Most people are familiar with the concept of rent - I would imagine every student on this course pays rent, or at least their parents pay it for them. For many people it is accepted as just another mildly annoying part of life, which cannot be changed - but what if it didn't have to be?
Historically, the rich have always been the landowners with the working classes paying some form of tax to the rich in order to live and/or work on the land. Under the feudal system, which was predominate in Medieval Europe, Lords (or 'Barons') owned the land whilst the peasants farmed it.
(Skip forward a few hundred years) - As the industrial revolution took place and cities full of factories sprang up, many of the working classes migrated from their land-working jobs to factory ones. The need for cheap housing near the factories increased. Employers ruthlessly exploited their workers by erecting poor, and often unsanitary, shoddily built houses. Workers often paid high rents for, at best, sub-standard housing.
"In the rush to build houses, many were constructed too quickly in terraced rows. Some of these houses had just a small yard at the rear where an outside toilet was placed. Others were 'back to back' with communal toilets. Almost as soon as they were occupied, many of these houses became slums. Most of the poorest people lived in overcrowded and inadequate housing, and some of these people lived in cellars."
Basically the idea was cram as many plebs as you can into a small space to maximise your profits, and when one of them dies of cholera it's no bother to the factory owners as there's another one eager to take his job.
The state of capitalism in the mid 19th century prompted the philosopher Karl Marx to develop theories on economics and society which are still prevalent in socialist thinking today.
Marx on landlords: Marx’s theory of rent sets out to explain that under capitalism, landed property is a source of unearned income going to the landlord by claiming a right over a portion of surplus value.
Surplus value is extracted from the working class during the productive process.
Marx was forced to give over a great deal of time to the question of rent, which he thought was of secondary importance because:
“Without this, our analysis of capital would not be complete”, (VOLUME III Chapter 37, Introduction p. 752)
Marx had little time for the rentier:
…by the palpable and complete passivity displayed by the owner, whose activity consists simply in exploiting advances in social development (particularly in the case of mines). Towards which he does not contribute and in which he risks nothing, unlike the industrial capitalist; finally, by the prevalence of a monopoly price in many cases, and particularly the most shameless exploitation of poverty (for poverty is more fruitful source for house-rent than the mines of Potosi were for Spain, the tremendous power this gives landed property when it is combined together with industrial capital in the same hands enables capital practically to exclude workers engaged in a struggle over wages from the very earth itself as their habitat. One section of society here demands a tribute from the other for the very right to live ion the earth, just as landed property in general involves the right of the proprietors to exploit the earth’s surface, the bowels of the earth, the air and thereby the maintenance and development of life (CAPITAL VOLUME III Chapter 46: Rent of Buildings, Rent of Mines. Price of Land p. 908 -909)
Marx was confronted, when he began his study on rent, with a theory of rent already developed by Adam Smith and David Ricardo.
Adam Smith on landlords: "Landlords’ right has its origin in robbery. The landlords, like all other men, love to reap where they never sowed, and demand a rent even for the natural produce of the earth."
The landlord is one of the last vestiges of feudalism still holding power in (now, even late) capitalist society. But because financial capitalism has overrun and conquered industrial capitalism, in this the era of late imperialism, the problematic and fully parasitic existence of the landlord is just another welcome tool of wealth extraction in the capitalist arsenal. It’s a particularly nasty method of wealth extraction, to boot, as evictions will frequently leave former tenants homeless and on the street, or worse. Just as the serfs in the times of feudalism had to give some fraction of their grain (or other labours) to their lords, so too do renters have to give some fraction of their income — the wealth that they produced at work during the month to their landlords, or be removed from the premises. Yes, modern landlords are literally that, lords of the land, and we still haven’t abolished this wretched vestigial feudal appendage.
The legacy of many of these poorly constructed terraces is visible today - I live in one now, for example, as do many working class and lower middle class Brits. Whilst I imagine the conditions are MUCH better than those living in them originally, there is still argument that the rent on these properties it too high for what can often be substandard housing - it's not uncommon for renters to experience damp, mould, inadequate heating, broken furniture and harassment from landlords, all whilst paying:
"more than a quarter of their monthly salary before tax on rent, official figures show, but there are wide regional variations.
They paid an average of 27% of their gross salary to their landlord in England in 2016, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) data shows.
In London, tenants spent nearly half (49%) of their salary on rent."
I am intrigued by the concept of land ownership - it is a capitalist idea which has largely been spread globally through genocide and colonialism. Many indigenous and pagan cultures worship the Earth as a God and believed in living in harmony with nature, taking only what they need for survival and nothing more. They believe that the Earth cannot be owned by humans. Here is a letter from a Native American cheif:
"Chief Seattle (more correctly known as Seathl) was a Susquamish chief who lived on the islands of the Puget Sound. As a young warrier, Chief Seattle was known for his courage, daring and leadership. He gained control of six of the local tribes and continued the friendly relations with the local whites that had been established by his father. His now famous speech was believed to have been given in December, 1854. There are several versions of his letter; the following was provided by Barefoot Bob.
Chief Seattle's Letter
"The President in Washington sends word that he wishes to buy our land. But how can you buy or sell the sky? the land? The idea is strange to us. If we do not own the freshness of the air and the sparkle of the water, how can you buy them?
Every part of the earth is sacred to my people. Every shining pine needle, every sandy shore, every mist in the dark woods, every meadow, every humming insect. All are holy in the memory and experience of my people.
We know the sap which courses through the trees as we know the blood that courses through our veins. We are part of the earth and it is part of us. The perfumed flowers are our sisters. The bear, the deer, the great eagle, these are our brothers. The rocky crests, the dew in the meadow, the body heat of the pony, and man all belong to the same family.
The shining water that moves in the streams and rivers is not just water, but the blood of our ancestors. If we sell you our land, you must remember that it is sacred. Each glossy reflection in the clear waters of the lakes tells of events and memories in the life of my people. The water's murmur is the voice of my father's father.
The rivers are our brothers. They quench our thirst. They carry our canoes and feed our children. So you must give the rivers the kindness that you would give any brother.
If we sell you our land, remember that the air is precious to us, that the air shares its spirit with all the life that it supports. The wind that gave our grandfather his first breath also received his last sigh. The wind also gives our children the spirit of life. So if we sell our land, you must keep it apart and sacred, as a place where man can go to taste the wind that is sweetened by the meadow flowers.
Will you teach your children what we have taught our children? That the earth is our mother? What befalls the earth befalls all the sons of the earth.
This we know: the earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth. All things are connected like the blood that unites us all. Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.
One thing we know: our God is also your God. The earth is precious to him and to harm the earth is to heap contempt on its creator.
Your destiny is a mystery to us. What will happen when the buffalo are all slaughtered? The wild horses tamed? What will happen when the secret corners of the forest are heavy with the scent of many men and the view of the ripe hills is blotted with talking wires? Where will the thicket be? Gone! Where will the eagle be? Gone! And what is to say goodbye to the swift pony and then hunt? The end of living and the beginning of survival.
When the last red man has vanished with this wilderness, and his memory is only the shadow of a cloud moving across the prairie, will these shores and forests still be here? Will there be any of the spirit of my people left?
We love this earth as a newborn loves its mother's heartbeat. So, if we sell you our land, love it as we have loved it. Care for it, as we have cared for it. Hold in your mind the memory of the land as it is when you receive it. Preserve the land for all children, and love it, as God loves us.
As we are part of the land, you too are part of the land. This earth is precious to us. It is also precious to you.
One thing we know - there is only one God. No man, be he Red man or White man, can be apart. We ARE all brothers after all."
on another note: "Landlords are lizards" - Melissa Wyper
The above is mostly stuff I already knew from studying Marxism and other philosophies, as well as having an interest in history. I did do a lot of fact checking as I wrote as well. I like relating my design to other interests of mine and I'm really excited to do so in this project. I have a very strong set of moral values, which of course, as I mature and continue to learn, will change; but these morals guide everything I do, including creative practice.
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