Land as Commons
Many of us already sense that our current economic system creates inequality and also engenders the ecological destruction of our planet. What we don’t seem to understand is why: For example, why does our current system of capitalism lead to financial insecurity for many, even for those who, by all accounts, shouldn’t have to worry about money? And why exactly are we destroying our planet in our frantic conversion of nature into digits and little bits of paper we call money?
For most of human history, land was treated with reverence and recognized as an essential aspect of the community of life to whom we all belonged. Therefore, and rightfully so, indigenous cultures throughout time have embraced land as mother, as the well-spring of nurturing and the bosom from which one could draw sustenance and comfort. In short, land was part of the commons. Yet in our society today, we no longer seem to remember land as our mother; we no longer recognize her — and therefore respect her — as the fountain of our existence. Instead, she has become private property, to be done with as one pleases.
Probably the main reason why our current economic system doesn’t work for everyone is because the commons have been privatized. All of nature is part of the commons, including — and especially — land. Yet today, land is privately owned and costs a lot of money to buy. Why is that? It’s because land has an intrinsic value to human beings: We all need land, just like we need air to breathe (but unlike air, land always is in short supply the more people congregate over a particular area). And since our current economic system tends to put a price on what we value and what is in short supply, those that own land today can make money from buying and selling land at the expense of other people who have to pay money to live on it.
In order for us to access our local community — and all the benefits that come with being part of a community — we need land. But because the amount of land over any given area is naturally limited, land tends to cost a lot more in the city, where there are more people, than in the countryside. Furthermore, as communities become more prosperous and therefore more attractive to live in, property owners — and financial institutions that finance property ownership — then extract this value by making money from the rising price of land. This taking — what author Charles Eisenstein aptly describes as the conversion of nature into property, and property into money — is also one of the root causes of economic recessions, ecological destruction, wealth inequality, as well as social and cultural decline.
“While pre-agricultural peoples often have a tribal territory, they would be appalled at the idea that land could be owned. Is not the Earth a being greater than any human, or even any group of humans? How can a greater belong to a lesser? To presume to own a piece of the Earth, to say it is mine, is from the indigenous perspective a sacrilege so audacious as to be unthinkable. To reduce the Earth to property and eventually to money is indeed to make a greater into a lesser, to turn the sacred into the profane, the divine into the human, the infinite into the quantified. I can think of no better definition of sacrilege than that.”
— Charles Eisenstein, The Ascent of Humanity
If we took the idea of a commons-based society to its logical conclusion, then, we might realize that land and all other gifts of nature ought to be held in common, and that whenever people used land or other gifts of nature for their own purposes, they incurred a natural debt to the community of life for their exclusive use of these shared gifts of nature.
When an oil company extracts oil from the ground, it quite literally takes from the community of life — in the form of diminished oil reserves, increased atmospheric carbon, as well as increased pollution. Thus — while it’s clearly preferable that oil wasn’t extracted in the first place — as long as it is being extracted, a debt — perhaps even an incalculable one — is naturally owed to the community of life. Although the word ‘debt’ has a negative connotation due to its use as a rationale for exploitation in today’s society, in its most natural state, a debt is simply a consequence of a give-and-receive interaction between beings within the web of life.
Likewise, the use of land operates under a similar premise: the private and exclusive use of land also incurs a debt to the community of life. To settle that debt — to meet, in essence, their obligations to their local community — , land users ought to contribute to their local communities. I call these contributions community land contributions.
“We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.”
— Aldo Leopold (1887–1948)
As long as a community primarily relies on money as a means of exchange, and as long as people operate under the premise of needing to “buy” and “sell” their place of residence in order to be a part of a community, community members ought to rent, rather than own, the land they use from their community. Community land contributions, therefore, ought to approximate the rental value of land, since the rental value of land is a measuring stick that reveals the financial value of the benefits that land users receive from their exclusive use of land.
In order to transition from a land ownership model to a land stewardship model, local governments and community land trusts would need to create and implement a transition plan that would allow land users to exclusively use land without obtaining ownership of the land itself (more on that in my next book or in some future essay). Land users would then be obligated to share the value of land with all members of their community through community land contributions. And finally, these contributions would then be redistributed to all community members in the form of a Basic Income to prevent gentrification, reduce wealth inequality, and create a more cohesive community for all community members.
For more information about how land reform can create meaningful work, restore the environment, and bring more wealth into your local community, I invite you to read Land: A New Paradigm for a Thriving World. Order a signed copy via my website—also available via Amazon and Barnes & Nobel.
MARTIN ADAMS is a social innovator, systems thinker, and community organizer. As a child, it pained him to see most people struggling while a few were living in opulence. This inspired in him a lifelong quest to create a fair and sustainable world in collaboration with others. As a young adult, groomed for a career in finance, he opted not to pursue a career on Wall Street and chose instead to dedicate his life to community enrichment. Through his non-profit work, he saw firsthand the extent to which our economic system causes human and ecological strife. Consequently, Martin devoted himself to the development of a new economic paradigm that might allow humanity to thrive in harmony with nature. His book Land: A New Paradigm for a Thriving World is the fruit of his years of research into a part of this economic model; its message stands to educate policymakers and changemakers worldwide. Martin is executive director of Progress.org. You can also follow Martin via social media: Facebook, Twitter, Soundcloud.
