THE UNEARNED INCREMENT.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 10713, 31 December 1912, Page 4

THE UNEARNED INCREMENT.

The most important, the most' ing," Sociialistic fallacy ia that labor in future is to get all it earns. At present the loose prints of Socialist literature assure the working man that he is cheated out of two thirds of 1 ibis > / earnings. There is a socialist theory tflvat as the value of the land increases with tlie increase of population the unearned increment, should be taken away from the man who own,9 the land and given to the State. Why the State .should have it I cannot say. But really almost all wealth is fortuitous. The land itself, the air, the sunshine, t workman himself, are all the gifts of a bountiful nature. But l even. when man has intervened and produced an article which has a value in exchange, the value is aim Oft in every ease an unearned Value. If he has' labcu-r-l for weeks and produces • something that no one wants, he has prod'uoed no v.ahie If he ba.sl laboured for an instant or two, and produced or brought to market something many •People desire to have, by what is oa.lr led "a stroke of luck" ho has produced an article of value Tt is, therefore, not hiy work, but others' wants that create wealth. —-Extract fro'n "The Economics of Socialism,'' by J. H. Balfojirrßrown, K:0.