Page:David Atkins - The Economics of Freedom (1924).pdf/108

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This needs no argument.

There is here a hopeful assumption that political limits are finally established under democracy. At any rate, for the sake of exactitude, fixed political boundaries are stipulated. The delay in recognizing land-area, as a final factor, was due to the possibility of additions by seizure and conquest. The number of acres, however, does not vary within our present political boundaries, so that we have a fixed area within which our energy is confined. Time being constant, and movement unrestricted, the occupancy-value of land-area varies directly in proportion to the population.

Through unregulated control of land-area, toll can be taken of labor and tribute demanded of “slow time.” Provided no arbitrary factor is permitted to intervene, land-area then becomes the basic factor of economic power, or control of value, most subject to individual domination and for this reason democracy should be keenly interested in its pro rata responsibility, since only by this precaution can each new generation be confirmed as heir of all the ages. It is one thing for the individual to squander his birthright. We fought for that privilege. It is quite another matter for society to negligently cut him off with thirty cents.

Detached human effort, under the impersonal sufferance of time, whether properly diligent, taking advantage of lawful occasions, or frankly predatory, must come to earth with its catch or, in the end, forego it. What the community is concerned with is area, which does not flow benignly like time or fluctuate like effort. It is the fixed and immutable base upon which all benefits fall.