# II: The True Remedy explained — Progress and Poverty

> Chapter companion for Progress and Poverty by Henry George.

## What happens

This chapter argues that the only true remedy for the unequal distribution of wealth and the persistence of poverty amid progress is the abolition of private property in land and the establishment of common ownership. It asserts that all other proposed remedies are inefficacious, and that making land common property is both just and practicable, consistent with social development and economic harmonies.

## Themes in this chapter

### Land Ownership and Rent

The chapter identifies private property in land as the fundamental cause of unequal wealth distribution and proposes common ownership as the remedy.

### Distribution of Wealth

The chapter focuses on the unjust and unequal distribution of wealth in modern civilization and argues that only making land common property can correct it.

### The Single Tax on Land Values

Although not named explicitly, the remedy of making land common property is the foundation for the single tax proposal developed later in the work.

## Character check-ins

### Unknown

The narrator presents the logical conclusion that private property in land is the root cause of inequality and advocates for common ownership as the sole remedy.

## Key lines

> There is but one way to remove an evil—and that is, to remove its cause.

The only effective method to eliminate a problem is to address its root cause.

_This principle underlies the chapter's argument that abolishing private land ownership is the sole remedy for poverty._

> We are made for cooperation—like feet, like hands, like eyelids, like the rows of the upper and lower teeth.

Human beings are naturally designed to work together, just as body parts function in harmony.

_The narrator quotes the Stoic Emperor Marcus Aurelius to support the idea that social cooperation and equality are in accord with natural laws._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/progress_and_poverty_se/chapters/ii-the-true-remedy
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/progress_and_poverty_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/progress_and_poverty_se/chapters