The Beauty of Value Capture - Edward Miller

From the Institute for Ethics & Emerging Technologies:

As anyone familiar with classical political economy knows, true property rights are rooted in self-ownership. You own yourself, and by extension you own what you make through labor or voluntary transactions thereof. Land, however, is not a fruit of labor.


One might reasonably suppose that land, being unlike other things that are called property, would have special economic characteristics. Classical economists recognized this to be the case, and spoke at length about the implications of it. Neoclassicals and their Austrian copycats insisted on lumping everything together under the solitary label of “property,” which served to obscure these implications. They simply bicker about how best to achieve equilibrium and Pareto efficiency, given “value-free” analysis of the system that exists. Some might call that dispassionate analysis; others might call that bean-counting for elites.

More from Edward Miller can be found on his site, Embrace Unity.

Occupying Common Ground

http://opinion.publicfinance.co.uk/2011/11/occupying-common-ground/

The protesters camping outside St Paul’s Cathedral in London are voicing the views of many people – and pointing the way towards real local democracy

What has the Occupy movement outside St Paul’s Cathedral and other places got to do with the work of the local authority treasurer?

The answer might seem to be ‘not much’ – but that would be a serious error of judgement. Those protesters have the world of the local authority well within their sights. If serious proposals come from these camps and these influence public debate, this is an area where real demands for change may be made.

On my last visit to Tent City University (where I had the honour of speaking), a very serious debate on the issue of land value taxation was in progress. It has been a recurrent theme of discussion there.

That tax is, of course, a direct alternative to council tax, which is, as many of those involved in the discussion were all too aware, profoundly regressive. The charge it makes on those with low incomes tends to be much higher proportionately than that made on higher income owners in larger properties.

That puts this tax firmly in the whole 99%/1% inequality arena that is at the core of the concerns of the Occupy movement. Our suspicion is that this will have lasting repercussions.

But that is not the end of the interest  the Occupy movement has for those working in local authorities. The process of democracy itself is under scrutiny in these camps, which are themselves explorations in consensus decision-making.

 Richard Murphy

Altoona, PA - First to rely solely on LVT

From the Altoona Mirror:

Some calls were from people who - believe it or not - thought they were paying too little, City Clerk Linda Rickens Schellhammer said. They worried the city would come after them later.
Some people called to complain, some to express puzzlement, some from curiosity, said Finance Director Omar Strohm.
The confusion came from an increase that seemed to come from nowhere, according to Mike Baldner, chief assessor for Blair County. There would have been more calls, but reductions in the house tax offset the increase in land tax for many, Baldner said.
Actually, it offset the increase for most, according to a report from the Center for the Study of Economics.
This year, 72 percent of residential parcels - not including vacant lots - got a cut, according to the study. The biggest group got a $10 decrease approximately, the report stated.
Most of the "screaming" came from those with vacant lots, according to Baldner. Their properties were in the crosshairs of the increase.

On Facebook? Take a look at the LVT group. Great discussions and information. Supporters of land value taxation are welcome to join the group.

From OpEd News:

A Great Georgist Introductory Video!
Here's one of the best little videos I've seen in a long time on what Land Value Taxation is and why we need it.  It's well worth spending 10 minutes - I can't wait for the promised part 2!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itO7OoKtNUc&feature=youtube_gdata_player
I met some of the student creators at last summer's class at the Henry George School in New York City when this was just a bare-bones 10 second animation.  Great job, guys!  Let's publicize this. 

We're back. Not that we were ever really gone, but we have failed to maintain this particular blog. There has been plenty of activity regarding land value taxes during these last couple of years. For other great current information, see the How to End Poverty site. Awesome work being done there by some truly awesome people. Check it out, then check back here for upcoming news.

More economic freedom coming to Korea than U.S.?

The Korea Times has an article regarding a report calling for increasing land value taxes and decreasing income taxes.

Song Eui-young, an economics professor at Sogang University, "said that when the property tax rate is doubled to 2 percent, there will be more room to cut income tax rate by 6.6 percentage points ― equal to increasing the income of next generation by 9 percent, according to Song.

"He added that the younger generation, who don't have to shoulder property taxes, can save more, and then buy houses later.

"He referred to Milton Friedman, who said that land value taxation is the "least bad" tax.

"The advice comes amid the huge fiscal deficit that the government is facing after cutting income and corporate taxes.

"The government is scheduled to pull down the income tax rate to 33 percent from 35 percent, while the United States and the United Kingdom are raising their income tax rate ceiling."


Pretty sad when we find more economic clarity coming from Korea than Washington.

Even scarier when you consider recent calls for increasing the base for sales taxes in Indiana by extending the tax to services.

Let me make my position perfectly clear - as bad as income taxes are, sales taxes are diametrically opposed to the concept of free markets. No tax interferes with a free market more than a sales tax, which places the weight of taxation on the very act of trade. Sales taxes incur dead-weight losses because they interfere with free market activity.

On the other hand, no tax interferes less with free market activities than a land value tax. Henry George's Single Tax would remove all taxes from capital and labor. Only land value taxation recognizes the individual right to the property one produces.