Long before you and I were born, our natural birthright to a share of the earth's land and resources had been taken away from us. When we arrived, all of the "natural kingdom" already belonged to someone else. We were taught that if we wanted a share of it we would have to work to earn the money to buy it.
All other living things on this planet inherit a piece of the natural kingdom at birth. Birds and animals are free to go anywhere to occupy the land they need to live. They have an unrestricted right to hunt, fish or graze anywhere they please. No other species on earth enslaves it's own kind and forces them to "earn a living".
How did society get this way? Why did we allow it to happen... and why do we continue to accept this disrespect and corruption?
If you trace the transfers of land all the way back to the beginning, you find that initially the right to "own" land was bestowed upon people. The authority of the party which bestowed the land was established through battle. The victors of the battle simply claimed dominion over all of the lands of the defeated. In other words they stole the land, not just from the defeated, but from the commonwealth of nature as well. The victors simply granted themselves the exclusive right to own and control huge sections of the natural kingdom.
Once acquired through conquest, the victors proceeded to bestow the land and natural resources to whomever they chose, by whatever means they preferred. Land titles and resource rights were both gifted and sold throughout history. Recipients acquired privileges and advantages that enabled them to prosper from this theft of the commonwealth.
It is hard to understand why we continue to accept this scandalous history of wealth expropriation. Although the history we were taught legitimizes the victors right to claim the land and resources of the conquered, it completely ignores the larger ethical transgression of confiscating the natural commonwealth. Our ancestors had no right to claim an exclusive ownership of any part of the natural kingdom. They didn't create the land or natural resources so they had no legitimate right to own or bestow them. The entire historical progression of land divisions and transfers is corrupt because the original "owners" stole the properties from the natural commonwealth.
Perhaps we continue to accept the robbery because there is no apparent alternative. "That's just the way it is, and there is nothing you can do about it". No one seems to be interested enough or willing to organize a public challenge. Too many people would be against the idea of losing the ownership rights to their land. Maybe we can't turn back the hands of time, but we certainly could compensate people for the land and natural resources that were stolen from them. We could compensate them for making it impossible to live as freely as every other living thing on earth.
This is one of the best reasons to provide people with a basic income, to compensate them for their share of the natural kingdom that was taken away from them and priced into the marketplace. If they must now buy their legitimate share back then they have the right to demand the money that is necessary to do so.
A basic income could also be used to recognize the value of all the unpaid contributions that people make to society. Raising families, caring for loved ones, maintaining friendships, all have enormous social value. Click here to see how a fair income system would work.
