GROUND  RENT  A  SOCIAL  PRODUCT  n

treasury  tends  to  a  fairer  distribution  of  produce  in
Wages  earned.  Whatever  of  taxation  is  transferred
from  other  wealth  to  ground  rent  leaves  so  much  more
Wealth  to  be  distributed  in  wages.
Again,  it  is  submitted  that  the  true  office  of  ground
rent  is  to  offer  a  communal  shoulder  suited  to  bear
all  the  burden  of  common  needs,  leaving  produce  —
current  wealth  —  to  be  distributed,  as  fast  as  produced, ­
  in  wages  and  interest,  the  total  volume  of
which  will  always  be  increased  by  the  amount  of  rent
appropriated  through  the  taxation  of  whatever  of
economic  rent  there  is  in  special  privilege.
Ground  rent  being  a  social  product,  is  not  its  private
appropriation  a  special  privilege?
V.—The  Cause  of  Ground  Rent
The  dimensions,  as  well  as  the  continuous  character
of  the  contribution  made  by  the  people  to  the  growth
and  volume  of  ground  rent,  are  seldom  measured  —
by  many  persons  hardly  suspected.  Almost  anything
Use  that  he  owns,  except  land,  a  man  may  appropriate,
destroy,  tear  down,  burn  down,  remove,  consume,
change  in  form,  wear  out.  To  the  land  itself  he  cannot
do  any  of  these  things.  The  value  of  its  use  is  ground
rent,  an  annual  value,  which  is  all  that  the  owner  of
land  can  consume  each  year.  The  land  value  itself
survives,  and  usually  intact.  People  speak  of  owning
land,  because  they  or  their  fathers  have  bought  and
paid  for  it.
A  simple  illustration  will  indicate  how  a  disproportionate ­
  reliance  may  be  placed  upon  this  argument,
considered  in  the  light  of  all  the  causes  contributing ­
  to  the  value  of  land.  Suppose,  for  instance,