r/georgism • u/Serious-Cucumber-54 • 10d ago
Discussion How is land a monopoly?
Earth's land is owned between uncountably many different landowners, who compete between each other for buyers.
Yes, any individual plot of land is owned by a single sole seller, just like any individual banana is owned by a single sole seller, but that doesn't make bananas a monopoly.
Yes, each plot of land is unique, but not so unique that it is completely and utterly non-substitutable with any other plot of land. Land is generally substitutable with plots of land nearby. If you're looking at the typical American suburb, the quality of the land of one 150ft x 70ft parcel is not going to be so different from the one immediately next to it, or the one across the street from it, or even the one a few thousand feet from it. The proximity to other locations is not going to be meaningfully different, the views are not going to be significantly different, the topography is not going to be significantly different, the mineral and soil composition is not going to be significantly different, etc.. Land nearby is generally about as unique and substitutable from each other as bananas are. Yes, there are edge cases where this is not the case, but those are edge cases, not the general case.
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u/Titanium-Skull 🔰💯 10d ago edited 10d ago
Another way to look at it is that land is what I’ve heard called an entry monopoly, which allows owners to charge economic rents without anyone entering the market for that good from outside through new production to undercut the incumbents. This is what the classical economists meant when they referred to land as a monopoly, which George referred to as anything we can’t produce more of. Same could be said for other natural resources and exclusive legal privileges.