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LIBERTARIANISM, the ideology of an avant-garde of men and women disenchanted with the state, is based, as its name suggests, on liberty and also, quite importantly, on its integration with justice.

Justice is equality of opportunity. Liberty is the freedom to act, as long as one does not interfere with the right of others also to act. The union of these two metaphysical abstractions gives rise to a significant principle: men are free to act; they must have equal access to all the available opportunities of the earth.

Georgism recognizes that all men have equal rights to any and all of the opportunities of the earth in order that they may develop their faculties -- intellectual, artistic, and moral -- to the optimum degree they desire. In other words, Georgism advocates the individual's freedom to act, so as to avail himself of the opportunities of the earth, always, of course, with due regard to the right of others also so to act.

Thus, Georgism could be considered synonymous with present-day libertarianism except for one essential fact: Libertarian thought, if carried to its logical conclusion, implies the establishment of a stateless society. Contemporary libertarianism, thus, is philosophical anarchism. It is the anarchism of an orderly society of rational beings cooperating freely with one another without the restraining hand or an authoritative power enjoying a monopoly of coercion.

However, there is an important difference between libertarianism and old-fashioned anarchism. Most anarchists' understanding of economics was so deficient that many weird heroics were evolved on monetary and property relationships. With the exception of such individualistic anarchists as Max Stirner, the orientation primarily appeared to be socialistic, in line with Pierre Proudhon's famous declaration: "Property is theft."

Libertarianism, on the other hand, is based on the free and untrammeled marketplace. The private ownership of land and capital is the key economic element, with private individual action in all fields of human endeavor emphasized. The apologia that the state is required for the protection of life and property, the construction of roads and highways, and the adjudication of disputes, is dismissed out of hand. All such activities can be, and today, in one degree or another, are being supplied by private enterprise, and much more efficiently and with less cost.

Essentially, it is probably not unfair to argue that libertarianism envisages a society in which the state is abolished. In this society all activities are carried on by private individuals in a free and open marketplace wherein everything is private property with the single exception of man himself.

The fatal flaw in libertarian thought is not in the unabashed substitution of private enterprise for all the activities assumed to be functions of the state. Rather, it is in its defense of private property in land.

Libertarianism will always be found in the forefront, in its denial of the institution of private property in men; i.e., slavery. Unfortunately, however, libertarians have forgotten, or do not appreciate, the distinction between land and capital. Capital is produced by men. If they do not have any incentive to produce capital, it will not be produced. If their ownership of it (and their right to do with it as they please -- lease, exchange, lend, or even destroy it) is not recognized, then it will not be produced voluntarily.

Land, that is, the entire universe outside of man and his products, cannot be produced. It was here before man first strode on the surface of the globe, and it will be here after man finally disappears into the nothingness of oblivion. Land represents opportunity. Man is born naked with but the ability to use his mental and physical capacities. But that capacity to act requires something, and this is land. Land represents opportunity.

It must never be forgotten, however, that the opportunities of land are unequal. One portion contains enough gold to make men's eyes gleam with unholy avarice. Another portion is of such inferior quality as to require backbreaking labor to produce anything of worth to men.

If equality of opportunity, i.e., if justice is to be maintained, the question arises: Who shall have access to the gold mine, who to the interior land? Two men cannot occupy the same place at the same time. One must have the better opportunity, though he is no more entitled to it than the other. It is simply physically impossible for both to apply their talents to the same opportunity at the same time.

When men confront this problem and seek to solve it, they begin dimly to perceive why anarchists are in error in seeking the abolition of the state. The state is not necessary for protection of life and property and the panoply of functions ordinarily ascribed to it. However, some government is necessary justly to allocate the unequal opportunities of the land among the equal claimants to it.

Georgist philosophy solves this problem for modern society. Land is indeed the common property of all humanity. As such, it can be allocated among all equal claimants to it with justice by that objectivity which we call government. Land must be leased at auction, with the proceeds being disbursed among all the members on a per capita basis. Since all would have an equal opportunity to bid and willingly forego their claims to the highest bidder, justice would be maintained.

This is not to assert that the anarchists, or their philosophical descendants, the libertarians, are in error in their distrust of the state. Georgists merely recognize the physical and moral dilemma which has perplexed man down through the ages, that men cannot act together collectively and still maintain justice if the number of men is too large or the extent of land too great.

Government must be barely above the family level, probably on the order of the New England Town Hall Governments. The land area and the number of people involved must be small enough so that all members of the community know the land and one another.

The libertarian ideology thus requires that it be corrected to recognize that not only man but land cannot justly be private properly. While government can never be abolished, it must be on the lowest possible level. Such an amended version may some day be recognized as true libertarianism. This is Georgism. Therefore, true libertarianism is Georgism.