The Single Tax
J.A. Andrews
[Reprinted from the Australian Radical,
April, 1890]
Every man has, by virtue of his existence, a natural right to
utilise the face of the earth to satisfy his requirements, without
restriction by or any payment to any person or institution.
The principle of the Single-Tax and the Leasing System are
therefore as much opposed to the principle of human liberty as is
the system of landed proprietorship.
For the Government to 'supersede the capitalists by performing the
functions of producer' is a mis-statement. The working classes alone
can perform those functions; and capitalists or governments can only
intervene to perform the function of exploiters of, or interferers
with, the producers. To be robbed by the State is as bad as to be
robbed by anyone else, and worse in one way, because better terms
can often be forced from private capitalists in detail, whereas,
although the State may oppress unequally, it is impossible to combat
the government except by revolution, excepting in trifling matters
where they may give way to avoid trouble. For example, the public
have never yet got anything from the government as against the
privileges of capital, except where the great capitalists saw their
opportunity to crush down the small ones, without at least the
threat of a revolution. The possession of power is an opportunity
for capitalistic juggling to its possessor, and the interests of
those who govern are necessarily opposed, in general, to the
interests of the governed. Again, what would be the result if the
State controlled production? Either nothing could be had which it
did not cause to be produced - and everyone knows by experience what
that would mean - or there would be left room for capitalistic
control of production or distribution in some things in point of
which the power to exploit and rob the workers would be increased by
the comparative monopoly.
Everyone having the right by nature to use not only the earth but
all that therein is, and himself in that category, for the
satisfaction of all the inherent needs of his nature, without
restriction by or payment to any other, government stands condemned
in principle just as thoroughly as capitalism does, and the obvious
fact remains that a condition of conflict is inevitably necessary
between those who cannot exercise their natures without infringing
upon the like liberty of others, and those who can, who form the
great bulk of society. To attempt to enforce harmony between these
two sections by means of government or any universal scheme
whatever, is folly, and can only result in more suffering on both
sides. Nature's remedy is the revolution of the aggrieved against
the aggressors, and the survival of the fittest, in the long run,
being certainly those who are competent to live and enjoy life in
the fullest and highest manner, without having, for that purpose, to
oppress and to incur the resentment of their fellows.
We hold therefore with the simple abolition of all proprietorship
and authority, and the consequent establishment of absolute
individual freedom; if you are in earnest for humanity, consider in
the first place, whether, if there were no payments, no
proprietorship, but everyone did whatever he might choose to do for
another, gratuitously, it would not lead to everyone doing precisely
as he actually liked, and at the same time place so many
opportunities within the reach of everyone to get all that he wanted
without occasioning injury or hardship to anyone else, as to
effectually remove the sole pretext which government can plead as a
moral reason for its existence - the supposed need of a power to
keep equity between man and man? Consider, in the second place, the
degradation of obedience to any power that claims your submission,
and the danger which that power becomes to its subjects, in the
hands of the crafty and the unscrupulous, who have always the
largest incentive to become possessed of such a potent tool. And
then throw away the vain illusions of political reform, whether
taxism, land nationalisation, or National or State Socialism; and
declare openly and vigorously for ANARCHY.