The Justice and the Economics of Rerum novarum on Land

Nicolaus Tideman ()
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Nicolaus Tideman: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

A chapter in On the Economic Significance of the Catholic Social Doctrine, 2017, pp 125-134 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract The authors of Rerum novarum attack socialism and Henry George’s claim that the earth is the common heritage of all persons, without distinguishing between these ideas. While acknowledging that “God has given the earth for the use and enjoyment of the whole human race,” they propose that land is simply the transformed wages of those who worked to buy it, ignoring Aquinas’s assertion that “… a rich man does not act unlawfully if he anticipates someone in taking possession of something which at first was common property, and gives others a share: but he sins if he excludes others indiscriminately from using it.” They presume erroneously that the physical inseparability of land and capital makes them economically inseparable. Their position on land should be rejected.

Keywords: Rerum novarum; Henry George; Land rights; Aquinas; B15; P48 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:euhchp:978-3-319-52545-7_10

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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-52545-7_10

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