No
My issue lies not with the immutable fact that all wealth is derived from physical property, for the rest is a thot upon your head. No, no no my issue with a land value tax is that until land value can accurately be assessed by market powers, it remains a levy of violence for which central authorities will, can, and are incentivized to abuse.
Opening all land up to the market as to determine it’s taxable value is the only way to decentralize assessment.
Example
Jake owns an apple orchard next to Jon’s wheat farm. Both are of equal size and the value of each has been determined equal. Jake has been making a killing selling apples and has a supreme profit, if he wished to expand his land he would need to purchase a third of Jon’s, the third bordering his property. Jon refuses to sell. That’s the end of it, for whatever reason Jon has decided that the production and potential supply of apples will be limited. Jon is sovereign over his farm and the choices made therein, it is his right.
But it is not a natural right bestowed by god that man should possess anything. Georgist acknowledge that Jon’s land belongs to the community and his participation in such community is not wholly a voluntary agreement. He supplies wheat and collects fiat to pay his tax bill, least he lose his farm to the violence of the state. But it is his right to deny Jake’s dreams of expansion. It is his right to deny balance between the supply and demand curve, by producing more wheat than the market optimally demands and denying it from a greater supply of apples.
Jon could petition the local governance and state that he is willing to purchase the portion of land for X dollars and as a result the governance can rely on Y increase in taxation. Jake could agree that he should now pay Y in taxes and if and when he fails to meet that tax rate upon the third he wishes to keep, then the sale will begin. Jake will receive X minus owed taxes and Jon will receive the land and be obligated to pay Y for a minimum time agreed upon by Jake. If Jon fails to make a payment then the land will be offered for repurchase by Jon at whatever rate Jon initially paid for it. Effectively resetting the tax rate of the land. The Governance body’s only position here is not to determine how much funds they need based on their quarterly salaries or what the value of the land is. The market has decided that the land is worth whatever someone will pay for it, not just in the sale but as a taxation burden upon the individual making the purchase.
I suspect that Georgism is seeing a revival because it does not conflict with the wealth holders of IP or trademark. The companies that can open a new factory halfway across the world to spend in fuel and logistics, just to save from taxation burden. Wealth is derived from the land; ores, veggies, and solar power have spatial requirements and produce wealth when extracted or cultivated. But which of these three are most valuable for the society, the free market will let you know who should steward this land for if they do no turn a profit and pay their tax than the land should not have the force of violence known by the label private property attached.
hngyhngyhppo 