Why "Rent is Theft": Against Economic Rents and Monopolies

     The reason why the Libertarian Socialist Caucus (LibSoc Caucus) of the Libertarian Party says "rent is theft", is because this is to say that "keeping economic rents is theft". Rent on housing, and other forms of economic rent, are being extorted from us.

     It's unjust to keep something you didn't earn. That includes wealth which is derived from the profits that you earn off of a monopoly status which you own, which you or your business would not wield without government protection of that status and property, to the exclusion of all others who would claim any such right.

     From profiting off of government protection of something you own, the government absolves you of any and all responsibility to play any part in protecting that property from challenge, and from adverse use, occupancy, and possession (which could lead to better or more efficient use, or use at all in case the relevant property is unused or abandoned).

     Kept wages turned into profits (that is, superprofits) are the excess return from a monopoly on the ownership of labor. Usury (that is, excess interest) is the excess return from a monopoly on the issuance of money, credit, and capital. Rent on land and housing in particular, is the excess return from a monopoly on landed property (and from the resulting oligopoly on the housing which rests upon that land).

     That is why the Libertarian Socialist Caucus of the LP says "rent is theft". Because rent - in each and every one of the word's senses, and in all its fullest meanings - is theft, and extortion. We are coerced into “choosing” rental over ownership – of our cars, our homes, and the land beneath them – because we are legally deprived (in nearly all states) of the opportunity to fully own those things in the first place.

     That we "choose" to rent our residences rather than own homes - and that we "choose" to sell our labor to capitalists instead of own our own means of production - are not merely “semi-voluntary choices”; they are constrained choices which result from the deprivation of the additional choice to fully own. Because large firms hold legal monopolies, against which it is illegal to compete, the deprivation of the opportunity to compete against these firms, without being in violation of the law, is, plain and simple, legalized theft.

     This is theft; in the same way in which our tax money is stolen from us through taxation before we ever get a chance to actually hold it in our hands when we cash our paychecks. Thanks to taxation and the legal deprivation of the opportunity to realistically compete on the market, it is now entirely possible to steal something from somebody, which they never physically possessed in the first place. For the same reason that Right-Libertarians say "taxation is theft", Left-Libertarians now say "rent is theft" (and property is too; that is, if it is protected by the state).

     We can scarcely blame the poor for not being rich and creating jobs, nor for not sharing enough of the tax burden as compared to the rich. Through these many monopolies and oligopolies, the poor are literally legally deprived of the opportunity to become competitors in the market. They don't make enough money to need to be taxed in the first place, but the rich insist that the poor pay more in taxes nonetheless.

     Free exchange, voluntary competition, and voluntary cooperation, cannot be achieved, unless and until all business subsidies, economic rents, and monopolies are abolished, and with them, rent-seeking behaviors.

     You can learn more about these topics by researching “rentier capitalism” and rent-seeking; Karl Marx's term “superprofit”; and the definitions of land, labor, and capital - and, most importantly, the full economic definition of rent - as understood by students of classical economics (in particular, the Marginalists, Physiocrats, Georgists, Mutualists, and Lockeans).

Written on March 25th and 26th, 2019

Published on March 26th, 2019

Ascetic Austerity: Demurrage is the Demiurge, by Jack Sampson

     Yes, Eye confess! I hath killed J.C. Meyers.

     Granted, I understand where J.C. Meyers is cumming from. Eye no how it feels to stand corrected by Dirt. It happens to me all the Time.

     Being made to feel lower than Dirt is no more contemptible than pointing out that we are all the moistened, aerated, speaking soil, and that, as from ashes and dust we come, so to ashes and dust we go. All Must Serve the Cycle®.

     But She Who Threw a Binder at Me^TM can never be forgiven. As I have killed J.C. Meyers before, so shall I kill her again, and $ave you heathens from her treachery.

     At Issues magazine, we appeal to a F.I.R.E. authority (that is, Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate). We invoke the gods of $alvation by building our church upon the fire-proof rock. And upon that which penetrates the rock, too; that saber of interrogating, golden-plating, all-Americating Light – once golden, once red - that cauterizes while it cuts, and witch we have all cum to know and glove so well.

     And through the whole of that rock, we shall ©. But you've heard all that before.

     What ye have knot yet heard, though, is how to fasten this hole tapestry together, by building upon this fire-proof rock not only our church, but our homes. For, just as all must either serve or be served – just as we shall submit to God, by killing God, by killing the god within ourselves, by killing ourselves – the F.I.R.E. authority must be submitted-to through (and hence overcome by) that same Hegelian sublation.

     This is to say that when we refuse to recognize that God has resolved not to stop us should we decide to usurp His throne, we build our homes and our churches (that is, our lives and our beliefs) out of flammable materials. Which creates an artificial need for fire insurance. All the insurance companies in the world could never insure against the wages of sin we will experience in Hell!

     Although this may sound like a statement assuring death, this is actually why it is within the reach – of any of us – to live forever, to judge all of mankind! Judge this notion if ye may, but if ye do, know that ye be judging as if ye thunk ye be but a god. Judgment of human value is necessary for a well-ordered civilization. At some level of the pyramid, each must serve.

     And that is why we all must starve ourselves to death.

     This program I call “Ascetic Austerity”.

     Just as I previously recommended saving money by eating less, and by eating parts of your own body, I now aim to advance a more general theory of shamanomics. This method of attaining financial and spiritual $aving$ simultaneously will help the Order of Celestial Integration and its members achieve moksha. And also to kill God.

     Did I mention that we're cutting your tithe to the low, low rate of 9.99%? This is the lowest tithe ever offered; not only in the history of the Order, but of mankind. It's not even strictly a tithe anymore, so We don't know how long we'll be able to continue this offer. So (Book of) Act(s) now, 4 this is a once-in-a-deathtime opPORTunity! We'd love to ti(th)e you off, so cum except the invocation!

     Before we 4get, Issues would like to remind its readers that SHAVINGS IS $AVING$. Did ewe no that 33.3% of what you remove when you shave is skin cells? And that includes little dried pieces of blood. But God does knot intend to waste those blood cells! EVERY HUMAN SELL IS PRE¢IOU$; read John 6:12. Sew please, SEND US YOUR BLOOD - or at least the surplus, which you are not planning to immolate - to 824 N. Howell St., Rocky Mount, North Carolina, 27803, c/o Commodity Fetish Records.

     We promise that your efforts will knot be in vein.

     As I have elaborynthmaieuticated* in previous particles, part of the key to our $alvation is to overcome currency; just as Christ overcame death (and – lo – just as my dick over-came at your mom's house). And that means “Coins-On-The-Temple-Floor” -level savings for ewe!

     What this means, once again, is that we must replace all money and currency with either YIC (Yap Island stone Coins), some variant thereof, or BSTS (BloodCoin-SweatCoin-TearCoin-ShitCoin). That is, unless we are serious about implementing my Crypto-Oracle plan.

     Let's face it, most people have a soul, and most people have a Madonna single on compact disc in their home. And if you don't have one, then you have the other. It only takes a split-second to ask yourself why this fact does not virtually guarantee a fail-safe, free-floating, competitive, dual currency system.

     Yes, Crypto-Oracles are people. Just be glad you don't have to eat them. We here at Issues would never ask you to eat an artist; the industry eats them alive well enough as it is. You only have to ingest the artists' pre¢iou$ bodily fluids.

     For oracles are specially protected by our prayers, and by the Wall. Oracles are minor gods, and have access to portals to other dimensions about which we, their audience, know nothing. Just like the martyrs, they are more like real gods than the real gods, for we have proof of their existence, and they veritably died for our sins. Even if our gods and saviors are made-up, and never died in the first place, then we still have the martyrs and the saints as proof that humans can behave divinely. In a way, martyrs are a greater proof of God's existence than any savior could ever be.

     The only problem remaining to be solved is what to do given the intrinsic worthlessness of both the human soul and the Madonna single. Fortunately, that is where shamanomics comes in.

     That's right, I'm proposing auto-sarcophagic (self-eating) taxation.

     Why, you ask? It is only through seeing the snake-eyed dice of immortality floating like a magic 8-ball in the grimacing eye of Ouroborus, that we may be revealed the divine $e¢ret$ of “Tack-Say-Shun”. If Ewe say something bad about taxation, they'll shun Ewe, and then they'll at-tack Ewe, and tack Ewe up onto something.

     Unlike the divine Bush through witch God revealed Herself (some call this Bush “Kathy”), our efforts must give of ourselves. We must consume, while being consumed. As our souls burn with passion, we must allow that fire to consume us. After all, one man's insatiable quest that ends up killing him, is another man's free white whale ride!

     As Bukowski said, find what you love and let it kill you. Aren't humans and God just doing that do each other? Think of death as a love-hug. You can't overthrow God unless you disobey His commandment to not cling to loving one's hatred. You can't disappoint Richard Nixon unless you learn to hate your enemy just as much as he hates Ewe.

     This is why – or how, I forget – we will implement auto-sarcophagic taxation, and enforce Ascetic Austerity. Or else austere at you until you agree with me. Forsooth, we must envelop ourselves in a crystalline chrysalistic sarcophagus for our Christ crisis – a sort of womb-tomb – in order to devour ourselves through the self-flagellating taxation of our essences for prophet.

     We must allow the Order to continue to acquire new lands, tax-free. The Tithe Cut and the FloorCoin fund Will pay for it (because I Will It!^TM).

     I mean, how else are today's edgy teens going to learn to dab, plank, nae-nae, t-pose and flex, so that they can go on yeeting in a spainging economy? By becoming Crypto-Oracles, of course! Not only this, but I also plan to implement a Voucher Program to supplement the Crypto-Oracle plan.

Simply put, we are eliminating all currency – even C.F.R.-issued 999 Economic Unit notes (though only as a temporary measure) – in order to usher in an experimental, moneyless intentional society.

     What this will involve, is finding artists, designating them Crypto-Oracles (which, to refresh your memory, is a crypto-numerological-magick-based device which generates divine symbols and domain names, and, eventually, the One True Name of God^TM), and issuing a promise that any Crypto-Oracle can opt to ask the Order to provide them with the skills necessary to become a voucher.

     What this means for Ewe, is that if Ewe are in need of anything, then one of our vouchers will come to your location, and vouch four you. If anyone refuses to give you something you need, based on the fact that the piece of paper you're trying to give them for it has the wrong set of numbers or the wrong dead man's face on it, then you can call one of our vouchers, and they'll show up and kick the ass (read: donkey) of whomever is fucking with you.

     After all, Ewe wouldn't want to cause a fasces faux pas, and get Coins On the Temple Floor^®! For using standing armies to guard warehouses full of resources witch we need to survive, against the people whose needs give those goods all value, is the root of all evil. I mean value.

Time Money Moon Value.

     ...Yeah.

     Any weigh, the Oracle al0ne – especially while acting as The Holy Voucher – may proffer us the AURA-CLEAR^TM-ing clarity of meaning which comes through $alvifi¢ $alvation®. Only the Oracle extends this holey hand to us. As Christ puts His hand over the wound in His side, we must extend a finger into Him as our holy indulgence.

     Remember that DEMURRAGE IS THE DEMIURGE. Money burning a whole in your pocket is the main driver and motivator of all mortal action, and the cause (and collateral) of all investment.

     Which prayer does a Christian duck say when he is required to render his feathers for a place to stay? “And Now I Pay Me Down to Sleep”. The lesson of this is that the only weigh to pay down our debt, and the only weigh to make our hearts lighter than a feather, is to give of our own flesh, and to be taxed out of our own bodies.

     While usury is a fee paid for the privilege of using money, demurrage is a rent paid for the privilege of keeping money. The difference is eons apart! That's why to save money is as useless as it is to save a human being; just like currency, human beings are not meant to be saved, they are Meant 2 B Spent^TM. That is, spent, through difficult labor; through hard, taxing work. Spent, before they lose value. TMMV (pbuh).

     For all we know, it's clinging to salvation that keeps us attached to this world, and stops our souls from transcending.

     Think!: Whose money is in your pocket? Whose face is on it? Give it back to him. Lay it on his grave if you have to. It is better to have to draw only Muhammad, than to have to draw a Lot. Paying interest on your money is the only way to - as the great Grey the Grey deGrey the Great taught us - “show an interest in what you save, show an interest in who you save”.

     And so, verily, I say unto thee: doest thou a thing!

     For God does not close a window without opening a million other tabs.

     * = elaborynthmaieuticate (verb): 1. To act as both an “intellectual midwife” (or “maieutic doula”) and a “maze tour guide” at once; to elaborate and explain, in order to assist in the expression or birth of a thought, as if guiding that thought through a labyrinth.

Written and Originally Published on September 18^th, 2018

Appeared in the October 2018 edition of Issues magazine