On Liberty and Earth Ownership: How we can save our planet, end poverty, and gain freedom through access to what nature provides for free

By Barend Gehner

Investors like Blackrock are rapidly buying up the earth. How does it affect our freedom if we can no longer own our homes, farmland, or workshops?

Most of our

• Language: English
• Publisher: Geoliberty
• Release date: May 1, 2024
• ISBN: 9789083416717

Barend Gehner

Barend is not only a lecturer, skipper and author. He's also a passionate advocate for freedom in an era where it is increasingly under threat. With a decade of cherished memories living on an old sailing barge in the Netherlands, he found inspiration amidst the challenges posed by governments discouraging such lifestyles. His main motivation for writing is the fear that his children will not have the same liberties he once enjoyed.However, Barend's concerns extend beyond his personal experiences. He recognizes that the rise of authoritarianism jeopardizes not only the ability to live on an old boat but also impacts broader societal issues. The lack of freedom subjects the poor to sweatshop labour, locks tenants into a lifetime of exorbitant rents, and forces others to spend their best years in boring office jobs.Bringing his expertise as a lecturer to the forefront, Barend translates economic and philosophical concepts into accessible narratives. While some brilliant minds have explored critical themes like liberty, oppression, bureaucracy, and earth ownership, Barend takes the crucial step of introducing these issues in a way that makes them tangible and relevant to us all. He persuasively argues that choices still exist amidst an increasingly restrictive landscape.Optimism defines Barend's outlook, and he endeavors to convince you that a future where governments dictate our lives and mass surveillance prevails is not inevitable. The prospect of corporate giants like Blackrock dominating the earth, and the decline of small businesses, is not the only path forward. Barend urges us to embrace his hopeful alternative, encouraging readers to contemplate a future that preserves individual freedom and choice.Join Barend on a journey that challenges the prevailing narrative, offering a compelling vision for a more liberated and optimistic tomorrow.

Book preview

On Liberty and Earth Ownership

Barend Gehner

On Liberty and Earth Ownership

How we can save our planet, end poverty, and gain freedom through access to what nature provides for free

On Liberty and Earth Ownership © 2024 by Barend Gehner is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0

ISBN: 9789083416700 (Paperback)

ISBN: 9789083416717 (Ebook)

Front cover image by Tobias Osterhaus

Front cover design by Fiverr.com/lauria

Book interior design by Fiverr.com/hmrashed

Illustrations: Copyright © 2024 Tobias Osterhaus

[e-mail]

Edited by Lucy Steigerwald

Contents

Introduction

1. On earth ownership: why our current system is foolish and how we can fix it

Why it’s foolish to pay for our fair share of the earth

1 - Henry George: who is the manna for?

2 - Privatising oxygen

3 - Ten stranded castaways

4 - A cartoon about a red bird, and a blue bird

5 - The Lockean Proviso

6 - The Landlord's Game

7 - Thomas Paine and Agrarian Justice

8 - Moral equals

Who benefits from paying for our place on earth?

Those who own most of the earth are the big winners

Banks benefit

Bosses benefit

Governments benefit

Do homeowners really benefit?

Do we all benefit, just because there is no chaos?

On geoism

How to divide things up

How we can share the earth

Having our private part of the earth

The commons

Spatial planning

A brief introduction to rent

Enclosure

Anyone should be a freeholder

How geoism can save our planet

The right basic income equals our fair share of the earth

Scarcity, monopoly, and rent

Decoupling farming and real estate investment

A fair transition to fairly sharing the earth

Geoism, world peace, and migration

2. On liberty: why we must have the option to do things our own way

Why we need both geoism and liberty

Liberty and feudalism

Geoism without freedom

Liberty as the option to escape

Why we should not be afraid of liberty

Escape and helping other people

Escape and paying our fair share

Escape and protecting the environment

Why the right to escape does not force others to live in chaos

To vote or to escape?

Voting

The option to escape

Liberty according to Spooner

Liberty as The American Dream

Finding the right name for true liberty

Geo-libertarianism, geoism or Georgism

Left-libertarianism

Indepentarianism: liberty as the power to say no

Some more names

Capitalism, free markets, and liberty

Free speech

Money, banking, and liberty

Freedom to take risks

Buying uncertified products

Taking some risks for fun

Risking a virus infection

Hiring affordable craftsmen

Using exotic currencies

Leftists and libertarians should be friends!

Libertarians emphasise freedom, but sometimes underestimate problems

Leftists want to solve problems but promote policies that don't work

Private ownership and liberty

3. Refuting some objections

Objection 1: A Land Value Tax will make land and apartments even more expensive

Objection 2: A Land Value Tax will hurt farmers

Most land value is in urban areas

Other taxes will be abolished

Most people don’t want to grow their own food

Concentrated land ownership threatens the existence of family farms

Objection 3: Fully equal outcomes are not guaranteed

Objection 4: Landed property is no longer so important these days

Objection 5: A focus on negative liberty is outdated

Objection 6: Not everyone wants to be free

Objection 7: A meddling government is necessary to save the earth

Objection 8: Sharing the earth is a form of meddling

Objection 9: Geoism is incompatible with liberty as it requires some kind of government

Objection 10: Liberty will create chaos

Objection 11: Sharing the earth is a utopian ideal

4. Towards a truly free society

Why we can liberate ourselves

True freedom suits our common sense

True freedom will lead to prosperity and well-being

True freedom is in the interest of a vast majority of people

How we can liberate ourselves

Contribute to a moral revolution!

Try to set a good example

Promote equal liberty instead of your own interests

What about politics?

Community land trusts

Civil disobedience

Becoming ungovernable

How we can benefit from our liberty

John just wants to earn more

Michelle wants an affordable house

Jack wants to keep renting out apartments

David wants to leave his bullshit job

Gretha wants to save our planet

Kay wants to invent his own currency

Eve wants to have a place for her tiny house

Theresa wants to be an artist and cross the ocean

Eric wants to be a farmer

Harry wants to live the American Dream

Jenny wants to live in a socialist commune

How I may use my liberty

Further reading

Get involved!

Introduction

I

nequality, climate change, unaffordable houses, work pressure, exploitation, regulatory pressure, banks monitoring us, boring lives, oppression, authoritarian regimes, and war. There is an alternative. This little book is about a worldview that can help us to solve a wide range of problems.

Today, most people see liberty and equality as conflicting options. Some prefer more liberty, and some prefer more equality. This book is about a third option, which we could refer to as Geoliberty, geoism or liberated markets. This option is appealing because it offers us the chance to promote equality without giving up our liberty. People should be able to own their homes and run their own businesses, even if they are not rich. This will be possible if we revise our view on earth ownership. The system in which we need to pay someone else a lot of money for our place on earth is based on a fallacy and causes misery and strife.

The first chapter explains why we are all entitled to our fair share of the earth, and how this dream can be realised without losing the enormous benefits of private property and free markets.

The second chapter discusses freedom as an opportunity to do things our own way. People should be able to make their own decisions, even if they are part of a minority. If we have our fair share of the earth, we can, together with like-minded people, organise our lives as we wish. The ability to escape from bad rulers, unfriendly employers, a toxic relationship or any form of oppression is the most reliable way to avoid trouble.

We can build a peaceful society based on the understanding that people have equal rights to the earth, and that people are free to do things their way.

How free are you right now? Can you decide for yourself what you eat tonight? Can you travel unhindered, and in an affordable way? Do you have the opportunity to do things your way?

How free are you? Can you easily find a place where you can together with some friends and family live in the way you would like best? Can you build the house needed for this, or is it difficult to do this because of regulations? Some planning may be necessary in order to avoid disputes about noise, to avoid a tall building suddenly taking away all your sunlight and to protect some nature. But that should never be an excuse for forbidding people to live how they prefer.

Can you easily start your own business, alone or together with like-minded people, or are you doomed to work for a boss all your life? Why do you imagine that it is so difficult for so many people to leave their bosses?

Working for an annoying boss, spending a large part of our income on rent or mortgages, and paying the many taxes that accompany these relationships, aren’t something we choose. In a truly free world, we can make our own decisions, such as growing our own food or buying it from an efficient producer, between working hard as an independent entrepreneur, or a part-time job for a boss, between asking a government to arrange things for us or to organize things in our own way. We can decide to have a fun profession or a boring one, work hard or take things easy. Of course, every choice we make has consequences. But in a free world, we can balance the various options without restriction and choose the most attractive one.

How other people own the earth largely determines our lives. In a material sense, some people have to pay rent or mortgage their entire lives, while others become super-rich, thanks to land ownership. Most of us rightly fear the consequences if we don't choose to keep paying our rent or mortgage. We don’t go out and seek adventure because we fear a hard life the moment we return without a home and a permanent job. And that’s why we spend the best years of our lives in a boring office.

We can be free and have a better life. But first, we need to start looking at a few things differently.

Governments possess powerful arguments for restricting our freedom. Without all-controlling, but naturally benevolent governments, poor people would be left alone, threats like pandemics and climate change could not be addressed, and there would be no roads. It would be complete chaos. Without landlords, we would not be able to live in decent houses. Only if we understand why this is pure nonsense can we liberate ourselves and better enjoy our lives.

It is up to you how to benefit from this true freedom. Some people will be happy with just an affordable house; others may finally start their own businesses or devote their lives to making music. Maybe you will finally dare to travel for a few years because you are no longer afraid of the consequences of selling your house and giving up your job.

A great majority of people would benefit from transforming the world into a place where people can live peacefully unhindered by rulers and landlords. However, liberation will be possible only if more people understand that there are better options than capitalism, state socialism, or total chaos.

1

On earth ownership: why our current system is foolish and how we can fix it

M

ost of us pay a high price for our place on the earth. Some clever investors and some lucky people who were born earlier than us bought the earth, and the rest of us must buy or rent from them if we want to build a home, start a business, moor a boat, graze our sheep, generate energy, or grow some food.

Paying for our place on earth particularly hurts people with low wages, and those who want to contribute to our society in other ways than just by working for money. We can never relax. If we have paid for our food, then we worry about the mortgage; then we need to care about our children. They in turn need to get a university degree to have a bearable life in an expensive world. And so it goes.

Why do we need to pay for what nature has provided for free? Our world has finite space and natural resources. The reality is that we cannot all have unlimited amounts of land and other natural resources without hindering others. We need a way to minimize disputes, and maximize our liberty to live how we prefer while still protecting the land and its resources.

Our present system of earth ownership is an attempt to solve this. Most of the earth has become private property. This system has some great advantages that we need to consider. If we pay money, we can become private owners of a piece of land, which contributes to our liberty. Within certain limits, the government allows us to decide for ourselves how to use our piece of land. If we want to have more land, we can always buy some, if we can afford it. This kind of free market system promotes efficient use of land to a certain degree.

However, land rights are the source of a lot of misery. In industrial countries, many people are unfree because land is unaffordable. For many people, becoming an owner of some of the earth is almost impossible. They need to pay rent to a landlord, or pay off a mortgage for the rest of their lives. It’s hard for these people to start their own company. People who can buy some land are better off, but still need to work hard for many years before they actually own the space they need to live or to run their business.

Land rights are also an issue for indigenous peoples, although in a slightly different way. Peasant farmers, hunter-gatherers and shepherds constantly fear being driven off their land. Their governments are eager to cede the land they live on to foreign investors.

The earth should be seen as a present to mankind. People remove weeds and build roads and buildings, but they did not create the earth and its natural resources. If we look at it this way, we can understand that it’s strange that we need to pay for something that Mother Nature provided.

However, if we are going to propose alternatives to the present system of earth ownership, we must be aware that most options would be worse than the present system. We should not reintroduce Sovkhozes and Kolkhozes. In a situation of collective ownership, individuals do not own land and are unable to make their own decisions. If they want to use land they need permission from the collective. Abolishing private property may sound noble but usually results in a lack of individual liberty, hunger, and unhappiness.

Collective ownership is not the only alternative for the present system of earth ownership, however. Individuals should