It is often heard said that money, or rather for the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil and this may well be true. It is very difficult to turn a blind eye to the huge discrepancies between those who have more money than you could ever wish for and those who find it impossible to scrape enough together each day in order just to feed. But in many ways this is a natural product of money, even if we all started out with exactly the same within a short space of time some would accumulate more and others would end up with less. In the modern world where products and money can be moved around the globe in unprecedented speeds then huge fortunes can be amassed very quickly. Indeed less than five hundred people in the world account for around twenty percent of the money that is available.
But money isn’t the only thing that underlines division and discrepancy in the world, the ownership of land is just as big an issue. The ownership of land allows some individuals to rise above the toil of the daily grind in search for food as rent can be charged and a living can be made without turning a sod or sowing a seed. Of course money can buy land and land can be sold for money and in these ways a land owner is well on their way to becoming one of the more fortunate of humankind.
There is a difference however between the ownership of money and the ownership of land. Money is always man made, only humans have minted, printed and pressed money. Exchanging tokens in exchange for an agreed and trusted worth is entirely a human concept. But man did not make the land. With the possible exception of small pieces of land reclaimed from the sea in countries such as Holland, all land was here a long time before the first man ever walked on the face of the globe.
The first money to be owned was earned or traded for something of equivalent value but the first land was taken. No one owned the land until it was claimed and all land ownership has to start ultimately with a grab, a claim, a stake or even a theft. However distasteful the difference in monetary value between the rich and the poor is, it is explicable in human terms. Money was created by man, traded by man and accumulated by man. The land has been cultivated, improved and farmed by man but not created. I know it will never happen but land should be common and belong to all of the human race for the betterment of all of us.
Thoughts from a Guerrilla Worker 