In Land- A New Paradigm for a Thriving World, Martin Adams takes on the conventional view that treats land ownership as a basis for wealth production. Acknowledging the difficulties of overturning our prevailing economic models, Adams challenges the reader to think of new ways to understand our relationship to the limited resources of our earth, and proposes a shift away from land ownership to land stewardship. Marshaling carefully conceived economic analysis on monopoly, profit, wealth concentration, and taxation, the author advances an idea he calls land use contributions-entailing meaningful policy change that enables the value of land to be shared by communities, both urban and rural. Martin offers a vision for bringing about humanitarian policy changes through individual awareness, education, and legislative advocacy.
Broadly speaking, there are only two ways human beings can make an income- They can either make an income by contributing to society, or they can extract an income from society. When people make money from land and other gifts of nature, they extract resources from society and consequently leave less resources behind for people who add value to society. However, when people rent land from their local communities, they pay a market value for the benefits they receive from their own communities.
There are very few books on the market that go into great detail about how our present tendency to profit from land causes wealth inequality, poverty, economic depressions, social decline and environmental destruction. The vast majority of those books that do tie land profiteering to those effects have either been written by economists in a technical language inaccessible to the general population, or in language too vague to be easily understood by the uninitiated.
The writing in Land, however, is surprisingly accessible. Aimed at readers interested in safeguarding the environment and living in a more beautiful and sustainable world, the book explores the hidden causes of social issues with logical reasoning and contagious passion. The second part explores an economic solution so radical yet so easily understandable that the reader cannot help but be transformed.
