This is one book that will remain on my shelf since I find the facts so fascinating. Who Owns the World is full of interesting research and would be invaluable if you wanted to purchase land in another country.
I also enjoyed reading about how each state in the US is broken down by ownership. View 2 comments. Feb 22, Debbie rated it liked it Shelves: non-fiction.
I found the actual statistics very interesting. I've heard things like "China is terribly crowded" but now I know how it compares to other countries in terms of population in urban areas versus rural areas and so on. I wasn't very impressed with Part One, which was only 52 pages long. The author's premise was that poverty can be wiped out if everyone in the world was given ownership of ev "Who Owns the World" was mainly a statistical reference book, though definitely one with an agenda behind it.
The author's premise was that poverty can be wiped out if everyone in the world was given ownership of even a small piece of land. He then shows how rich people who, ironically, made their riches from ideas and businesses own a lot of land. The problem is that not every piece of land is created equal.
Giving someone a remote bit of wasteland wouldn't be helpful. Not to mention that I've known a millionaire who owned an old house on a small bit of urban property as in, he didn't own a lot of land , poor people including farmers who owned land, and poor people who inherited land and sold it for quick money which they promptly wasted or had to sell it due to debts.
Land ownership doesn't automatically lead to riches. Another problem I had with Part One was that he tended to compare apples to oranges to pears. I realize the difficulty he had in getting precise numbers, and I appreciate that he did usually state what, precisely, he was including in his numbers. However, he had a whole section comparing monarchs to each other with some numbers being what the monarch owned privately plus what the government owned "in their name," others with only government-owned lands credited to them, and others credited with all of the land they ruled over whether they technically own it or not.
The various religions were also compared as to total wealth based on the value of the land containing churches, religious hospitals, etc. A religion can't own land, only people, so I didn't get what the comparison was supposed to prove. I found Part Two very interesting though I was still occasionally exasperated by comments the author made.
For example, he says land in America is too expensive, then lists the sale prices of the most expensive mansions in the USA to 'prove' his point. Um, land is pretty cheap. Even land with a house can be reasonable.
We don't all have to own lavish mansions, you know. Part Two covered the statistics on United States in detail, state by state, and then gave the statistics for each country in the world. The statistics for the states included: population, population of the capital, size in acres, acres per person, number of houses, houses owned, houses rented, and acres of developed land. The statistics for countries included: population, size in acres, population, acres per person, GNI, World Bank ranking, and percentage urban population.
It would have been helpful to have some graphs for each state or country to put everything in perspective, but the information was still interesting. The book was easy to read. If you like statistical comparison books and are interested in this topic, then you'll probably enjoy this book. This book was a free review copy sent to me by the publisher. Mar 12, Ed rated it really liked it. Not so much liked it but fascinated by the idea that the Queen of England still legally owns one sixth of the world's land surface and that so much other feudal holdover owns the rest.
So you can look up every country in the world and each US state and get the basic land ownership pattern. The basis for much long term deep seated unearned wealth inequality. Worth a scan even if you don't read it. Jun 13, Heather Pearson rated it really liked it.
I have found this a hard book to review. Its not your typical book with pages of prose that you can read along. That part of the book comprises about 60 pages. The balance is charts and table of statistics which are not meant to be read in one sitting, rather to be re-visited frequently or when you hear about a country in a book, on a show or in the news. You can pick up this book and quickly learn more about it. I have been telling my family and friends about this book over the past months and t I have found this a hard book to review.
I have been telling my family and friends about this book over the past months and they have found the basics are rather eye opening. Who holds this land is what keeps it from being owned in a more balanced fashion. Queen Elizabeth is the world's largest land owner.
She owns all the lands of the Commonwealth, 9, million acres, of which approximately 6, million acres have her name as sole owner This essentially means that if the Queen wants the land on which my house sits, she can take it. The Pope rules over all the land owned by the Catholic church, some million acres world wide. With that much wealth, why are churches in Ontario allowed a tax free status? The current regime knows that between BC and AD Chinese peasant farmers revolted on 2, occasions to overthrow the regime on 48 occasions.
The current regime is moving to head off a peasant revolt by doling out land. Now it is rare to find a ruling elite any- where in history which is so busily sowing the seeds of its own elimination but at the same time willing to put prosperity before both its own survival and the good of its people.
Socialism as tried in China did not work. So now there is state communist- controlled market capitalism. But the end of that road is multiparty democracy and the rulers of China know this.
To give them a better idea of where we came from, why we are where we are, and how we can get to a better place. Share this: Twitter Facebook. Published by markmetcalf Leave a Reply Cancel reply Enter your comment here Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:. Email required Address never made public. Name required. Help Centre. Track My Order. Enter postcode to estimate delivery. Enter your Delivery Location Enter your postcode to estimate the delivery times of products you are viewing.
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