I’m playing catch-up, after having been occupied with other work for the past month or so, and came across some articles from UK publications listing the sources of wealth for the 2000 or so most wealthy people in the UK.

I shouldn’t be surprised how many of these fortunes come from land, from “property,” from oil, minerals and other natural resources. But this is striking validation of what Henry George told us in 1879, and Winston Churchill told us 100 years ago. See http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/specials/rich_list/rich_list_search/

See a few entries down, where Michael Kinsley laid it out this way in the Washington Post:

Perusing the Forbes 400 list of America’s richest people, it’s striking how few of them made the list by building the proverbial better mousetrap. The most common route to gargantuan wealth, like the route to smaller piles, remains inheritance. The ability to pass money along to your kids may motivate many a successful executive or investor to work harder, but it can’t possibly motivate those kids to inherit harder in order to pass it along once again.

Dozens of Forbes 400 fortunes derive from the rising value of land or other natural resources. These businesses are fundamentally different from mousetrap building. Land does not need to become “better” to increase in value, and that value increase doesn’t produce more land. Yet other fortunes depend directly on the government. The large fortunes based on health care and pharmaceuticals would not exist if not for Medicare and Medicaid. The government hands out large fortunes even more directly in forms as varied as

  • cable-TV franchises;
  • cellphone licenses;
  • drilling, mining and mineral rights;
  • minority small-business loans; and
  • other special treatment.

We must conserve the earth – yes. But we must also share its bounty with all, not permit the privatization of that bounty. Henry George put it this way:

We sail through space as if on a well-provisioned ship. If food above deck seems to grow scarce, we simply open a hatch – and there is a new supply. And a very great command over others comes to those who, as the hatches are opened, are permitted to say: “This is mine!”

Actually, that’s from a recent (2006) modernized abridgment by Bob Drake, available at http://www.progressandpoverty.org/ or http://hgchicago.org/audio. Here’s HG’s 1879 original:

It is a well-provisioned ship, this on which we sail through space. If the bread and beef above decks seem to grow scarce, we but open a hatch and there is a new supply, of which before we never dreamed. And very great command over the services of others comes to those who as the hatches are opened are permitted to say, “This is mine!”

In case it isn’t obvious, I’m not opposed to fortunes which come from creating better mousetraps! I’m quite in favor of them. But we need to distinguish between what monopoly privilege creates, and what hard work creates, and LVT does that.