Declaration
of Human Rights based on Equal Freedom
This
Declaration of Human Rights based on Equal Freedom was originally
published in 1949 at the 7th International Conference in
The International Union for Land Value
Taxation and Free Trade (The International Georgist
The economic, the political and,
consequently, the intellectual and moral conditions of any people are
ultimately determined by the system of land tenure under which they live;
Since everyone has an equal right to
live it follows necessarily that everyone has an equal right to the use of land
by which alone life can be sustained;
The private appropriation of the rent
or value of land constitutes a violation of those equal rights, and its
consequences are that holders of privilege exact a monopoly price for access to
land, the community is deprived of its natural revenue, taxation is heaped upon
trade and industry, production is harassed and arrested, and industrial
depressions inevitably occur;
The more completely the land is thus
monopolised, the greater is the insecurity of employment and the nearer are
wages driven down to mere subsistence level. This is true of all countries, no
matter how they may differ in their forms of government, in the nature or
development of their industries, in their tariff policies, monetary systems,
internal or external public debts, or in any other way.
We
therefore advocate:
That the equal right to land be secured
by requiring of all landholders an annual payment to society approximating the
full rental value of the land held, whether it be used or not, and excluding
the value of the improvements thereon; and that such payment, at all levels of
government, be based on a valuation showing the true rental value of the land,
this valuation being made public and being kept up to date by periodical
revision;
That such payment be
construed to be the rightful and sufficient public revenue for all levels of
government;
That imposts on earnings and
consumption, taxes on improvements, customs tariffs, exchange controls and
other burdens and barriers that restrict sustainable production and obstruct
the free movement of men and goods be concurrently abolished;
And
we maintain that:
The public collection of the annual
value of land and the abolition of taxes that are repressive on industry and
commerce would enable the producer to enjoy the full fruits of his labour, make
the withholding of land from use unprofitable, put an end to the monopoly of
land, and, by freeing the channels of trade, remove the main causes of
international strife;
The wide field of enterprise being thus
thrown open, illimitable except for provisos to protect human life, health and
the environment, involuntary poverty would be banished;
"over-production" would be inconceivable until all human wants were
satisfied; labour-saving inventions would be rendered a blessing to all; and
there would be such production and distribution of wealth as would enable all
to achieve comfort and leisure and to participate in the advantages of a
progressing civilisation.
We
condemn, as infringing personal liberties and menacing the general welfare, all
plans - except for provisos to protect the citizens lives, health and the
environment - that involve regimentation of the individual by the State; invoke
the arbitrary powers of Government to control or prohibit import and export
trade; profess the need for maintaining tariffs in one country because of their
existence in others; imply the retention and mere management of monopolies
instead of their abolition; use the proceeds of taxes and loans or the
manipulation of money to put goods on the market at fictitious prices; or
contemplate the unbalancing of budgets and the expansion of public debts on the
pretext that spreading purchasing power by these methods will have beneficial
social effects.
Individual
and Common Rights in Land
The Earth is the common heritage of all
people and all have natural and equal rights in land.
Subject always to these natural and
equal rights in land and to this common ownership, there are certain specific
rights that the individual can and must enjoy.
These rights properly enjoyed by
individuals are:
1. The right to
secure exclusive occupation of land.
2. The right to
the exclusive use of land occupied.
3. The right to
the free transfer of land according to the laws of the country.
4. The right to
transmit land by inheritance.
These individual rights do not include any right to:
1. Use land in a
manner contrary to the common good of all, e.g. in such a manner as to destroy
or impair the common heritage.
2. Appropriate
what economists call the Economic Rent of land.
The Economic Rent is the annual value
attaching to the land alone, apart from any improvements thereon created by
labour. This value is created by the existence of and the functioning of the
whole community wherein the individual lives, and is in justice the property of
the community. To allow this value to be appropriated by individuals enables
land to be used not only for the production of goods and services, but also as
an instrument of oppression leading to the gravest social consequences that are
everywhere evident.
All people have natural and equal
rights in land. Those rights may be exercised in two ways:
1. By holding land
as individuals and/or
2. Sharing in the
common use of the economic rent of land.
This community created economic rent
(the annual value of land) can be collected for the use of the community by the
same machinery as that by which taxes are now collected. This is what we mean
by the policy of Land Value Taxation. Were this community-created land value
collected by the community, taxation that now penalises industry, thrift and
enterprise and stifles production could be abolished for the benefit of all.
We assert that the exercise of both
common and individual rights in land is essential to society based on justice.
But the rights of individuals in natural resources are limited by the just
rights of the community. Those who begin by denying the existence of common
rights in land end by creating a condition of society wherein the exercise of
individual rights becomes impossible for the great mass of the people.
We declare that THE EARTH
BELONGS TO EVERYONE.
* * *
Copies
of this declaration are obtainable, free, on application to the International
International
(International Georgist
5 St. Oswald’s Studios
Phone: +44 20 7386 5277 Fax: +44 20 8881 7965
(Callers in UK dial 0
instead of +44)
E-mail: office@theIU.org. Website: www.theIU.org
International Union Je 2010