Progress and Poverty

The question of ethics is central to that of abolishing private property. What a person produces belongs to him: “[T]here is to everything produced by human exertion a clear and indisputable title to exclusive possession and enjoyment” (332). This approach is just and consistent with natural law. Since the source of the right to ownership is in labor, then any other type of ownership cannot be included.

For this reason, it is important to differentiate between products of labor and “the gratuitous offerings of nature” (335). Both buildings and land are classed as property in real estate. In political economy, however, the former is a product of labor and is part of wealth, while the other is considered land. In this context, “The recognition of individual proprietorship of land is the denial of the natural rights of other individuals—it is a wrong which must show itself in the inequitable division of wealth” (339). Land ownership means that one person “receives without producing,” while other people “produce without receiving” (339). Common rights must be considered.