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:
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:
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:
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.
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