Georgism: True Libertarianism
Oscar B. Johannsen
[Reprinted from Fragments, January-March,
1998]
LIBERTARIANISM, the ideology of an avant-garde of men and women
disenchanted with the state, is based, as its name suggests, on
liberty and also, quite importantly, on its integration with justice.
Justice is equality of opportunity. Liberty is the freedom to act, as
long as one does not interfere with the right of others also to act.
The union of these two metaphysical abstractions gives rise to a
significant principle: men are free to act; they must have equal
access to all the available opportunities of the earth.
Georgism recognizes that all men have equal rights to any and all of
the opportunities of the earth in order that they may develop their
faculties -- intellectual, artistic, and moral -- to the optimum
degree they desire. In other words, Georgism advocates the
individual's freedom to act, so as to avail himself of the
opportunities of the earth, always, of course, with due regard to the
right of others also so to act.
Thus, Georgism could be considered synonymous with present-day
libertarianism except for one essential fact: Libertarian thought, if
carried to its logical conclusion, implies the establishment of a
stateless society. Contemporary libertarianism, thus, is philosophical
anarchism. It is the anarchism of an orderly society of rational
beings cooperating freely with one another without the restraining
hand or an authoritative power enjoying a monopoly of coercion.
However, there is an important difference between libertarianism and
old-fashioned anarchism. Most anarchists' understanding of economics
was so deficient that many weird heroics were evolved on monetary and
property relationships. With the exception of such individualistic
anarchists as Max Stirner, the orientation primarily appeared to be
socialistic, in line with Pierre Proudhon's famous declaration: "Property
is theft."
Libertarianism, on the other hand, is based on the free and
untrammeled marketplace. The private ownership of land and capital is
the key economic element, with private individual action in all fields
of human endeavor emphasized. The apologia that the state is required
for the protection of life and property, the construction of roads and
highways, and the adjudication of disputes, is dismissed out of hand.
All such activities can be, and today, in one degree or another, are
being supplied by private enterprise, and much more efficiently and
with less cost.
Essentially, it is probably not unfair to argue that libertarianism
envisages a society in which the state is abolished. In this society
all activities are carried on by private individuals in a free and
open marketplace wherein everything is private property with the
single exception of man himself.
The fatal flaw in libertarian thought is not in the unabashed
substitution of private enterprise for all the activities assumed to
be functions of the state. Rather, it is in its defense of private
property in land.
Libertarianism will always be found in the forefront, in its denial
of the institution of private property in men; i.e., slavery.
Unfortunately, however, libertarians have forgotten, or do not
appreciate, the distinction between land and capital. Capital is
produced by men. If they do not have any incentive to produce capital,
it will not be produced. If their ownership of it (and their right to
do with it as they please -- lease, exchange, lend, or even destroy
it) is not recognized, then it will not be produced voluntarily.
Land, that is, the entire universe outside of man and his products,
cannot be produced. It was here before man first strode on the surface
of the globe, and it will be here after man finally disappears into
the nothingness of oblivion. Land represents opportunity. Man is born
naked with but the ability to use his mental and physical capacities.
But that capacity to act requires something, and this is land. Land
represents opportunity.
It must never be forgotten, however, that the opportunities of land
are unequal. One portion contains enough gold to make men's eyes gleam
with unholy avarice. Another portion is of such inferior quality as to
require backbreaking labor to produce anything of worth to men.
If equality of opportunity, i.e., if justice is to be maintained, the
question arises: Who shall have access to the gold mine, who to the
interior land? Two men cannot occupy the same place at the same time.
One must have the better opportunity, though he is no more entitled to
it than the other. It is simply physically impossible for both to
apply their talents to the same opportunity at the same time.
When men confront this problem and seek to solve it, they begin dimly
to perceive why anarchists are in error in seeking the abolition of
the state. The state is not necessary for protection of life and
property and the panoply of functions ordinarily ascribed to it.
However, some government is necessary justly to allocate the unequal
opportunities of the land among the equal claimants to it.
Georgist philosophy solves this problem for modern society. Land is
indeed the common property of all humanity. As such, it can be
allocated among all equal claimants to it with justice by that
objectivity which we call government. Land must be leased at auction,
with the proceeds being disbursed among all the members on a per
capita basis. Since all would have an equal opportunity to bid and
willingly forego their claims to the highest bidder, justice would be
maintained.
This is not to assert that the anarchists, or their philosophical
descendants, the libertarians, are in error in their distrust of the
state. Georgists merely recognize the physical and moral dilemma which
has perplexed man down through the ages, that men cannot act together
collectively and still maintain justice if the number of men is too
large or the extent of land too great.
Government must be barely above the family level, probably on the
order of the New England Town Hall Governments. The land area and the
number of people involved must be small enough so that all members of
the community know the land and one another.
The libertarian ideology thus requires that it be corrected to
recognize that not only man but land cannot justly be private
properly. While government can never be abolished, it must be on the
lowest possible level. Such an amended version may some day be
recognized as true libertarianism. This is Georgism. Therefore, true
libertarianism is Georgism.
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