Summary

In Agrarian Justice, Paine sets out his plan for a more equal distribution wealth and property. He begins by discussing civilization. Although Paine believes that man is actually worse off in a civilized society, he also understands that man cannot regress from civilization to a lack of civilization, and that "The thing therefore now to be done, is, to remedy the evils, and preserve the benefits, that have arisen to society, by passing from the natural to that which is called the civilized state" (398). He then moves on to discuss some of the failings of English society. Before modern times, he argues, every property was communal and people were therefore not elevated to different social and economic classes. Now, however, with private property, part of English society is too rich for the good of the whole and part is too poor.

To correct that problem, Paine proposes the creation of a National Fund, which will pay each adult fifteen pounds per month "as a compensation in part for the loss of his or her natural inheritance by the introduction of the system of landed property" (400) and that will pay an old age pension to those over the age of fifty. Paine then goes on to describe how the government will pay for this through a system of population surveys and readjusted taxes. He justifies this fairly radical change in the property and taxation laws of England by arguing that the poor have the same right to live in a happy and healthy life as the rich, and it is the responsibility of the government to provide this for them. Instead of selfish and power-hungry governments, he writes, "The plan here proposed will reach the whole" (406).