Geolibertarianism

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article or section needs sources or references that appear in reliable, third-party publications. Primary sources and sources affiliated with the subject of the article are generally not sufficient for a Wikipedia article. Please include more appropriate citations from reliable sources, or discuss the issue on the talk page. This article has been tagged since January 2008.

Part of the Philosophy series on Anarchism

Schools of thought Buddhist · Capitalist · Christian Collectivist · Communist · Crypto Feminist · Green · Individualist Info · Insurrectionary · Leftist Pacifist · Philosophical Platformist · Post · Post-leftist Primitivist · Social · Syndicalist Without adjectives Theory and practice Anarch · Anarchy · Black bloc Communes · Consensus democracy Decentralization · Deep ecology Direct action · Direct democracy Dual power · Especifismo Horizontalism · Illegalism Individual reclamation · Law Participatory politics Permanent Autonomous Zone Prefigurative politics Propaganda of the deed Refusal of work · Rewilding Social ecology · Spontaneous order Issues Anarcho-capitalism · Animal rights Capitalism · Criticisms · Islam Marxism · Nationalism Orthodox Judaism · Religion Violence History Amakasu Incident · Anarchist Catalonia · Anarchist Exclusion Act Anarchy in Somalia · Australian Anarchist Centenary Celebrations Barcelona May Days Carnival Against Capitalism Escuela Moderna · Hague Congress Haymarket affair · High Treason Incident · International Anarchist Congress of Amsterdam · Kate Sharpley Library · Kronstadt rebellion Labadie Collection · LIP · May 1968 May Day · Paris Commune Provo · Red inverted triangle Revolutionary Insurrectionary Army of Ukraine · Spanish Revolution Third Russian Revolution · Tragic Week · WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999 protest activity Culture Anarcho-punk · Arts · Black anarchism Celtic anarchism · Culture jamming DIY culture · Freeganism Independent Media Center Infoshop · The Internationale Jewish anarchism · Lifestylism Popular education · Radical cheerleading · Radical environmentalism · Squatting Symbolism · To the Barricades Economics Agorism · Capitalism · Collectivism Communism · Co-operatives Counter-economics · Free market Free school · Free store · Geoism Gift economy · Market abolitionism Mutual aid · Mutualism Participatory economics Really Really Free Market Self-ownership · Socialism Syndicalism · Wage slavery Workers' self-management By region Africa · Austria · Brazil · Canada China · Cuba · England · France Greece · India · Ireland · Israel Italy · Japan · Korea · Mexico Poland · Russia · Spain · Sweden Turkey · Ukraine · USA · Vietnam Lists Anarcho-punk bands · Books Communities · Fictional characters Jewish anarchists · Musicians Organizations · Periodicals · Poets Related Anti-capitalism · Anti-communism Anti-consumerism · Anti-corporatism Anti-globalization · Antimilitarism Anti-statism · Antiwar · Autarchism Autonomism · Labour movement Left communism · Libertarianism Libertarian Marxism · Libertarian socialism · Situationist International Anarchism Portal Philosophy Portal · Politics Portal  v • d • e

Part of the series on Libertarianism

Schools of thought Agorism Anarcho-capitalism Autarchism Christian libertarianism Geolibertarianism Green libertarianism Individualist anarchism Left-libertarianism Libertarian socialism Libertarian feminism Free-market anarchism Market socialism Minarchism Mutualism Neolibertarianism Paleolibertarianism Progressive libertarianism Propertarianism Right-libertarianism Rights libertarianism Voluntaryism Origins Objectivism Austrian School Chicago School Classical liberalism Individualist anarchism Ideas Civil liberties Counter-economics Decriminalization Economic freedom Free markets Free trade Free will Freedom of contract Homestead principle Humanism Individualism Laissez-faire Liberty Natural rights Night watchman state Non-aggression Non-interventionism Private property Self-government Self-ownership Subjectivism Tax resistance Topics History Movement Controversies within libertarianism Parties Theories of law Views of rights Criticism of libertarianism Related Civil libertarianism Constitutionalism Libertarian Democrat Libertarian Republican Libertarian transhumanism Philosophy Portal Politics Portal  v • d • e

Geolibertarianism is a political movement that strives to reconcile libertarianism and geoism (or Georgism).^[1] Geolibertarians are advocates of geoism, which is the position that all land is a common asset to which all individuals have an equal right to access, and therefore if individuals claim the land as their property they must pay rent to the community for doing so. They simulatenously agree with the libertarian position that each individual has an exclusive right to the fruits of his or her labor as their private property, as opposed to this product being owned collectively by society or the community, and that "one's labor, wages, and the products of labor" should not be taxed. Also, with traditional libertarians they advocate "full civil liberties, with no crimes unless there are victims who have been invaded."^[2] Geolibertarians generally advocate distributing the land rent to the community via a land value tax, as proposed by Henry George and others before him. For this reason, they are often called "single taxers". Fred E. Foldvary coined the word "geo-libertarianism" in an article so titled in Land and Liberty, May/June 1981, pp. 53-55. In the case of geoanarchism, the voluntary form of geolibertarianism as described by Foldvary, rent would be collected by private associations with the opportunity to secede from a geocommunity (and not receive the geocommunity's services) if desired.

Geolibertarians are generally influenced by Georgism, but the ideas behind it pre-date Henry George, and can be found in different forms in the writings of John Locke, the French Physiocrats, Thomas Jefferson, Adam Smith, Thomas Paine, James Mill (John Stuart Mill's father), David Ricardo, John Stuart Mill, and Herbert Spencer. Perhaps the best summary of geolibertarianism is Thomas Paine's assertion that "Men did not make the earth. It is the value of the improvements only, and not the earth itself, that is individual property. Every proprietor owes to the community a ground rent for the land which he holds." On the other hand, Locke wrote that private land ownership should be praised, as long as its product was not left to spoil and there was "enough, and as good left in common for others"; when this Lockean proviso is violated, the land earns rental value.

[edit] Property rights

Geolibertarians consider land to be the common property of all mankind. They say that private property is derived from an individual's right to the fruits of their labor. Since land was not created by anyone's labor, it cannot be rightfully owned. Thus, geolibertarians recognize a right to secure possession of land (land tenure), on the condition that the full rental value be paid to the community. This, they say, has the effect of both giving back the value that belongs to the community and encouraging landholders to only use as much land as they need, leaving plenty for others.

This strict definition of property as all fruits of labor makes geolibertarians fervent advocates of free trade.

[edit] Poverty and welfare

According to the Law of Rent (one of the most important and firmly established principles of economics) the guiding parameter behind wages is what is called the margin of production. Roughly speaking, the margin of production is the amount of wealth that a person could produce working on land that is free of rent (marginal land):^[3] when anyone chooses to work for someone else instead of working for himself on the free land, it is because he gets a higher wage. Thus, the margin of production represents an absolute floor on wage level in any society, under free market circumstances.

The differences between geolibertarians and other libertarians arise at this point. Geolibertarians believe that the rule of law, protection of private property and creation of public goods are undoubtedly public benefits, but the greatest gain from these go to land owners. And because of this benefit, geolibertarians theorize that it becomes economically feasible for many to hold economically valuable land out of use and still gain benefits from the general rise of rents. This is in contrast to most capital goods, that can benefit their owner only if they're put into the service of others, that is, if they're used for production rather than withheld from production. Thus, this continued retention of land without usage (or in sub-optimal use) causes those who actually desire to use land to settle for lower and lower quality of land. This pushes the margin of production downwards resulting in lower wages.

Elimination of the incentive to hold land out of use, along with higher employment (because of more land going to usage) and lower prices of land (resulting in lesser need of financial capital for going into business) is expected to result in a high level of prosperity and substantially reduce the need for welfare.

Pure libertarians dispute the geolibertarian's theory on the economics of private property and note that a property owner would need to own a significant portion of all available land in order to be able to affect rent prices by refusing to allow that land to be put to use, and that this scenario is unrealistic.

[edit] The land value tax and the citizen's dividend

A supply and demand diagram showing the effects of taxation on a good with a perfectly inelastic supply, such as land. Note that the burden of the tax falls entirely on the producer, and there is no deadweight loss.

Geolibertarians advocate the land value tax for a number of reasons. As explained already, it is seen as a means of upholding the equal right to land. It is also the tax most compatible with the free market. It does not distort the price of goods, nor does it discourage productivity, since it does not affect the cost of production. In fact, it actually increases productivity by lowering the entrance barrier into the market and encouraging more efficient land use.

Geolibertarians argue that, since public utilities and services increase land value, they could essentially fund themselves through the land value tax. In this way, the tax can fund the functions of government so long as it contributes to the community. Some geolibertarians believe that all tax revenues beyond these functions should go towards a citizen's dividend, an equal payment to the whole community. Some others have argued that the citizens' dividend should come first, and then individuals can arrange by contract to have portions of it go to fund specified services.

[edit] Criticisms

One criticism of geolibertarianism is economic: that their analysis of fallow land as the major cause of poverty is wrong. Critics point out that in many places, such as Bolivia, poverty endures despite an abundance of idle land. Geolibertarians counter that the very idleness of land leads to poverty; they point out that the government of Bolivia does not keep good records of land tenure (arguably the most important function of government), which makes secure production impossible.

Most neoclassical economists do not deal with land as a separate factor of production, but rather treat it as capital.

Geolibertarianism is considered anti-environmentalist by some who worry that it wouldn't acknowledge natural capital as separate from land, thus abhorring natural preserves or any fallow land.

A criticism of the geolibertarian view of property is that scarcity determines the necessity of property rights. Thus, the fact that land is scarce is seen as all the more reason to make it private property. However, geolibertarians draw a distinction between land ownership and land tenure (see above).

[edit] Notes

1. ^ Foldvary, Fred E. Geoism and Libertarianism. The Progress Report. [1]
2. ^ Foldvary, Fred E. Geoism and Libertarianism. The Progress Report. [2]
3. ^ More precisely, this is known as the extensive margin of production. Equivalence between this extensive margin and the intensive margin entailed in modern marginal productivity theory of wages is easily established by an arbitrage argument.

[edit] See also

• Freiwirtschaft
• Georgism
• American individualist anarchism
• Individualist anarchism
• Agorism
• Left-Libertarianism

[edit] External links

• What is Geolibertarianism?
• A Geolibertarian FAQ
• Libertarian Party at Sea on Land
• Thomas Paine Network
• A Landlord is a Government - The Libertarian Basis for Land Rights
• Geo-Rent: A Plea to public economists by Fred E. Foldvary
• Geoanarchism by Fred E. Foldvary
• Really Natural Rights
• Geolibertarian. Libertarian Wiki. Retrieved on April 8, 2005.
• Geoism in American Quaker John Woolman's "Plea for the Poor"