1. The right to secure exclusive
occupation of land
2. The right to 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:
1. The right to 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. The right to 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 labor. 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 wealth but as an instrument of oppression of human by human leading to severe social consequences which are everywhere evident.
All humans 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.
The Economic Rent of land can be collected for the use of the community by methods similar to those by which real estate taxes are now collected. That is what is meant by the policy of Land Value Taxation. Were this community created land value collected, the many taxes which impede the production of wealth and limit purchasing power could be abolished.
The exercise of both common and individual rights in land is essential to a society based on justice. But the rights of individuals in natural resources are limited by the just rights of the community. Denying the existence of common rights in land creates a condition of society wherein the exercise of individual rights becomes impossible for the great mass of the people.
We therefore declare that the earth is the birthright of all people.
QUOTES FROM EQUINOX EARTH DAY FOUNDER JOHN MCCONNELL
"We need to find ideas that can generate the greatest cooperation for the greatest good on our planet, that's what I tried to do with Earth Day, the Earth Trustee Agenda, Minute for Peace and the Earth Magna Charta."
"Environmental efforts by themselves will leave us in ruins unless we stop war, unless we promote peace, and unless we have more economic justice."
"Among the equal rights of men is the right to an equal share in nature's bounty a right of each man to his planetary inheritance - his share of land, water, minerals or an appropriate equivalent in food, housing, or other benefits". No one can, by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity, or any other man's posterity, of the right to his portion of Earth."
Paul Fitzgerald and Elizabeth Gould are authors of Invisible History: Afghanistan's Untold Story, published by City Lights (2009), Crossing Zero The AfPak War at the Turning Point of American Empire, published by City Lights (2011). Their novel The Voice , was published in 2001. Their memoir, The Valediction Three Nights of Desmond was published by TrineDay (2021) and The Valediction Resurrection was published by TrineDay (2022). For more information visit invisiblehistory, grailwerk and valediction.net
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