GROUND  RENT  A  SOCIAL  PRODUCT  13

Ground  rent  may  be  said  to  result  from  at  least
three  distinct  causes,  all  connected  with  aggregated
social  activity:
(1)  Public  expenditure:  All  wise  public
expenditures  are  direct  feeders  of  ground  rent.
Streets,  lights,  water,  sewerage,  fire  and  police  systems,
public  schools,  libraries,  museums,  parks  and  playgrounds, ­
  all  contribute  to  enhance  the  value  of  land,
and  a  corresponding  depreciation  would  follow  the
abolition  of  any  of  these  systems.  It  follows,  therefore, ­
  that  expenditure  for  maintaining  these  services
constitutes  the  maintenance  of  ground  rent,  if  not
in  a  literal  sense,  at  least  in  an  all-sufficient  common
sense.
(2)  Quasi-public  expenditure;  In  the  same  way,
the  expenditure  by  the  municipality  or  by  private
corporations  for  steam  and  electric  railways,  gas  and
electric  lights,  telegraph  and  telephone  facilities,
subways  and  ferries,  contributes  to  the  value  of  land,
at  least  to  the  extent  of  their  actual  cost.
(3)  Private  expenditure;  Equally,  and  by  parity
of  reasoning,  private  or  voluntary  social  expenditure
for  churches,  private  schools,  colleges  and  universities,
all  private  buildings,  apartment  houses,  stores,  and
office  buildings,  contributes  to  ground  rent,  the  annual
value  of  land.
In  an  enumeration  of  the  causes  of  ground  rent,
population  is  usually  the  one  first  named.  But  a
passive  population  gives  little  value  to  land;  it  is
rather  the  activities  consequent  upon  the  character
population  that  create  the  value.
It  is  generally  conceded  that,  as  a  matter  of  fact,
ground  rent  is  what  land  is  worth  annually  for  use;