Words: 420
Most of all, he blamed land monopolizing as the reason for poverty and that no matter what, whether e attempt to reform the government and divide profits, it will only increase the land’s value. George found it absurd that people sell a land that they did not create, and believes that the only way to rid land monopoly is to divide income that comes from the land. He says we can accomplish this by “abolishing taxes that now rest on the capital, labor, and improvements, and raising all our public revenues by the taxation of land values”.
He argues that America had not fully abolished slavery; they had only abolished one form of t, which was chattel slavery. His main point that he argues is the absurdity of land ownership. He says that American’s treatment of land lies at the bottom of all social questions. He addresses the fact that when one pays for land, they are paying for something that no man has produced. This is unlike any other purchase because people labor to produce other items, but not land.
He also argues that Americans had things reversed because the rich people should have earned their wealth by working themselves, but instead they eave the poor people labor while the rich reap the benefits. George asserts that it is ridiculous that a dead man can own a part of the earth and give it away to whomever he pleases. This is unnecessary because the earth, Henry says, was made for the living, not the dead. He also says that poverty is not from God, but it is a result of our selfishness and injustice and overproduction. America was going through a period where production of material things was growing and improving.
Many citizens may have been blind to the injustice all around them because their minds were set on the next thing they need to invest in or work on. After the Civil War, slavery came to an end, so maybe people thought it was gone forever. But George brings up the point that slavery had only been partly abolished because of the poor people who were still forced into poverty and working for the rich. I think this document and he words it contains may have been a huge eye opener for Americans and it should have convicted them to make a change not only in their perspective Of people but in the way they act.