Landless Peasant Party

The Single Tax on Land

Henry George is best known for his argument that the economic rent of land should be shared by society rather than being owned privately. The clearest statement of this view is found in Progress and Poverty: “We must make land common property.”[4] Although this could be done by nationalizing land and then leasing it to private parties, George preferred taxing unimproved land value, in part because this would be less disruptive and controversial in a land where titles have already been granted to individuals. With this “single tax” the state could avoid having to tax any other types of wealth or transaction[citation needed]. Introducing a large land value tax causes the value of land titles to decrease correspondingly, but George did not believe landowners should be compensated, and described the issue as being analogous to compensation of former slave owners.

Modern economists like the 1976 Nobel Memorial Prize winner Milton Friedman agree[citation needed] that Henry George’s land tax is potentially beneficial because unlike other taxes, land taxes do not impose an excess burden on the economy[citation needed], and thus stimulate more rapid economic growth. Modern-day environmentalists have agreed with the idea of the earth as the common property of humanity – and some have endorsed the idea of ecological tax reform, including substantial taxes or fees on pollution as a replacement for “command and control” regulation.