Arable Land Entitlement

earth shareholding, the Human Birthright

When a Human is born, there is every reason to consider that he or she should have a natural entitlement to the wherewithal to stay alive. In modern times, enough acreage for “hunting and gathering” seems no longer practicable. Which leaves agriculture.

Conceivably, every Human should have the basic human right to grow his or her own food. In the absence of this fall back option, every Human is effectively forced into reliance on other Humans for sources of income with which to purchase food. This might be in the form of employment or it might be in the form of charity. Either way, it is a trap from which there is little opportunity to escape.

Humans who cannot access this rightful entitlement should be compensated.

Global Land Area

In terms of global land area, the World Bank reported, in 2010, that about 37.7 percent of the world's total land area was considered agricultural land, while approximately 10.6 percent was considered arable.

Wikipedia reckons that of the earth's 57 million square miles (148,000,000 km²) of land, approximately 12 million square miles (31,000,000 km²) are arable. (However, it is worth noting that arable land is being lost at the rate of over 100,000 km² (38,610 square miles) per year.)

Global population

As of March 2019, according to the most recent United Nations estimates produced by Worldometers, current world population stands at 7.7 billion.

The table below shows that if the all the land were equally distributed, each Human would be entitled to 0.019 km2 (4.69 acres). If all the arable land were equally distributed, each Human would be entitled to 0.004 km2 (0.988 acres) of arable land.

World Population vs World GDP

As mentioned above, current world population stands at 7.7 billion.

In 2014, according to the CIA's World Factbook, the global GDP stood at around US$78.28 trillion.

The table below shows that if the World GDP were equally distributed, each km2 would be worth $528,919 annually. Likewise If the World GDP were equally distributed, each km2 of arable land would be worth $2,525,161 annually.

Accordingly, if land was divided equally among Humans, the individual entitlement would be 0.019 km² (4.695 acres) of total land, or 0.004 km² (0.988 acres) of arable land. It follows therefore that all Humans not in possession of their rightful land should be entitled to the cash equivalent - ie $10,147.02 per annum.

Where Humans are deprived of the right to till their own 1 to 4 acres of the world’s land, they should be compensated, annually, by this amount.

The total land area of the UK amounts to about 240 thousand km², with about 25% (60 thousand km²) of that being arable.

The table below shows that if the all the UK land were equally distributed, each Citizen would be entitled to 0.004 km2 (0.988 acres). If all the UK arable land were equally distributed, each Citizen would be entitled to 0.001 km2 (0.247 acres) of arable land.

The current UK GDP stands at US$2.622 trillion (2017), with the population at 66.04 million.

Applying the same calculations as above, we find that each of these broken down to the “entitlement” land sizes indicate an annual value of $39,487.95 or £30,114.50.

Where UK citizens are deprived of the right to till their own 0.988 to 0.247 acres of the UK’s land, they should be compensated, annually, by this amount.

As mentioned above, these are crude reckonings, but we look forward to hearing suggestions for better ways of performing these calculations. Please feel free to suggest in the comments section below.

Well, it would seem logical that those with more than their fair allocation of the planet's land should pay those without their fair allocation. The charge on those with more should be the difference between their entitled allocation and their actual allocation.