Spencer Heath
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Please help Wikipedia by adding references. See the talk page for details.
Spencer Heath is an anarcho-capitalist and Georgist dissenter, who outlined his philosophy in his book Citadel, Market and Altar. Heath's grandson, Spencer H. MacCallum, popularized and expounded on the idea in his book The Art of Community.
In the September 15, 1970 issue of The Libertarian Forum, Vol. II #18, Murray Rothbard wrote:
| The Heathian goal is to have cities and large land areas owned by single private corporations, which would own and rent out the land and housing over the area, and provide all conceivable "public services": police, fire, roads, courts, etc., out of the voluntarily-paid rent. Heathianism is Henry Georgism stood on its head; like George, Heath and MacCallum would provide for all public services out of rent; but unlike George, the rent would be collected, and the land owned, by private corporate landlords rather than by the government, and the payment therefore voluntary rather than coercive. The Heathian 'proprietary community' is, of course, in stark contrast to the scruffy egalitarian commune dreamed of by anarchists of the Left. |
The model for Heathian anarchism is multi-tenant properties such as hotels, shopping centers, industrial parks, and apartment buildings. Multi-tenant properties are the opposite of traditional real-estate developments; the developers would lease the homes rather than sell them, and thus be responsible for providing community services to maintain rental income and land value.
Heathian anarchism has been the model for "new country" projects such as "The Atlantis Project." While most anarcho-capitalist "retreatists" envision a Galt's Gulch scenerio, Heathians suggest that the most practical way to create a libertarian enclave may be using leasehold rather than freehold. They point out that private single-family housing is historically quite new, and see an evolutionary trend toward the leasehold type of ownership. The term "multi-tenant income property" and the very existence of shopping malls is a phenomena of the last 50 years. Heathians generally believe that the multi-tenant property approach will, over time, evolve to take over traditional public services such as water, sewer, and street maintenance from municipal governments. They see the Heathian landlord as protecting the individual from two different sources of aggression: criminals and governments. Land-holding firms would compete on how well they can protect their tenants from crime and taxation, a distinct improvement over monopoly government.
Heathian anarchism differs from the standard anarcho-capitalist PDA (private defense association) model. The latter envisions competing security agencies in the same geographical area rather than a proprietary zone.
[edit] References
- Citadel, Market, and Altar, by Spencer Heath, published by the Science of Society Foundation, Baltimore, 1957
- Private property in land explained: Some new light on the social order and its mode of operation, by Spencer Heath, published by The Freeman, 1939, ASIN: B0008BV2JE
- Private property in land explained: Some new light on the social order and its mode of operation, by Spencer Heath, published by The Freeman, 1952, ASIN: B0007FFNX2
- Politics versus proprietorship;: A fragmentary study of social and economic phenomena with particular reference to the public administrative functions ... proprietorship as a creative social agency, by Spencer Heath, published by The Freeman, 1936, ASIN: B0008C4IDU
- The Art of Community, by Spencer Heath McCallum, published by the Institute for Humane Studies, 1970, ASIN: B0006D03R6
