no one living. It was here before any of us. Since land is a public good no one can own it. We should make efforts to ensure that everyone is able to benefit from the existence of the earth, by providing everyone with access to it. No one should be excluded from the land.

A share of the land should be free to use for everyone. No one should be landless. Everyone should have access to a piece of the land. No one has a right to take more than their fair share of the land.