The Economy of Local Rates 181
gratuitously assumed, tend to the benefit of the com-
munity as a whole.
The inhabitants of a locality are perpetually being
changed in number and personnel not only by birth
and death but by migration. At the census of 1901
less than three-quarters of the native inhabitants of
England were found in the counties in which they
were born, and of these a very large proportion must
have belonged to that third of the population which
always consists of children. It is probably quite safe
bo surmise that more than half of the natives of Eng-
land cease to live in the town or rural district in which
they were born at some time or other before their
decease. Migration is therefore the rule rather than
the exception, and to ignore it is only a foolish kicking
against the pricks. If localities competed in an effort
to benefit their own particular inhabitants, the localities
which were the richest, and therefore the most success-
ful in the effort, would be the most attractive to the
class of immigrants which expects to receive in benefits
more than it will pay, and such immigrants would
keep on coming in to them until the effort to benefit
the inhabitants became so burdensome that the con-
dition of the inhabitants of these localities was brought
down to an equality with that of the inhabitants of
other localities.
It is sometimes supposed by those who have
attempted to assimilate Ricardian theories that rent
cannot be abolished, but must always go to somebody.
This is only true if some person or institution has
control over the land and desires to use that control
in a profitable manner. Any landlord could wipe out
his rent by employing enough people on his land: