home and local food

Kevin Cahill, from his lecture at RSA, ‘Who Owns the World?’ on 28 June 2006

‘[F]or the 10,000 years of recorded history from 8000 BC in Mesopotamia ‘til approximately 1900 1% was about all who owned anything and the other 99% nothing. Now around 1900 and may I vary that date because when did home ownership start? Was it in America in 1776 or in Europe around 1900? You can’t put a fine date on it but around 1900 home ownership started in places like the United Kingdom. By 1911 10% of homes in the United Kingdom were privately owned. But don’t forget the other figure which people don’t talk about, 90% weren’t. Now currently 70% of all domestic dwellings in the United Kingdom are privately held because we’ve got something to come to. Sorry what I was trying to get at, the change is dramatic. From 1% constant for 9,800 years that we know of 1% own everything, 99% own nothing. Now there’s a difference; 15% of the planetary population have a stake in land. Now there’s something else as well, 15% of the planetary population is prosperous, the same 15%.’

The entire Cahill lecture is worth a read or a listen.

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