Wealth and Want: Bengough's Primer, Lessons 49 to 60

Wealth and Want
... because democracy alone is not enough to produce widely shared prosperity.
Home	Essential Documents	Themes	All Documents	Authors	Glossary	Links	Contact Us

Bengough's Primer, Lessons 49 to 60

LESSON XLIX — Wealth Not Work ... What Men Want ... Steam Good Thing

But is it not a bad Thing to Rob Men of Work, as is now Done in Mills where Goods are not Made by Hand but by Steam, and where a Loom with two Men can do the Work it took a Score of Men to do some Time ago?

If Work is the Thing Man wants, then this is Bad. But Man does not want Work for its own Sake. He will do Work, and do it with a Will, but it is for the Sake of That it gets for him. It is a Means to an End, and that End is Wealth, or the Things which meet his Needs. If he could get these Things Free he would not ask for Work. And if by Steam such Things can be made with Ease, and more of them for the same Toil, it ought to be a Good Thing for all Men.

Why, then, does it not Bless and Aid all?

The Cause is that Some by Law get More than a Fair Share, and so Some must get Less.

Woodcut: A long dining table with three figures. At left, a slender workman and next to his small plate, the word "Labor." At the right, a thin bearded man, with the word "Capital" next to his small plate. In the middle, a fat man with a large plate and a bottle and glass of wine. On his plate is a large object labeled "Product." Above his head is the word "Landlordism."

technological progress

LESSON L — Lots Of Room ... Yet Too Small ... For The Crowd

What is This?

It is a Map. It is a Land they call the States. A few Years back it Held no folks too Poor and none too Rich. All were Well to do. This was in the Day when the West was New, and men Fled to it from the Old World. The Land was Big and Wide and Fit to Hold all Men on Earth if they Came, and give them Food, Clothes and Homes.

Now, though the Land is just as Big as it was then, this is not the Case. Though it is far from Full, yet it has too much of a Crowd, and one Class is in the Slums, while a few are so Rich that Kings might well Stare at them.

How is this? Has the Land Shrunk?

Yes, you might Put it that Way. There is no Free Land to be had where a Man could Live. The Land Lord now Owns it All. That is the Whole Tale in One Word.

Woodcut: A man who looks like Uncle Sam, looking at a huge wall map of the United States and stroking his beard. It is divided into about 18 sections. One small area, near the middle, is labeled "Free;" the others are all labeled "Owned."

land monopoly capitalism

population growth

population as problem

overpopulation

LESSON LI — Same Old Song ... Through The World ... Land Lord Cause

It is the Same in all the Lands on Earth as in the Map we have seen. Some Few Own the Land, and the Crowd is Shut Out.

But would it Cure this to pay Land Rent to the State in a Tax? Is this not the Same Thing as to pay it to a Land Lord? Is it not the Same Sum, that is, the Worth of the Bare Land each year?

Yes, my Child, it is the Same Sum, but by No Means the Same Thing. For, see, Look at the Cut on this Page. That Shows you Where the Odds come in. When you have paid Land Rent to a Land Lord, you still have Rates to pay to keep up the State. The Land Lord has no Power to set you Free of These. But if you pay Land Rent to the State, that is your One Tax. You pay No More, and you have a Right to Keep all you Earn, as there would Now be no Tax on Toil.

Woodcut: A worker, flanked by two huge sacks of money, as tall as he is. He is gesturing to them. Both sacks are tagged "total earnings." The sack on the left seems to be divided into three sections: $

To Be Paid for Use of Land to a Private Owner
To Be Paid to the State for Public Revenue
Possible Savings

The sack on the right is divided into two sections, the first of which is identical in size to the top section of the other sack:

To be paid for use of Land to the State
Possible Savings

LESSON LII — If All Men ... Own The Earth ... Hand Shares Round

You see this Man and what he is At?

Yes. He has a Knife and it is his Aim to Cut up the Earth so as to give Each Man his Share. He is a Crank, is he not?

That is Just what he Is.

And yet you Tell me all the While that all Men have a Right to the Land. If so, is it not a Wise thing to Cut it up and Share it Round?

My Child, the Thing could not be Done, and if it were Done it would not Stay Done for more than a Week. If the Man cut up the Earth in to Squares, and gave each Man in the World a Square, it would not then be Right, for all the Squares would not be of the Same Worth, and so all Men would not be on the Same Plane. And yet I do tell you Once More that, though the World can not be Cut up in to Just, E-qual Squares, yet all Men have the same Right to Own the Earth.

Woodcut: A small man with a large knife, attempting to cut a huge ball labeled "The Earth" into pieces.

equality

birthright

created equal

intergenerational equity

justice ongoing

LESSON LIII — Men Own Horse ... But Don't Say ... Share Beast Round

Here is a Horse, and the Three Men you see own him, each One Third. Now, they do not Cut up the Horse so Each may get his Share, do they?

No, nor do they Wish to do so. They let the Fourth man Use the Horse and he Pays Hire for such Use. The Sum of the Hire goes in to the Till each Year, and it is not Hard to See how they can make Three Shares of it.

So you see in this Way they all get their Rights, and it is just the same as if they Cut up the Horse.

So with the Land. If those who Hold and Use Land pay the Rent or Hire of it to the Till of the State, and this Fund is used for the Good of All, is not that the Same Thing as if all Men had a Share of the Land ?

Sure! This is what would be Done by the One-Tax plan. It is Plain as the Nose on your Face.

Woodcut: A man, holding a horse by its bridle, and three other men looking on.

equality

land value taxation

pay for what you take

single tax

created equal

equal opportunity

LESSON LIV — One Tax Plan ... Plain Slick Just .... Work Like Charm

But you Ask me, my Child, if it would not be a Hard thing to put this One-Tax plan at Work.

No; it would not be Hard. We would just have to Wipe out each Tax we now have, and in its Place put the One Tax on Ground Rent — the Sum each Year that each Piece of Land, as Bare Land, is Worth.

There would be far less Toil to do this than to do what we now (try to) do. There would be no Need to Pry and Sneak as by the Plan now in Vogue, nor would there be so much need of Lies as now. We just put the Till of the State be-low the Land Lord's Hat, which Holds the Ground Rent, and then we make a Rent of a New Kind in the Crown of the Hat, and There You Are.

The Fund now goes not to Him, but to Those who Made it; to wit, the Folks who make up the State. It would work like a Charm, my Child.

Woodcut: In the middle, a huge box, labeled "public till," nearly full of coins. Above it is the top-hat, brimside up, labeled "Landlord," and coins are spilling through its top into the box. To the left is a man carrying a sign saying "God made Land for the use of all men." To the right, another man with a sign saing "What a man creates is his own — What a community creates its it's own."

LESSON LV — Land Rent Comes ... Free And Full ... Tax Nought Else

But if there is but One Tax on Land Rent, will not Those who Use no Land go Free of Tax? And do you Think it is a Fair Shake to let Some who may be Rich go Free, while you Tax their Mates, who may not be so Well Off?

Well, my Dear, I do not see how any Man can get on if he does not Use some Land in some way.

The Man in the Cut says he will not Pay — but you see he can Fly. I hold that we do no Wrong when we put the Tax on one Thing, and say all who use this Thing shall pay. If some do not have to Pay, it must be that they do not Use the Thing, and Those who do Use it do so for this Cause, that it Pays them to Use it. They make no Wry Face now when they have to pay a Land Lord for the Use of Land; why should they Howl when they are Told to pay the same Sum to the State?

Woodcut: A plump man, dressed for business and carrying a valise and a top-hat. He has wings, and is floating over a body of water. To the right is a piece of land, with a sign stuck in the ground, saying, "The only tax in operation here - a tax on the VALUE of land, minus improvements"

single tax

rent as provisioning for community

equity for the landless

LESSON LVI — Why Tax Toil ... When Land Rent ... Pays All Costs

And now I ask you one Thing, my Child. If by the Tax on Land Rent we just take the Fund which is made by All, and if we Find that Fund to be Quite as Large as the State needs for All its Ends, why should you Want to have a Tax put on any thing Else?

Why do you want to Rob a Rich Man of what he Earns in a Fair way more than if he were a Poor Man? Is a Tax put on for Spite?

Now, if an An-gel from the Sky came down each Year and gave our State a Till full of Gold, Free of Charge, would you not Say the State should then set us all Free of all the Tax we have now to Bear?

Of course!

Well, my Child, the Fund we call Land Rent comes to us as Free as if it were sent from the Sky each year. No Man has to Work to Make it. It comes from the mere Fact of the Crowd.

Woodcut: Another winged creature, in the center of the drawing. She is an angel, and she is pouring the contents of a cornucopia labeled "unearned increment" into a large lockbox labeled "Public Treasury." To the right is a figure who looks like Uncle Sam, and he seems to be cheering.

unearned increment

well provisioned ship

population

rent as God's provisioning

privatization

LESSON LVII — Fat Rich Men ... Get Their Wealth ... Through Bad Laws

See the Fat Men in the Cut. They Toil not nor do they Spin. And yet they are Rich.

Rich is no Name for it.

What are they at here?

They are at Work. This is all the Work they do — just Hold out their Hats for Gold. See the Pipes that pour out the Gold. The Fat Men own the Pipes, and the Pipes Tap the Wealth that is made by the Toil of the Mass of Men. One Branch of the One-Tax plan is to Tax Land Rent and Nought Else and the next Branch is to have the State take Charge of these Pipes which should be held by the State for all.

If that were done We should have no Men in this World quite so Fat as we now See. Each Man would have to get Fat on his own Work, and All would have more Joy in Life.

Woodcut: Two fat men, with their tophats turned over. Each tophat is positioned below the opening to a huge pipe, pouring out coins. One pipe is labeled "public franchises;" the other, "land monopoly." The pipes come out of the wall, and are labeled "No.2" and "No. 1" respectively.

well-provisioned ship

LESSON LVIII — Kick And Howl ... Laws Made Right ... Stop Their Game

See how the Rich Men Kick and Howl now. Why do they Kick? Do you not see that a Stop has been put to the Flow of Gold in to their Hats?

How has this been Done?

By the new Plan we call the One-Tax. The Land Rent which they have Kept up to this Time, now has to be Paid in to the Till of the State as a Tax. And as for Pipe Two, as shown in last Cut, that is now Held by the State, as it Taps Lines of Trade in which there is not a Free Field for All. It is Right that such Lines of Trade should be in the Hands of the State, and that is a part of the One-Tax plan, as I have told you.

What will the Rich Men do Now?

Well, if they want More Wealth, they will have to Work for it. But in days to Come, with the One-Tax plan in Vogue, We will have no more Men who get Rich in the Way they got their Gold.

Woodcut: Same room, same men. But now one is tearing out his hair, and the other has thrown up his hands in outrage. The wall with the two holes now bears a sign saying "Notice. These pipes now lead into the public till for the benefit of the people."

LESSON LIX — Would Soon Stop... Coal King's Scheme ... Make Fuel Cheap

Do you See these two Men? One is Poor and out of Work, though when he does Work he gets but a few Cents per day. He digs Coal in a Mine. The Fat Man and a few of his Chums own the Mine. And Month by Month they meet and lay down the Law as to How Much Coal shall be Dug, and what the Price shall be. Thus are they like Kings in a Land which we call Free.

How will the One-Tax plan set this Right?

Well, you see, the Coal Land they hold now bears but a Light Tax as Wild Land. By the One-Tax plan it will have to bear a Tax at its full Worth as Coal Land, and can not be Held out of Use as it now is. These Coal Kings must then Keep their Mines at Work All the Time, so as to make them Pay More than the Tax, or let them go, and so Set the Land Free that those who Wish may Dig Coal.

Woodcut: On the right, a fat man in business garb, complete with top-hat and spectacles, hands in pocket. On the left, a couple, both quite thin. The man has a pick-ax. Between the figures, a padlocked door, bearing the sign, "Mine Closed Till Further Notice"

LESSON LX — Not Take Land ... But Just Rent ... That Is All

Here is a Sign Post such as you See now when you take a Walk in the Town.

What does it Mean?

It Means that some Man Holds the Land, not for Use, but to make Gain in Case some one Else wants to Use it. He will get this Gain in the form of Rent or Price, while the Man who Takes it Works — thus he Lives on the Sweat of that Man's Brow.

Does the One-Tax plan Mean to take this Lot from the Man who now Holds it?

Not at all. The Lot will have to Pay a tax — just the Sum the Man would now Rent it to this Chap for. If he pays that Tax he can still Hold it and keep it Bare. If he does not Need it for Use, he will Drop it, and let the Man who does Need it take it and pay the Tax. You see it is Land Rent and not Land the State will take from those who now Hold it.

Woodcut: A man looking at a large sign, stuck into undeveloped land with two posts:

"Lots for Sale
or to Rent
Apply to Forestaller & Co.

Home	Top of page	Essential Documents	Themes	to email this page to a friend: right click, choose "send"
Wealth and Want			www.wealthandwant.com
... because democracy alone hasn't yet led to a society in which all can prosper