Paying double

Apparently, most Americans enjoy paying for government services twice. At least, that's what happens when we fund government with income taxes, sales taxes, or taxes on our homes or businesses. When government provides a valuable service (what constitutes a valuable government service is a whole other argument, that I do not intend to address here), that value attaches to the land. Infrastructure improvements increase the value of land. Good schools, low crime, maintained roads, working sewers, professional fire protection services, and other services commonly provided by governments are reflected in higher land prices.

The owners of land benefit from these services whether they have made any contribution towards them or not. The value of the land they own increases with no productive activity required. The absentee owner of a vacant plot of land is the obvious example, but the effect is the same on all land, whether apparent or not. Yet all these services that enrich those who hold title to the land are paid for by taxes on the productive activities of those who live and work there. In other words - labor and capital subsidize the landowners.

We tax those who are working, saving, and investing. If you are fortunate enough to work and save enough to buy your own piece of land, you get to pay for all those services again in the increased price of land.

Land value taxation is the only form of taxation that does not induce this double-jeopardy. Only LVT correctly and justly reclaims the value created by government services (or more accurately, created by the growth of the community). We have two choices. We can either continue to tax the productive activities of individuals in order to support the community and enrich the landowners, or we can choose to recover the value created by the community in order to support itself. The great advantage of LVT is that it penalizes no one for working, saving, or investing.