Chapter II The True Remedy

We have traced the unequal distribution of wealth which is the curse and menace of modern civilization to the institution of private property in land. We have seen that so long as this institution exists no increase in productive power can permanently benefit the masses; but, on the contrary, must tend still further to depress their condition. We have examined all the remedies, short of the abolition of private property in land, which are currently relied on or proposed for the relief of poverty and the better distribution of wealth, and have found them all inefficacious or impracticable.

We have traced the unequal distribution of wealth, the curse and menace of modern civilization, to private property in land. While this institution lasts, no increase in productive power can permanently benefit the masses; it can only push them lower. We have examined every remedy short of abolishing private property in land that is now relied on or proposed for relieving poverty and sharing wealth more fairly. We have found them all ineffective or impractical.

There is but one way to remove an evil—and that is, to remove its cause. Poverty deepens as wealth increases, and wages are forced down while productive power grows, because land, which is the source of all wealth and the field of all labor, is monopolized. To extirpate poverty, to make wages what justice commands they should be, the full earnings of the laborer, we must therefore substitute for the individual ownership of land a common ownership. Nothing else will go to the cause of the evil—in nothing else is there the slightest hope.

There is only one way to remove an evil, and that is to remove its cause. Poverty deepens as wealth grows, and wages are forced down as productive power rises, because land, the source of all wealth and the field of all labor, is monopolized. To end poverty, and to make wages what justice demands, the full earnings of the laborer, we must replace individual ownership of land with common ownership. Nothing else reaches the cause. Nothing else offers the slightest hope.

This, then, is the remedy for the unjust and unequal distribution of wealth apparent in modern civilization, and for all the evils which flow from it:

This, then, is the remedy for the unjust and unequal distribution of wealth we see in modern civilization, and for all the evils that flow from it:

We must make land common property.

We must make land common property.

We have reached this conclusion by an examination in327 which every step has been proved and secured. In the chain of reasoning no link is wanting and no link is weak. Deduction and induction have brought us to the same truth—that the unequal ownership of land necessitates the unequal distribution of wealth. And as in the nature of things unequal ownership of land is inseparable from the recognition of individual property in land, it necessarily follows that the only remedy for the unjust distribution of wealth is in making land common property.

Every step of the examination that led to this conclusion has been proved and secured.327 No link in the chain of reasoning is missing or weak. Deduction and induction have brought us to the same truth: unequal ownership of land makes unequal distribution of wealth unavoidable. Unequal ownership of land cannot be separated from recognizing individual property in land. So the only remedy for the unjust distribution of wealth is to make land common property.

But this is a truth which, in the present state of society, will arouse the most bitter antagonism, and must fight its way, inch by inch. It will be necessary, therefore, to meet the objections of those who, even when driven to admit this truth, will declare that it cannot be practically applied.

But in the present state of society, this truth will arouse the bitterest antagonism and must fight its way inch by inch. So we must answer the objections of those who, even when forced to admit it, declare that it cannot be put into practice.

In doing this we shall bring our previous reasoning to a new and crucial test. Just as we try addition by subtraction and multiplication by division, so may we, by testing the sufficiency of the remedy, prove the correctness of our conclusions as to the cause of the evil.

In doing so we will put our earlier reasoning to a new and decisive test. We check addition by subtraction and multiplication by division. In the same way, testing whether the remedy is sufficient will prove our conclusions about the cause.

The laws of the universe are harmonious. And if the remedy to which we have been led is the true one, it must be consistent with justice; it must be practicable of application; it must accord with the tendencies of social development and must harmonize with other reforms.

The laws of the universe are harmonious. If the remedy we have been led to is the true one, it must be consistent with justice and practicable to apply. It must fit the tendencies of social development and harmonize with other reforms.

All this I propose to show. I propose to meet all practical objections that can be raised, and to show that this simple measure is not only easy of application; but that it is a sufficient remedy for all the evils which, as modern progress goes on, arise from the greater and greater inequality in the distribution of wealth—that it will substitute equality for inequality, plenty for want, justice for injustice, social strength for social weakness, and will open the way to grander and nobler advances of civilization.

All this I propose to show. I will meet every practical objection that can be raised. I will show that this simple measure is easy to apply, and that it fully remedies the evils that arise, as modern progress goes on, from ever greater inequality in the distribution of wealth. It will replace inequality with equality, want with plenty, injustice with justice, and social weakness with social strength. It will open the way to grander and nobler advances of civilization.

I thus propose to show that the laws of the universe do not deny the natural aspirations of the human heart; that the progress of society might be, and, if it is to continue, must be, toward equality, not toward inequality; and that the economic harmonies prove the truth perceived by the Stoic Emperor—

I propose to show that the laws of the universe do not deny the natural aspirations of the human heart. Society might progress toward equality, not inequality, and if it is to continue, it must. The harmonies of economics prove the truth the Stoic Emperor Marcus Aurelius saw:

“We are made for co-operation—like feet, like hands, like eyelids, like the rows of the upper and lower teeth.”

“We are made for co-operation, like feet, like hands, like eyelids, like the rows of the upper and lower teeth.”