[MD] Capitalism: A Question of Morality

[Dan Glover]

Hello everyone

Quite some time ago, a man bought a farm. Let's call him "Roy". At the time, 
the farm was on a gravel road in the middle of nowhere and he paid very 
little for the property. Now though, the farm is bordered by busy highways 
and new housing developments and the land is worth (at a minimum) a hundred 
times what Roy paid. In a few years time the land will (quite possibly) be 
worth a thousand times what he paid. So even though he would make out like a 
bandit, Roy feels now is not the time to sell.

Roy is retired from farming and he rents the land out to a younger man, a 
longtime friend of the family, who plants corn and soybeans. However, the 10 
year land lease is up for renewal and Roy has been approached by a man from 
the tree nursery down the road who wants to lease the land for nursery 
operations. If this happens, the land can never be put back to crop 
production again. The soil will be ruined.

The nursery is offering Roy 3 times the rent money that he has been getting 
from the crop farmer who currently leases the land. Since farming isn't a 
rich man's game, the crop farmer cannot match the nursery dollar for dollar. 
Being on a fixed income, Roy could use the added income. And every year the 
property taxes go up. This makes the nursery offer very hard to turn down.

Still, if Roy leases the land to the nursery, he is basically committing the 
property to new housing developments at the end of the 10 year lease as that 
will be the natural progression of things (since the land will be useless as 
farm land). Once the area is built out, the tree nursery will no longer be 
needed and houses and streets will gobble up the former farm.

What is the right thing for the land? What about the farmer who now leases 
the land for crop production - isn't he entitled to some small measure of 
loyalty?

How would you advise Roy? What would the MOQ say about this?