JUSTICE  OF  THE  SINGLE  TAX  113

it  is  a  tax  neither  according  to  benefits  nor  according
to  ability,  because  it  is  a  tax  only  in  form,  not  a  tax  in
substance.  The  public  merely  takes  out  of  the  land
with  its  left  hand  the  value  which,  with  its  right  hand,
it  has  put  into  the  land.
We  ask  your  thoughtful  criticism  of  the  single  tax
tenet  regarding  wages.  We  believe  in  high  wages  and
low  prices,  which  are  the  equal  opportunity  channels
for  the  equitable  distribution  of  wealth,  instead  of  low
wages  and  high  prices,  which  are  the  special  privilege
channels  for  the  inequitable  congestion  of  wealth.
Contrary  to  popular  illusion,  wages  are  not  regulated
by  dollar  wheat,  but  the  price  of  wheat  is  fixed  by  the
competition  of  dealers,  and  wages  are  fixed  by  the  competition ­
  of  labourers.  The  benefits  of  high  prices  go
to  the  few,  while  the  benefits  of  low  prices  go  to  the
many.
Increase  in  ground  rent  does  not  tend  to  an  increase
in  prices,  because  usually  sales  increase  faster  proportionally ­
  than  rent,  thus  reducing  the  ratio  of  rent  to
sales.  The  larger  the  product,  the  lower  the  individual
costs.  The  larger  the  gross  sales,  the  lower  the  competitive ­
  prices.
If  a  man  has  the  best  corner  lot  in  a  city  he  has  a
monopoly,  because  by  the  private  appropriation  of
ground  rent  (a  special  privilege  conceded  to  him  by  the
State,  and  having  all  the  sanction  of  law  and  custom)
he  cannot  help  diverting,  without  fault  of  his  own,  into
his  own  private  pocket,  the  public  expenditure  in  its
transmuted  form  of  ground  rent.  So  we  say  that  the
special  privilege  greater  than  all  others  put  together
is  the  private  appropriation  of  ground  rent.  We
are  entirely  agreed  to  the  private  ownership  of  land.
I