Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by Ann Patchett

Quote by Ann Patchett

“Joe and I would move to the little house and give our house to Emily and Benny so they could have children here, children who may one day marry the children of the Otts or the Whitings nearby, weaving together an ever greater parcel, because even if a person can't work the land they have, they still want more.”

Quote by Ann Patchett

Book:Tom Lake
Create image

Work

Tom Lake

Browse quotes and source details for this work. more

Author

Ann Patchett
Ann Patchett

Ann Patchett, born on December 2, 1963, is a renowned American author. Her works are known for their profound character development and engaging storytelling, earning her numerous literary awards and the admiration of readers worldwide. more

You May Also Like

“Land ownership is an entry monopoly: Land is naturally scarce for each location since its supply can't be increased... When people buy a piece of land, their ownership gives them the right to exclude the rest of society from the benefits afforded to them by their land, even though those benefits only arise from nature and from the presence of goods and services that have been provided by that same society in the first place. Buyers pay for exclusive access rights to land and pay only to the previous landowner instead of to all the people who are now excluded from the location privileges that this one particular piece of land provides.”

Land Economics
Book:Land: A New Paradigm for a Thriving World
Create image

“In theory, capitalism is an economic system that allows people to freely trade goods and services in a competitive free market. But since the outright ownership of land creates an entry monopoly, it restricts the operation of the free market... Consequently, our current implementation of capitalism is deeply responsible for the exploitation of nature and the decline of social well-being.”

Land Economics
Book:Land: A New Paradigm for a Thriving World
Create image

“Economists Mason Gaffney and Fred Harrison claim in their work The Corruption of Economics that industrialists toward the end of the 19th century may have intentionally created and promoted a new brand of economics (neoclassical) to divert public attention from the monopolization of nature. Neoclassical economics treats nature as capital - a resource to be exploited.”

Land Economics
Book:Land: A New Paradigm for a Thriving World
Create image

“Our inability to share the gifts of nature causes much suffering in the world today... We mistakenly believe that a free market should allow people and corporations to profit from nature, yet we've failed to consider the immense cost to life that occurs whenever people are allowed to reap what they haven't sown at the expense of others. While the privatization of capital can lead to production efficiencies that benefit the entire market, the same can't be said for privatization of nature. Whenever the income stream from nature is privatized, human beings take for themselves the gifts that would better be freely shared with everyone.”

Land Economics
Book:Land: A New Paradigm for a Thriving World
Create image

“We may wonder how the ability to profit from land fosters social dysfunction, but once we realize the extent to which community wealth is privatized for personal gain, we also come to realize just how corrupt most societies actually are. Many social problems exist as a result of how our system misallocates wealth, not as a result of an unalterable human condition.”

Land Economics
Book:Land: A New Paradigm for a Thriving World
Create image

“It's important to distinguish the value of raw land from the value of improvements made to land. Land values are socially generated and belong to the communities that have created them. The irony is that while improvements such as buildings don't affect the underlying value of the land upon which they are located, they do have the ability to indirectly affect the properties that surround them.”

Land Economics
Book:Land: A New Paradigm for a Thriving World
Create image

“Since people can only be paid for their goods and services or extract rent from society, less income is available to service the payment of goods and services when proportionally more income is used to pay monopolized rent for land. Essentially, whenever property owners collect rent from rising land values, fewer financial resources are left over for wages and capital investments, and this dynamic can effectively put society on the fast track toward social decline and wealth inequality.”

Land Economics
Book:Land: A New Paradigm for a Thriving World
Create image

“The ability of individuals to extract wealth from society by profiting from land also leads to cultural degeneration and a loss of social cohesion over time... In general, as the value of land increases, the return on capital tends to decrease comparatively, which discourages business owners from investing in capital goods and private enterprise... Resources flow away from endeavours that can create jobs, produce wealth, and enliven society, and instead flow into land speculation.”

Land Economics
Book:Land: A New Paradigm for a Thriving World
Create image