Introduction

This is a plea to grant each other freedom. If the government tells us how to live, we are not free. But also if others force us to pay for our place on earth, we are not free.

If we are free, everyone can decide for themselves whether and in what way they want to work and live with other people. That is certainly not only in the interest of rich people who want to run their business without being too bothered by the government. Precisely the people who are having a hard time would benefit from true freedom. At the moment, working for an annoying boss and spending a large part of your income on rent or mortgage is not really a choice. In a truly free world, people are able to make their own decisions. Between working as an independent entrepreneur or working for a boss, between a fun profession or a boring or heavy profession, between working hard or taking it easy. Of course, every choice we make has consequences. In a free world, we are able to weigh the various options without hindrance and choose the most attractive one.

Freedom or live-and-let-live sounds like a very normal starting point. To know the meaning of this, two fundamental questions are important: who owns us and who owns the world? Geo-libertarians believe that people are primarily in charge of themselves. It should be normal for interactions between people to take place on the basis of mutual consent. Coercion, violence or an interfering government are in most cases undesirable.

At the same time, we recognize that there is something wrong with the currently dominant view on world ownership. Since the earth is not man-made, but rather a gift, everyone is entitled to his share. Perhaps not everyone immediately sees the importance of this issue. However, the way in which we can own the earth largely determines our lives. In a material sense, because some people have to pay rent or mortgage for their entire life, while others become super-rich thanks to land ownership. In a psychological sense because we rightly fear difficulties if we don’t choose to keep paying our rent or mortgage. We do not dare to go out into the wide world with a backpack because we fear a hard life the moment we return without a home and without a permanent job. And that’s why we spend the best years of our lives in a boring office.

It is emphatically not our intention to prohibit others from earning money from an office job. However, we do want to remove the undue pressure people experience to do this. Whoever has to pay a lot of money every month for his place on earth is not really free to choose how he organizes his life. We geo-libertarians want to free humanity from this.

It is up to you how to benefit from this true freedom. Some people will be happy with affordable housing, others may finally start their own businesses or devote their lives to making music. And others finally dare to travel for a few years because they are no longer afraid of the consequences of selling their house and giving up their job.

The term geo-libertarianism is a combination of Georgism and libertarianism and was coined by the American economist Fred Foldvary (1946-2021). It is therefore a synthesis of two currents, one of which seems more appealing to right-wing people and the other more appealing to left-wing people. Libertarianism is the belief that people are primarily in charge of themselves. Libertarians want a society with as little (government) coercion as possible. Georgism was mainly invented to alleviate poverty. The movement is named after Henry George (1839-1897), the author of the book Progress and poverty, which sold millions of copies in the 19th century. In this book, he explained why our current land tenure system leads to poverty.

Geo-libertarianism can play a central role in solving various problems. What makes this solution approach unique is that it is a very liberal conviction, while problems such as poverty and pollution can still be tackled. It is possible to tackle the world’s problems without ending up in a dystopia in which we are saddled with an all-controlling world government.

In this manifesto, we will first discuss Georgism and libertarianism. Next, the combination of the two concepts is discussed. We will outline what a geo-libertarian society might look like in practice and how geo-libertarians think about various issues. Finally, we discuss some routes we can take towards a geo-libertarian society. We hope to contribute to the creation of a society that we can truly call free.

Table of contents
Introduction/ In search of true freedom 6
Ch 1 About Georgism 10
Brief History of Georgism 12
Why it is very normal to have your part of the earth 17
1 Castaways on an Island 17
2 John Locke and the Lockean Proviso 19
3 A cartoon about a red and a blue bird 21
4 The Landlord's Game 21
5 Thomas Paine and Agrarian Justice 22
6 Who is the manna for? 22
Why has Georgism still not broken through? 24
Ch 2 On libertarianism 27
Force or violence 28
The government and coercion 29
Critical about coercion 31
Theft due to poverty 31
Protecting someone from themselves 32
Criminal punishment 32
Competing against free riders 33
Saving the Earth 34
Striving for equal opportunities 35
The right not to participate 36
The free market 38
Why is libertarianism unpopular? 40
Ch 3 About Geo-libertarianism 42
The importance of combining 44
Geo-libertarianism in practice 45
Freedom 46
Sharing the Earth 46
The commons 47
Exclusive use of space 47
Land value tax (LVT) to be jointly and severally distributed 48
The right height for an LVT 50
Spatial planning 50
LVT, Climate Change and Natural Disasters 52
LVT and business cycle 53
Other Resources and the Environment 53
Switch in a proper way 55
Group, municipality, country or world government? 56
Sharing the earth without government 58
Ch 4: A geo-libertarian view on some topics 60
The farmer and the camping owner: real estate investors against their will 60
Censorship 63
Money, exchange and savings (freedom of payment) 63
The government and coercion 64
Equal Opportunities 69
Free-riders and golden doorknobs 75
Democracy and freedom 78
Ch 5: Criticism of geo-libertarianism 80
Socialist critique of geo-libertarianism 80
Soil is no longer so important these days 82
Not everyone can handle freedom well 83
Strong government is necessary to save the earth 84
Liberal criticism of geo-libertarianism 84
Sharing the earth is a form of redistribution 84
Sharing the earth is a form of meddling 85
Sharing the Earth gives government too much influence 86
Anarchist critique of geo-libertarianism 87
Geo-libertarianism is by definition not anarchist 87
Criticism from indifferent and lazy people 87
It is not realistic to want to share the earth 87
Ch 6: Towards a geo-libertarian society 89
Getting started 92
Speak out! 93
The political pathway 93
Geo-libertarian cities 95
Individual action 95
Collective action 96
Read more 99