A friend alerted me to a new video on YouTube. It features Fred Harrison, who has written a book of the same title. It describes the mechanism by which those who own choice sites frequently receive more as beneficiaries of government spending than they pay in taxes, while those who own no land, or own land in places less served by government spending, pay out of pocket.

The video is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZkfmY1PMng, and runs a bit less than 8 minutes. More about the ideas contained in it can be found at http://www.wealthandwant.com/docs/Harrison_Ricardo_video.htm

Fred describes the phenomenon in London, but it is equally true in New York and in my town, and likely in yours. Sometimes it is easier to see when someone else’s soil is involved.

“The only war Winston Churchill lost was the war with landlords.”

There is a review of Fred’s book at http://www.cooperativeindividualism.org/dodson-edward_review-of-ricardos-law.html. It begins,

Although there is consistent truth in the statement, “history is written by the victors,” the voices of critics now and again emerge from the wilderness. In two instances, that of Thomas Paine and Henry George, the path they chose was journalism. Their writings ignited the moral conscience of people from all walks of life. What made their contributions extraordinary was the pursuit of truth without regard to what might happen to them in their own lives.

With his most recent book, Ricardo’s Law, journalist Fred Harrison adds his voice to the moral crusade to which Paine and George devoted themselves. He does so with the advantage of an even deeper historical perspective. Paine’s efforts helped to secure the future of republican governance and democratic processes. George and his supporters formed the Progressive vanguard fighting for an end to monopoly privilege. Tragically, they failed. Fred Harrison describes the injustices that so troubled Paine and George, and provides a “take no prisoners” analysis of the subsequent failed efforts by central planners and so-called free market proponents to solve the problems of wealth concentration and generational poverty.

Fred Harrison resurrects the land question in Ricardo’s Law as the most important societal issue yet to be addressed. For a long time now, the safety valve of empty lands to which the landless could migrate has been closed. Armed with the data produced by government and other experts, Harrison’s analysis challenges a long list of conventional wisdoms.

It was John Stuart Mill, a student of Ricardo’s ideas, who pointed out

“Landlords grow richer in their sleep without working, risking or economizing. The increase in the value of land, arising as it does from the efforts of an entire community, should belong to the community and not to the individual who might hold title.”

I commend this short film to your attention!