Georgism

[Stevo]

Can someone please help me understand this? <br> <br>A 100% tax on land rent? What exactly does that mean and why is it different than a 100% tax on land, which would, I think, drastically increase rent. <br> <br>And what is that thing about taxing only the land itself and not things built onto the land? <br> <br>Help. I'm lost.

[libertine]

[color=green]And what is that thing about taxing only the land itself and not things built onto the land?</font color=green> <br> <br>Basically, Georgism is a right-wing "libertarian" philosophy or political ideology that is interested in "free-market" capitalism. It is an ideology I have actually come across on another forum. The idea is to somehow justify a capitalist making money off land that they themselves did not cultivate or improve upon. Since land is something that no one person can make themselves, they claim it to be the only thing government can and must tax in the spirit of fairness.

[Stevo]

So, hold on. It's a 100% tax on the land without improvements, or a 100% tax on the rent that goes to the landlord, or what? There's so much bias and contradiction in the sorces I've found on-line, I don't know what to think. If you're educated on the subject, please help me out. Just a quick summary of the idea is all I need.

[libertine]

[color=green]It's a 100% tax on the land without improvements, or a 100% tax on the rent that goes to the landlord, or what?</font color=green> <br> <br>I'm not quite sure about the rate of rent, but it could very well be. I am just aware of the basic idea that people are self-owned, ergo, the improvements that they make upon the land is theirs. But land is something equally owned by all, therefore government must tax it. <br> <br>There is some form of "anarchist" Georgism, but I'm not quite clear about it. There is an article here about georgism from a series that they did about Georgism on anti-state.com.

[Stevo]

Here's what I really don't get, though. Georgists claim that taxing land 100% will make rent cheap. They've been claiming this for over 100 years, so I believe them. I just don't understand how. If I was a landlord, I'd still want to make my money tax or no tax, so if I have to pay $1000 dollars a year (because that's the value of my land) why wouldn't I just charge my tenant an extra $1000/12 per month in rent? That would make rent sky-rocket. I must be missing something, but I'm not sure what it is.

[Din]

[color=green]It's a 100% tax on the land without improvements, or a 100% tax on the rent that goes to the landlord, or what?</font color=green> <br> <br>The Georgists proposed to tax the rental value of land. That excludes any buildings et al on the land. <br> <br>[color=green]Georgists claim that taxing land 100% will make rent cheap. They've been claiming this for over 100 years, so I believe them. I just don't understand how.</font color=green> <br> <br>Well, neither do I. But here is their argument in concise form: <br> <br>[color=blue]If the entire rent of land were taken in taxation, there would be no rental income, hence nothing to capitalize, and no selling price. Land that yielded no income would not be worth owning - not for its own sake, anyway. It would still be worth owning for the opportunity it provides to producers, who would still be willing to pay for its use. Therefore, a 100% tax on land rent would destroy the selling price of land; it would also destroy any profit that could be had from land speculation. But land would still have a rental value, as long as people were willing to pay for its use. <br> <br>Henry George advocated collecting something less than 100% of the rent of land. He recommended that a small percentage, say 5%, should be left to the landowner, which would in turn be capitalized into a selling price (albeit a much smaller one). The advantage of this would be to ensure that free-market forces set the value of land, and to keep government out of the business of making land-distribution decisions.</font color=blue> <br> <br>http://www.henrygeorge.org/

[Vilhelmo]

A LVT is paid out of rents, it does not add to them as the market sets the rental price.