Epic fail.
Go to Russia or Cuba, Mr Commie. From there...tell me if the other side really is greener.
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A few quotes in support of the geoist/Georgist philosophy:
“Men did not make the earth… It is the value of the improvement only, and not the earth itself, that is individual property… Every proprietor owes to the community a ground rent for the land which he holds.” — Thomas Paine
“Ground rents are a species of revenue which the owner, in many cases, enjoys without any care or attention of his own. Ground rents are, therefore, perhaps a species of revenue which can best bear to have a peculiar tax imposed upon them.” — Adam Smith
“I have already read Henry George’s great book and really learnt a great deal from it… Men like Henry George are rare, unfortunately. One cannot imagine a more beautiful combination of intellectual keenness, artistic form, and fervent love of justice.” — Einstein
"Another means of silently lessening the inequality of [landed] property is to exempt all from taxation below a certain point, and to tax the higher portions or property in geometrical progression as they rise." --Thomas Jefferson
"Landlords grow richer in their sleep, without working, risking, or economizing. The increase in the value of land, arising as it does from the efforts of an entire community, should belong to the community and not to the individual who might hold title." - John Stuart Mill
“The landowner who withdraws land from productive use to a purely private use should be required to pay higher, not lower, taxes”. James Buchanan Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics, 1986
“Assuming that a tax increase is necessary, it is clearly preferable to impose the additional cost on land by increasing the land tax, rather than to increase the wage tax”.- Herbert Simon
Winner, Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics, 1978
***Little known fact amongst libertarians: Libertarian Party founder David Nolan was a supporter of the land value tax!
Which is one reason why I'm for it!
Dr. Paul has said that he wants to abolish income tax, the IRS, and all the invasion of privacy and liberty connected to income taxation. He also says, rightly, that the so-called FairTax is still a sales tax and therefore, it still burdens the economy and contributes to a black market. Then you have the problems associated with taxation in general, in that nearly all taxes burden desired activities and do not directly correlate to any benefits received from government.
Therefore, the most libertarian and sensible solution is land value "tax," or rather, user fee for use the Earth's space and resources.
Totally untaxing labor, profits, sales, trade, and (at the local govt. level) real estate improvements, will remove a tremendous dead weight from the economy as we cease to penalize productive work and the efficiencies of trade.
Rather than taxing the above, we would collect rent on the use of resources, according to their market value. Economists have shown that unlike traditional taxes, shifting to land value revenue (LVR, like "lever"):
- is fairest since it corresponds to both ability to pay and benefits received;
- is most efficient since it does not penalize any productive activity;
- is a free-market source of revenue since one can choose what amount to pay (you choose where to live) and land values are set by the market.
- tends to downsize government, since governments would limit their activities to those that would support higher land values.
- tends to decentralize government, since most land is subject to a local and/or State jurisdiction.
Many other benefits -- see The Founders' Plan
If we are ever going to muster up the political will to radically revamp the federal tax system -- or even abolish the IRS and other unneeded federal bureaucracies -- then we can transition to a full LVR-based system, beginning with the federal government.
- Economist Fred Foldvary recommends an amendment to the united States Constitution prohibiting or phasing out all productivity taxes (income, sales, excise, tariffs, VAT) and replacing them with LVR. The government must live off the land. No fining people for working or for creating jobs. No revenue agency reaching into your pocket and bank account. No punishing people for buying or selling stuff. The fedgov would have to depend on revenues from things such as oil and mineral rights and extraction, grazing, fishing and hunting rights, other user fees, the use of interstate conduits such as railroads and pipelines, and EM spectrum. (Nominally, the people own the airwaves as a commons, but we are a lousy landlord -- giving away beachfront EM properties to big corporations like AT&T.)
- Simultaneously, be radically downsizing and decentralizing FG functions to the Constitutionally authorized entities (States, localities, or individuals). Over time, the abolition of deadweight taxation will radically change the economic landscape, such that many government programs purporting to "help the disadvantaged" will be unnecessary anyway.
- If any additional revenue is thought to be needed (such as for emergencies), require the fedgov to go through the States, like in old times (apportionment). In the past, the FG was free to levy taxes in this fashion and to specify land as the asset taxed.
- Have federally owned land within States assessed as if for taxation, to illustrate the tremendous amount of land value preempted by the fedgov which could instead be going into State and local coffers. Showing people what they are losing would spur more intense scrutiny of Federal activities.
- Return a portion of proceeds directly to citizens. Study Alaska, which actually is able to pay a yearly dividend based on natural resource development. This was spurred by "a desire to put some oil revenues out of direct political control" and directly benefit the People. A simplified version of the Alaska Permanent Fund could be operated by the fedgov (for rents/royalties on federal lands) and by States (for State lands).
Also see Foldvary, The Ultimate Tax Reform.
A LVT (I call it Land Value Revenue, LVR -- a powerful "lever" for prosperity) is a tax on wealth that the owner did not create. This would be sufficient. You don't want to tax wealth that a person did create.
It was your "monopolization of land" comment. There is more then enough land to go around for each of us to get our own if we desire it and pay for it.
If you want to charge rent to land owners through government taxation, you do not believe in private property or free markets. You can't have it both ways.
No I did not call him a commie. In fact, read the quote again yourself. He says it is the LEAST BAD tax...he was NOT advocating it. The lesser of evils is still evil.
Shall we call Rationalization Man so he can save the village?
Nice rationalization.
Land is the foundation in which we can create said wealth. Tax the land, you hamper the ability to create said wealth and you remove the incentive to do so.
By your own logic we should tax every re-sale item because you didn't create that wealth, someone else did.
Yay for rationalizations. sarc/
By that, I mean...Can we please stop trying to figure out the least offensive way to steal from others? It's pretty retarted to be honest. It's baboon like.
Ahh, huge land & resource giveaways to crony corporations! That's the stuff America is made of. That's the stuff LVR is meant to stop.
Average Joe does not benefit from the status quo. BigCronyCo, Inc. and "Speculators 'R' Us" are the prime beneficiaries.
See "The Menace of Privilege" p.37
at Google Books
At Archive.org
LVT/LVR (I prefer the latter) would leave the land title -- with all the rights of secure tenure, privacy, control, transferability, etc. -- in private hands. Only the rent becomes public revenue. This is what enables taxes (including the tax on buildings) to be abolished.
You pay rent for land anyway; either as part of a lease agreement or a mortgage. (And generally, a negligible amount as part of the real estate tax.) The LVR system just shifts this land rent, which we already pay, from being mainly a subsidy to private parties and mortgage lenders, over to a source of funds for your local government. This funds government to maintain the services that largely put the value in the land in the first place. In reality, it's like a company reinvesting its profit.
And to extend the corporate analogy: if a jurisdiction so chooses, it can also pay out a portion of its surplus as an equal dividend to all "shareholders", i.e., citizens.)
Under the LVR system, tax incidence is transparent and 100% fair. Essentially, you'd pay proportionate to the value of land held. (Paying for what you get is a basic free market principle.) However, it's not on improvements, only on land. No one gets penalized for building things. (Pay for what you take, not what you make!)
This means there's no incentive to speculate on land, but rather, to building and to do useful things with it.
Removal of negative incentives and restoration of positive incentives is all the "stimulus" our economy needs to thrive. LVR does both of these things.