Economic Justice and Agrarian Reform

Where it surfaces

• Appendix

  Paine proposes using the sale of back lands to sink public debt and support government expenses, linking economic policy to independence.

• The Decline and Fall of the English System of Finance

  Paine argues that the funding system oppresses the present generation by forcing them to pay for past debts, and contrasts it with nature's principle of succession.

• Agrarian Justice

  Paine proposes a system of ground-rent to redistribute wealth from landowners to the landless, ensuring a basic level of economic security for all.

• Editor’s Introduction

  Paine's pamphlet proposes taxing inheritances of land to address poverty, contrasting with Babeuf's socialist agrarian law.

• Author's Inscription

  The essay focuses on equality of natural property and the need to address economic disparities through land rights.

• Author's English Preface

  Paine directly challenges the notion that God ordained poverty and wealth, arguing for equal inheritance of the earth.

• Agrarian Justice

  Paine argues that landed property has dispossessed the majority of their natural inheritance and proposes a ground-rent and inheritance tax to remedy this injustice.

• Means by Which the Fund Is to Be Created

  Paine proposes a fund to compensate for the loss of natural inheritance due to landed property, aiming to prevent poverty and redistribute resources through a progressive inheritance tax.

• Means for Carrying the Proposed Plan Into Execution, and to Render It at the Same Time Conducive to the Public Interest

  Paine's plan for a 10% inheritance tax to fund pensions and youth compensations aims to redistribute wealth and support the public good.