We witnessed yesterday the Russian thug Prigozhin’s turn-about in directing his Wagner mercenary group of back into Russia from Ukraine and taking the strategic city of Rostov. He’s now followed up by turned his troops around some 200 kilometers from Moscow.

Like all land-grabs, Russia’s incursion into Ukraine has been murderous and devastating, but the Wagner Group has generated instability in Russia itself.

(We may expect western media to become fascinated with the personalities, tactics, and the import of this for the world, but not the driving force of land-grabbing.)

Meanwhile back in Australia, a more subtle land-grab continues to take place: the pricing of land out of the reach of many people. This situation, too, is creating national socio-economic instability and must also end badly.

Tom Paine and Henry George both wrote extensively about how the privatisation of land ‘ownership’ generates political instability which tends always to end in economic depressions and war.

The world pays an enormous penalty by not paying the rent of land (instead of taxes) to reconcile humanity with peace and the planet.