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133-668: The Scottish Land Restoration League was a Georgist political party. In the 1880s, enclosure was still in process in the Scottish Highlands , and resistance to it often received support from radicals around Britain and Ireland. Branches of the Irish Land League , founded in 1879 to campaign against landlordism , had been set up in Scotland, but the League was wound up in 1883. In 1884, Henry George toured

266-600: A citizen's dividend paid for by a land value tax in an April 1885 speech at a Knights of Labor local in Burlington, Iowa titled "The Crime of Poverty", and later in an interview with former U.S. House Representative David Dudley Field II from New York's 7th congressional district published in the July 1885 edition of the North American Review : As an English friend of mine puts it: No taxes and

399-651: A land value tax (LVT). Some modern proponents are dissatisfied with the name Georgist . While Henry George was well known throughout his life, he has been largely forgotten by the public and the idea of a single tax of land predates him. Some now prefer the term geoism , with geo (from Greek γῆ gē "earth, land") being the first compound of the name George < (Gr.) Geōrgios < geōrgos "farmer" or geōrgia "agriculture, farming" < gē + ergon "work" deliberately ambiguous. The terms Earth Sharing , geonomics and geolibertarianism are also used by some Georgists. These terms represent

532-438: A 100% Georgist tax would destroy the incentive to search for natural resources and discover optimal locations for businesses, as the additional profits that would result from such discoveries would lead to a corresponding increase in the unimproved value of the land, and so be taxed away. Henry George Henry George (September 2, 1839 – October 29, 1897) was an American political economist and journalist. His writing

665-417: A Georgist club in that city established in 1890. Years later, in his capacity as a city alderman, he was selected to serve as Houston Tax Commissioner, and promulgated a "Houston Plan of Taxation" in 1912. Improvements to land and merchants' inventories were taxed at 25 percent of the appraised value, unimproved land was taxed at 70 percent of appraisal, and personal property was exempt. This was calculated using

798-419: A conservation strategy, but they emphasize different aspects. Conservation is the central issue of ecology, whereas economic rent is the central issue of geoism. Ecological economists might price pollution fines more conservatively to prevent inherently unquantifiable damage to the environment, whereas Georgists might emphasize mediation between conflicting interests and human rights . Geolibertarianism ,

931-460: A country where land titles have already been granted. Georgists have observed that privately created wealth is socialized via the tax system (e.g., through income and sales tax ), while socially created wealth in land values are privatized in the price of land titles and bank mortgages. The opposite would be the case if land rents replaced taxes on labor as the main source of public revenue ; socially created wealth would become available for use by

1064-586: A difference of emphasis and sometimes real differences about how land rent should be spent ( citizen's dividend or just replacing other taxes), but they all agree that land rent should be recovered from its private recipients. Compulsory fines and fees related to land rents are the most common Georgist policies, but some geoists prefer voluntary value capture systems that rely on methods such as non-compulsory or self-assessed location value fees, community land trusts and purchasing land value covenants . Some geoists believe that partially compensating landowners

1197-404: A financial dispute with U.S. Senator John P. Jones . Unable to find work or provide for his family, George wrote to Governor Irwin, who rewarded him with the office of State Inspector of Gas Meters. George held that office from 1876 to 1880, during which he was able to write Progress and Poverty . Around the same time, the anti-Chinese Workingmen's Party led by Denis Kearney was seeing

1330-420: A flash it came over me that there was the reason of advancing poverty with advancing wealth. With the growth of population, land grows in value, and the men who work it must pay more for the privilege. Furthermore, on a visit to New York City, he was struck by the apparent paradox that the poor in that long-established city were much worse off than the poor in less developed California. These observations supplied

1463-405: A global speaking tour concerning land rights and the relationship between rent and poverty. This stroke greatly weakened him, and he never truly recovered. Despite this, George tried to remain active in politics. Against the advice of his doctors, George campaigned for New York City mayor again in 1897, this time as an Independent Democrat, saying, "I will make the race if I die for it." The strain of

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1596-447: A great injustice that private profit was being earned from restricting access to natural resources while productive activity was burdened with heavy income taxes, and he indicated that such a system was equivalent to slavery . This is also the work in which he made the case for a land value tax in which governments would tax the value of the land itself, thus preventing private interests from profiting upon its mere possession but allowing

1729-406: A high land value tax would cause people "to contribute to the public, not in proportion to what they produce ... but in proportion to the value of natural [common] opportunities that they hold [monopolize]". He went on to explain that "by taking for public use that value which attaches to land by reason of the growth and improvement of the community", it would, "make the holding of land unprofitable to

1862-411: A horseback ride and stopped to rest while overlooking San Francisco Bay . He later wrote of the revelation that he had: I asked a passing teamster, for want of something better to say, what land was worth there. He pointed to some cows grazing so far off that they looked like mice, and said, "I don't know exactly, but there is a man over there who will sell some land for a thousand dollars an acre." Like

1995-428: A land value tax would cause the purchase price of land to decrease. George did not believe landowners should be compensated and described the issue as being analogous to compensation for former slave owners. Other geoists disagree on the question of compensation; some advocate complete compensation while others endorse only enough compensation required to achieve Georgist reforms. Some geoists advocate compensation only for

2128-573: A land-value tax, although Georgists endorsed multiple forms of rent capture (e.g. seigniorage ) as legitimate. The term Georgism was invented later, and some prefer the term geoism as more generic. Henry George is best known for popularizing the argument that government should be funded by a tax on land rent rather than taxes on labor . George believed that although scientific experiments could not be performed in political economy, theories could be tested by comparing different societies with different conditions and by thought experiments about

2261-559: A land-value tax. Following the 2008 Recession and city's 2013 bankruptcy , speculators bought cheap property, expecting to profit from the city's recovery. This plan to shift the cost of municipal services to owners of empty land, while exempting community gardens and parks, will require approval from the Michigan Legislature and Detroit City Council before being added as a ballot measure for Detroit residents. Various organizations still exist that continue to promote

2394-425: A less significant form of monopoly than the owners of land title deeds, partly because he viewed the owners of locations as "the robber that takes all that is left." People could choose not to buy a specific new product, but they cannot choose to lack a place upon which to stand, so benefits gained for labor through lesser reforms would tend to eventually be captured by owners and financers of location monopoly. George

2527-500: A major issue in federal politics and his book Protection or Free Trade was the first book to be read entirely into the Congressional Record . It was read by five Democratic congressmen. In 1997, Spencer MacCallum wrote that Henry George was "undeniably the greatest writer and orator on free trade who ever lived." In 2009, Tyler Cowen wrote that George's 1886 book Protection or Free Trade "remains perhaps

2660-505: A market-oriented branch of Geoism, tends to take a direct stance against what it perceives as burdensome regulation and would like to see auctioned pollution quotas or taxes replace most command and control regulation . Since ecologists are primarily concerned with conservation, they tend to emphasize less the issue of equitably distributing scarcity/pollution rents , whereas Georgists insist that unearned income not accrue to those who hold title to natural assets and pollution privilege. To

2793-419: A means of raising public revenue is also a progressive tax tending to reduce economic inequality , since it applies entirely to ownership of valuable land, which is correlated with income, and there is generally no means by which landlords can shift the tax burden onto tenants or laborers. Landlords are unable to pass the tax on to tenants because the supply and demand of rented land is unchanged. Because

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2926-565: A meeting, calling George a martyr. The New York Times reported that later in the evening, an organized funeral procession of about 2,000 people left from the Grand Central Palace and made its way through Manhattan to the Brooklyn Bridge . This procession was "all the way ... thronged on either side by crowds of silent watchers." The procession then went on to Brooklyn , where the crowd at Brooklyn City Hall "was

3059-507: A meteoric rise in popularity. George supported the party and endorsed their platform, but took issue with Kearney himself. When California's Second Constitutional Convention was called in 1878, George was nominated as a delegate on both the Democratic and Workingmen's tickets, but lost the latter's nomination after he refused to recognize Kearney as leader of the party. While an anti-Kearney faction still nominated him, his refusal to toe

3192-430: A modern Georgist severance tax . Other contemporaries such as Austrian economist Frank Fetter and neoclassical economist John Bates Clark argued that it was impractical to maintain the traditional distinction between land and capital and used this as a basis to attack Georgism. Mark Blaug , a specialist in the history of economic thought, credits Fetter and Clark with influencing mainstream economists to abandon

3325-459: A monopoly over specific arrangements and interactions of materials, governed by the forces of nature, allowed title-holders to extract royalty-rents from producers, in a way similar to owners of ordinary land titles. George later supported limited copyright, on the ground that temporary property over a unique arrangement of words or colors did not in any way prevent others from laboring to make other works of art. George apparently ranked patent rents as

3458-411: A more productive and just society. His most famous work, Progress and Poverty (1879), sold millions of copies worldwide. The treatise investigates the paradox of increasing inequality and poverty amid economic and technological progress, the business cycle with its cyclic nature of industrialized economies, and the use of rent capture such as land value taxation and other anti-monopoly reforms as

3591-520: A negative dead-weight loss that boosts productivity. Because land value tax would apply to foreign land speculators, the Australian Treasury estimated that land value tax was unique in having a negative marginal excess burden, meaning that it would increase long-run living standards. It was Adam Smith who first noted the efficiency and distributional properties of a land value tax in his book The Wealth of Nations . Ground-rents are

3724-515: A net loss due to a shift of taxation to land value; most taxpayers would gain from the replacement of other taxes with a tax on land value. Historically, those who advocated for taxes on rent tax only great enough to replace other taxes were known as endorsers of single tax limited . Most early advocacy groups described themselves as single taxers and George reluctantly accepted the single tax as an accurate name for his main political goal—the repeal of all unjust or inefficient taxes, to be replaced with

3857-442: A part of this revenue should be taken from him in order to defray the expenses of the state, no discouragement will thereby be given to any sort of industry. The annual produce of the land and labour of the society, the real wealth and revenue of the great body of the people, might be the same after such a tax as before. Ground-rents and the ordinary rent of land are, therefore, perhaps, the species of revenue which can best bear to have

3990-405: A particular spot of ground at a greater or smaller expense. In every country the greatest number of rich competitors is in the capital, and it is there accordingly that the highest ground-rents are always to be found. As the wealth of those competitors would in no respect be increased by a tax upon ground-rents, they would not probably be disposed to pay more for the use of the ground. Whether the tax

4123-481: A peculiar tax imposed upon them. ... Nothing can be more reasonable than that a fund which owes its existence to the good government of the state should be taxed peculiarly, or should contribute something more than the greater part of other funds, towards the support of that government. Benjamin Franklin and Winston Churchill made similar distributional and efficiency arguments for taxing land rents. They noted that

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4256-545: A pension and disability system, and an unconditional basic income from surplus land rents. It would be distributed to residents "as a right" instead of as charity. Georgists often refer to this policy as a citizen's dividend in reference to a similar proposal by Thomas Paine . George noted that most debt, though bearing the appearance of genuine capital interest, was not issued for the purpose of creating true capital, but instead as an obligation against rental flows from existing economic privilege. George therefore reasoned that

4389-490: A pension for everybody; and why should it not be? To take land values for public purposes is not really to impose a tax, but to take for public purposes a value created by the community. And out of the fund which would thus accrue from the common property, we might, without degradation to anybody, provide enough to actually secure from want all who were deprived of their natural protectors or met with accident, or any man who should grow so old that he could not work. All prating that

4522-561: A proper social function, which should be controlled and managed by and for the whole people concerned." Georgists were divided by this question of natural monopolies and often favored public ownership only of the rents from common rights-of-way , rather than public ownership of utility companies themselves. The early conservationism of the Progressive Era was inspired partly by Henry George , and his influence extended for decades afterward. Some ecological economists still support

4655-682: A public levy on land value does not cause economic inefficiency , unlike other taxes. A land value tax also has progressive tax effects. Advocates of land value taxes argue that they reduce economic inequality , increase economic efficiency, remove incentives to under-utilize urban land, and reduce property speculation . Georgist ideas were popular and influential during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Political parties, institutions, and communities were founded on Georgist principles during that time. Early devotees of George's economic philosophy were often termed Single Taxers for their political goal of raising public revenue mainly or only from

4788-466: A remedy for these and other social problems. Other works by George defended free trade , the secret ballot , free (at marginal cost) public utilities/transportation provided by the capture of their resulting land rent uplift, Pigouvian taxation , and public ownership of other natural monopolies. George was a journalist for many years, and the popularity of his writing and speeches brought him to run for election as Mayor of New York City in 1886 . As

4921-423: A still more proper subject of taxation than the rent of houses. A tax upon ground-rents would not raise the rents of houses. It would fall altogether upon the owner of the ground-rent, who acts always as a monopolist, and exacts the greatest rent which can be got for the use of his ground. More or less can be got for it according as the competitors happen to be richer or poorer, or can afford to gratify their fancy for

5054-416: A tendency toward boom-and-bust cycles. According to George, people justly own what they create, but natural opportunities and land belong equally to all. The tax upon land values is, therefore, the most just and equal of all taxes. It falls only upon those who receive from society a peculiar and valuable benefit, and upon them in proportion to the benefit they receive. It is the taking by the community, for

5187-493: A three or four percent tax on land values would fit this condition. After implementing land taxes, governments would purchase future land values at discounted prices and take ownership after 100 years. Marshall asserted that this plan, which he strongly supported, would end the need for a tax collection department of government. For newly formed countries where land was not already private, Marshall advocated implementing George's economic proposal immediately. Karl Marx considered

5320-548: A very interesting thing that in times of war, we blockade our enemies in order to prevent them from getting goods from us. In time of peace we do to ourselves by tariffs what we do to our enemy in time of war." George was one of the earliest and most prominent advocates of the secret ballot in the United States. Harvard historian Jill Lepore asserts that Henry George's advocacy is the reason Americans vote with secret ballots today. George's first article in support of

5453-427: Is a politically expedient compromise necessary for achieving reform. For similar reasons, others propose capturing only future land value increases, instead of all land rent. Some libertarians and minarchists take the position that limited social spending should be financed using Georgist concepts of rent value capture , but that not all land rent should be captured. Today, this relatively conservative adaptation

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5586-424: Is due to those investments classed as land values and natural monopolies and to competitive industries aided by such monopolies", and that "tax reform should seek to remove all burdens from capital and labour and impose them on monopolies." However, he criticized Georgists for failing to see that Henry George's anti-monopoly ideas must be implemented with a variety of policy tools. Commons wrote, "Trees do not grow into

5719-411: Is everything that exists in nature independent of human activity. George explicitly included climate, soil, waterways, mineral deposits, laws/forces of nature, public ways, forests, oceans, air, and solar energy in the category of land. While the philosophy of Georgism does not say anything definitive about specific policy interventions needed to address problems posed by various sources of economic rent,

5852-595: Is found in Progress and Poverty : "We must make land common property." By taxing land values , society could recapture the value of its common inheritance, raise wages, improve land use, and eliminate the need for taxes on productive activity. George believed it would remove existing incentives toward land speculation and encourage development, as landlords would not suffer tax penalties for any industry or edifice constructed on their land and could not profit by holding valuable sites vacant. Broadly applying this principle

5985-408: Is heard from some quarters about its hurting the common people to give them what they do not work for is humbug. The truth is, that anything that injures self-respect, degrades, does harm; but if you give it as a right, as something to which every citizen is entitled to, it does not degrade. Charity schools do degrade children that are sent to them, but public schools do not. George proposed to create

6118-631: Is inherently limited in supply can generate economic rent, but the classical and most significant example of land monopoly involves the extraction of common ground rent from valuable urban locations. Georgists argue that taxing economic rent is efficient , fair, and equitable . The main Georgist policy recommendation is a tax assessed on land value, arguing that revenues from a land value tax (LVT) can be used to reduce or eliminate existing taxes (such as on income , trade , or purchases ) that are unfair and inefficient. Some Georgists also advocate for

6251-520: Is now commonly known as " Georgism ." In George's time, it was known as the "single-tax" movement and sometimes associated with movements for land nationalization, especially in Ireland. However, in Progress and Poverty , George did not favor the idea of nationalization. I do not propose either to purchase or to confiscate private property in land. The first would be unjust; the second, needless. Let

6384-464: Is plausible but was more likely to be true during George's time than now. An early criticism of Georgism was that it would generate too much public revenue and result in unwanted growth of government, but later critics argued that it would not generate enough income to cover government spending. Joseph Schumpeter concluded his analysis of Georgism by stating that, "It is not economically unsound, except that it involves an unwarranted optimism concerning

6517-465: Is seen by some, including other opponents of Georgism, as relying on false assumptions and flawed reasoning. Austrian economist Friedrich Hayek credited early enthusiasm for Henry George with developing his interest in economics. Later, Hayek said that the theory of Georgism would be very strong if assessment challenges did not result in unfair outcomes, but he believed that they would. Economists Bryan Caplan and Zachary Gochenour have argued that

6650-402: Is that everything would be all right if ground rent were paid to the state." Richard T. Ely agreed with the economic arguments for Georgism but believed that correcting the problem the way Henry George wanted, without compensation, was unjust to existing landowners. In explaining his position, Ely wrote, "If we have all made a mistake, should one party to the transaction alone bear the cost of

6783-461: Is usually considered incompatible with true geolibertarianism , which requires that excess rents be gathered and then distributed back to residents. During Henry George's time, this restrained Georgist philosophy was known as "single tax limited", as opposed to "single tax unlimited." George disagreed with the limited interpretation, but he accepted its adherents (e.g., Thomas Shearman ) as legitimate "single-taxers." Georgist ideas heavily influenced

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6916-737: The Episcopal Academy in Philadelphia. George chafed at his religious upbringing and left the academy without graduating. Instead he convinced his father to hire a tutor and supplemented this with avid reading and attending lectures at the Franklin Institute . His formal education ended at age 14, and he went to sea as a foremast boy at age 15 in April 1855 on the Hindoo , bound for Melbourne and Calcutta . He ended up in

7049-537: The European Parliament 1978–1979. The influence of Henry George has waned over time, but Georgist ideas still occasionally emerge in politics. For the United States 2004 presidential election , third-party presidential candidate Ralph Nader mentioned George in his policy statements. Economists still generally favor a land value tax. Monetarist economist Milton Friedman publicly endorsed

7182-523: The Fabian Society , which would each go on to help form the modern-day Labour Party . The Liberal government included a land tax as part of several taxes in the 1909 People's Budget intended to redistribute wealth (including a progressively graded income tax and an increase of inheritance tax ). This caused a political crisis that resulted indirectly in reform of the House of Lords . The budget

7315-764: The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy was established in 1974 based on the writings of Henry George. It "seeks to improve the dialogue about urban development, the built environment, and tax policy in the United States and abroad". The Henry George Foundation continues to promote the ideas of Henry George in the United Kingdom. The IU is an international umbrella organisation that brings together organizations worldwide that seek land-value tax reform. The economist Alfred Marshall believed that George's views in Progress and Poverty were dangerous, even predicting wars, terror, and economic destruction from

7448-792: The Somers System . This Georgist tax continued until 1915, when two courts struck it down as violating the Texas Constitution in 1915. This quashed efforts in several other Texas cities towards implementing the Houston Plan: Beaumont , Corpus Christi , Galveston , San Antonio , and Waco . The German protectorate of the Kiautschou Bay concession in Jiaozhou Bay , China , fully implemented Georgist policy. Its sole source of government revenue

7581-673: The United Labor Party nominee in 1886 and in 1897 as the Jefferson Democracy Party nominee, he received 31 percent and 4 percent of the vote respectively and finished ahead of former New York State Assembly minority leader Theodore Roosevelt in the first race. After his death during the second campaign, his ideas were carried forward by organizations and political leaders through the United States and other Anglophone countries. The mid-20th century labor economist and journalist George Soule wrote that George

7714-411: The "least bad tax", since unlike other taxes, it would not impose an excess burden on economic activity (leading to zero or even negative " deadweight loss "); hence, a replacement of other more "distortionary" taxes with a land value tax would improve economic welfare. As land value tax can improve the use of land and redirect investment toward productive, non- rent-seeking activities, it could even have

7847-563: The American West in 1858 and briefly considered prospecting for gold but instead started work the same year in San Francisco as a type setter . In California, George fell in love with Annie Corsina Fox from Sydney, Australia. They met on her seventeenth birthday on October 12, 1860. She had been orphaned and was living with an uncle. The uncle, a prosperous, strong-minded man, was opposed to his niece's impoverished suitor. But

7980-539: The Democratic nomination for State Assembly . However, he refused to pay the party’s assessment fee, and was therefore ineligible for consideration. Despite this setback, he remained active in the California Democratic Party . Governor Henry Huntly Haight , impressed by the young journalist, recruited George to manage the party’s newspaper in Sacramento , and in 1871 he served as secretary of

8113-483: The Democratic state convention as it renominated Haight. Later that year, he finally received the party’s nomination for State Assembly, but was defeated alongside the rest of the ticket in a Republican landslide . In the 1875 election , George campaigned for Democrat William Irwin , who handily won thanks to Republican vote splitting. A few months later, George was forced to give up the Evening Post due to

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8246-494: The Georgist land value tax as the "least bad tax". Economist Joseph Stiglitz stated that: "Not only was Henry George correct that a tax on land is non-distortionary, but in an equilibrium society … tax on land raises just enough revenue to finance the (optimally chosen) level of government expenditure." He dubbed this proposition the Henry George theorem . Several communities were initiated with Georgist principles during

8379-421: The Georgist policy of land value tax as a means of freeing or rewilding unused land and conserving nature by reducing urban sprawl . Pollution degrades the value of what Georgists consider to be commons . Because pollution is a negative contribution, a taking from the commons or a cost imposed on others, its value is economic rent , even when the polluter is not receiving an explicit income. Therefore, to

8512-552: The Highlands and major cities of Scotland on the invitation of the English Land Reform Union . Touring with Edward McHugh , he spoke on his theory of land reform . The tour culminated with a large meeting Glasgow on 18 February 1884, chaired by John Murdoch . Almost 2,000 people signed up, on the initiative of Richard McGhee , to form an organisation to propagate and campaign for George's ideas. This group

8645-681: The Railroad Will Bring Us." George argued that the boom in railroad construction would benefit only the lucky few who owned interests in the railroads and other related enterprises, while throwing the greater part of the population into abject poverty. This had led to him earning the enmity of the Central Pacific Railroad 's executives, who helped defeat his bid for election to the California State Assembly . One day in 1871 George went for

8778-555: The State and nation and to the United States Senate, and an honor to himself; a man whose heart beats in sympathy with the great body of the people; a man who is eminently like unto that greatest of modern men—Abraham Lincoln; a man who, if the people were to select, would be selected as the champion of their rights; a man—a man who has already gained a national reputation as the ablest political economist of America, standing

8911-480: The United States, the United Kingdom and Australia are more than sufficient to fund all levels of government. Anarcho-capitalist political philosopher and economist Murray Rothbard criticized Georgism in Man, Economy, and State as being philosophically incongruent with subjective value theory , and further stating that land is irrelevant in the factors of production, trade, and price systems, but this critique

9044-419: The banking system but believed that would actually be an economic boon, since the financial sector, in its existing form, was mostly augmenting rent extraction, as opposed to productive investment. "The curse of credit," George wrote, was "... that it expands when there is a tendency to speculation, and sharply contracts just when most needed to assure confidence and prevent industrial waste." George even said that

9177-456: The best-argued tract on free trade to this day." Jim Powell said that Protection or Free Trade was probably the best book on trade written by anyone in the Americas, comparing it to Adam Smith 's Wealth of Nations . Milton Friedman said it was the most rhetorically brilliant work ever written on trade. Friedman also paraphrased one of George's arguments in favor of free trade: "It's

9310-904: The campaign precipitated a second stroke, leading to his death four days before the election. An estimated 100,000 people visited Grand Central Palace during the day to see Henry George's face, with an estimated equal number crowding outside, unable to enter, and held back by police. After the Palace doors closed, the Reverend Lyman Abbott , Father Edward McGlynn , Rabbi Gustav Gottheil , R. Heber Newton (Episcopalian), and John Sherwin Crosby delivered addresses. Separate memorial services were held elsewhere. In Chicago, five thousand people lined up to hear memorial addresses by former Illinois governor John Peter Altgeld and John Lancaster Spalding . Mayor Strong broke down and cried at

9443-418: The common blunder?" John R. Commons supported Georgist economics but opposed what he perceived as an environmentally and politically reckless tendency for advocates to rely on a one-size-fits-all approach to tax reform, specifically, the "single tax" framing. Commons concluded The Distribution of Wealth , with an estimate that "perhaps 95% of the total values represented by these millionaire [ sic ] fortunes

9576-597: The common goal among modern Georgists is to capture and share (or reduce) rent from all sources of natural monopoly and legal privilege. Henry George shared the goal of modern Georgists to socialize or dismantle rent from all forms of land monopoly and legal privilege. However, George emphasized mainly his preferred policy known as land value tax , which targeted a particular form of unearned income known as ground rent . George emphasized ground-rent because basic locations were more valuable than other monopolies and everybody needed locations to survive, which he contrasted with

9709-478: The community, while the fruits of labor would remain private. According to Georgists, a land value tax can be considered a user fee instead of a tax, since it is related to the market value of socially created locational advantage, the privilege to exclude others from locations. Assets consisting of commodified privilege can be considered as wealth since they have exchange value, similar to taxi medallions . A land value tax, charging fees for exclusive use of land, as

9842-429: The costs of taxes and the benefits of public spending always eventually apply to and enrich the owners of land. Therefore, they believed it would be best to defray public costs and recapture value of public spending by applying public charges directly to owners of land titles, rather than harming public welfare with taxes assessed against beneficial activities such as trade and labor. Henry George wrote that his plan for

9975-423: The couple, defying him, eloped and married on December 3, 1861, with Henry dressed in a borrowed suit and Annie bringing only a packet of books. The marriage was a happy one, and four children were born to them. On November 3, 1862, Annie gave birth to Henry George Jr. (1862–1916), a future United States Representative from New York. Early on, even with the birth of future sculptor Richard F. George (1865–1912),

10108-518: The densest ever seen there." There were "thousands on thousands" at City Hall who were so far back that they could not see the funeral procession pass. It was impossible to move on any of the nearby streets. The Times wrote, "Rarely has such an enormous crowd turned out in Brooklyn on any occasion," but that nonetheless, "[t]he slow tolling of the City Hall bell and the regular beating of drums were

10241-478: The effects of various factors. Applying this method, he concluded that many of the problems that beset society, such as poverty, inequality, and economic booms and busts, could be attributed to the private ownership of the necessary resource: land rent. In his most celebrated book, Progress and Poverty , George argues that the appropriation of land rent for private use contributes to persistent poverty in spite of technological progress, and causes economies to exhibit

10374-417: The elimination of corruption, fraud, and evasion with respect to the collection of taxes; the enablement of true free trade; the destruction of monopolies; the elevation of wages to the full value of labor; the transformation of labor-saving inventions into blessings for all; and the equitable distribution of comfort, leisure, and other advantages that are made possible by an advancing civilization. In this way,

10507-572: The excommunication of Father Edward McGlynn , and many who disagreed with George's free trade policy. George had particular trouble with Terrence V. Powderly , president of the Knights of Labor , a key member of the United Labor coalition. While initially friendly with Powderly, George vigorously opposed the tariff policies which Powderly and many other labor leaders thought vital to the protection of American workers. George's strident criticism of

10640-546: The extent that geoists recognize the effect of pollution or share conservationist values, they will agree with ecological economists about the need to limit pollution, but geoists will also insist that pollution rents generated from those conservation efforts do not accrue to polluters and are instead used for public purposes or to compensate those who suffer the negative effects of pollution. Ecological economists advocate similar pollution restrictions but, emphasizing conservation first, might be willing to grant private polluters

10773-422: The extent that society determines pollution to be harmful, most Georgists propose to limit pollution with taxation or quotas that capture the resulting rents for public use, restoration, or a citizen's dividend . Georgism is related to the school of ecological economics , since both propose market-based restrictions for pollution. The schools are compatible in that they advocate using similar tools as part of

10906-501: The family was near starvation. George's other two children were both daughters. The first was Jennie George, (c. 1867–1897), later to become Jennie George Atkinson. George's other daughter was Anna Angela George (1878-1947), who would become mother of both future dancer and choreographer Agnes de Mille and future actress Peggy George , who was born Margaret George de Mille. Following the birth of his second child, George had no work and no money and had to beg for food. As he approached

11039-570: The first well-dressed stranger he saw in the street, George, normally a lawful man, decided to rob him if he was unwilling to help. Fortunately, the man took pity on him and gave him five dollars. George was raised as an Episcopalian, but he believed in "deistic humanitarianism". His wife Annie was Irish Catholic , but Henry George Jr. wrote that the children were mainly influenced by Henry George's deism and humanism . After deciding against gold mining in British Columbia, George

11172-591: The height of the philosophy's popularity. Two such communities that still exist are Arden, Delaware , which was founded in 1900 by Frank Stephens and William Lightfoot Price , and Fairhope, Alabama , which was founded in 1894 under the auspices of the Fairhope Single Tax Corporation . Some established communities in the United States also adopted Georgist tax policies. A Georgist in Houston, Texas , Joseph Jay "J.J." Pastoriza , promoted

11305-630: The idea "that land is a unique factor of production and hence that there is any special need for a special theory of ground rent" claiming that "this is in fact the basis of all the attacks on Henry George by contemporary economists and certainly the fundamental reason why professional economists increasingly ignored him". Robert Solow endorsed the theory of Georgism, while being wary of the perceived injustice of expropriation . Solow stated that taxing away expected land rents "would have no semblance of fairness"; however, Georgism would be good to introduce where location values were not already privatized or if

11438-646: The ideas of Henry George. According to The American Journal of Economics and Sociology , the periodical Land&Liberty , established in 1894, is "the longest-lived Georgist project in history". Founded during the Great Depression in 1932, the Henry George School of Social Science in New York offers courses, sponsors seminars, and publishes research in the Georgist paradigm. Also in the US,

11571-503: The immediate implementation of its recommendations. Specifically, Marshall was upset about the idea of rapid change and the unfairness of not compensating existing landowners. In his lectures on Progress and Poverty , Marshall opposed George's position on compensation while fully endorsing his ultimate remedy. So far as land value tax moderately replaced other taxes and did not cause the price of land to fall, Marshall supported land value taxation on economic and moral grounds, suggesting that

11704-498: The individuals who now hold it still retain, if they want to, possession of what they are pleased to call their land. Let them continue to call it their land. Let them buy and sell, and bequeath and devise it. We may safely leave them the shell, if we take the kernel. It is not necessary to confiscate land; it is only necessary to confiscate rent. George considered businesses relying on exclusive right-of-way land privilege to be "natural" monopolies . Examples of these services included

11837-418: The less significant streetcar and telegraph monopolies, which George also criticized. George likened the problem to a laborer traveling home who is waylaid by a series of highway robbers along the way, each who demand a small portion of the traveler's wages, and finally at the very end of the road waits a robber who demands all that the traveler has left. George reasoned that it made little difference to challenge

11970-453: The mere owner, and profitable only to the user". A high land value tax would discourage speculators from holding valuable natural opportunities (like urban real estate) unused or only partially used. Henry George claimed this would have many benefits, including the reduction or elimination of tax burdens from poorer neighborhoods and agricultural districts; the elimination of a multiplicity of taxes and expensive obsolete government institutions;

12103-471: The more conservative New York Sun wrote that, "Since the Civil War, few announcements have been more startling than that of the sudden death of Henry George." Flags were placed at half-staff, even at Tammany Hall, which cancelled its rally for the day. Henry George is best known for his argument that the economic rent of land (location) should be shared by society. The clearest statement of this view

12236-425: The only sounds that broke the stillness. ... Anything more impressive ... could not be imagined." At Court Street, the casket was transferred to a hearse and taken to a private funeral at Fort Hamilton . Commentators disagreed on whether it was the largest funeral in New York history or the largest since the death of Abraham Lincoln . The New York Times reported, "Not even Lincoln had a more glorious death." Even

12369-717: The organisation continued, with a much lower profile, renaming itself as the Scottish Single Tax League . In 1904, it was again renamed, as the Scottish League for the Taxation of Land Values . Georgism Georgism is concerned with the distribution of economic rent caused by land ownership, natural monopolies , pollution rights, and control of the commons, including title of ownership for natural resources and other contrived privileges (e.g., intellectual property ). Any natural resource that

12502-503: The party line cost him the election, though he still polled the highest of any Democrat in the district. When the California State Legislature convened in 1881 to elect a U.S. Senator , State Senator Warren Chase nominated George. In his nomination speech, Chase eulogized George as follows: He has in knowledge of American and European history no superior in this State. He is a man who can be an honor to

12635-663: The peer of John Stuart Mill, Ricardo and Adam Smith, and all the writers of history on political economy. George only received two votes out of 40 cast in the State Senate ; one from Chase, and the other from fellow Workingmen's Senator Joseph C. Gorman . In 1880, now a popular writer and speaker, George moved to New York City, becoming closely allied with the Irish nationalist community despite being of English ancestry. From there he made several speaking journeys abroad to places such as Ireland and Scotland where access to land

12768-1026: The politics of the early 20th century. Political parties that were formed based on Georgist ideas include the Commonwealth Land Party in the United States , the Henry George Justice Party in Victoria , the Single Tax League in South Australia , and the Justice Party in Denmark . In the United Kingdom , George's writings were praised by emerging socialist groups in 1890s such as the Independent Labour Party and

12901-401: The privilege to capture pollution rents. To the extent that ecological economists share the geoist view of social justice, they would advocate auctioning pollution quotas instead of giving them away for free. This distinction can be seen in the difference between basic cap and trade and the geoist variation, cap and share , a proposal to auction temporary pollution permits, with rents going to

13034-473: The public, instead of giving pollution privilege away for free to existing polluters or selling perpetual permits. The revenue can allow the reduction or elimination of taxes, greater public investment/spending, or the direct distribution of funds to citizens as a pension or basic income / citizen's dividend . In practice, the elimination of all other taxes implies a high land value tax, greater than any currently existing land tax. Introducing or increasing

13167-503: The return of surplus public revenue to the people by means of a basic income or citizen's dividend . Henry George popularized the concept of gaining public revenues mainly from land and natural resource privileges with his first book, Progress and Poverty (1879). The philosophical basis of Georgism draws on thinkers such as John Locke , Baruch Spinoza , and Thomas Paine . Economists from Adam Smith and David Ricardo to Milton Friedman and Joseph Stiglitz have observed that

13300-624: The secret ballot was entitled "Bribery in Elections" and was published in the Overland Review of December 1871. His second article was "Money in Elections," published in the North American Review of March 1883. The first secret ballot reform approved by a state legislature was brought about by reformers who said they were influenced by George. The first state to adopt the secret ballot, also called The Australian Ballot,

13433-448: The series of small robbers when the final robber remained to demand all that the common laborer had left. George predicted that over time technological advancements would increase the frequency and importance of lesser monopolies, yet he expected that ground rent would remain dominant. George even predicted that ground-rents would rise faster than wages and income to capital, a prediction that modern analysis has shown to be plausible, since

13566-453: The single-tax platform as a regression from the transition to communism and referred to Georgism as "capitalism's last ditch". Marx argued that, "The whole thing is ... simply an attempt, decked out with socialism , to save capitalist domination and indeed to establish it afresh on an even wider basis than its present one." Marx also criticized the way land value tax theory emphasizes the value of land, arguing that George's "fundamental dogma

13699-405: The sky—they would perish in a high wind; and a single truth, like a single tax, ends in its own destruction." Commons uses the natural soil fertility and value of forests as an example of this destruction, arguing that a tax on the in-situ value of those depletable natural resources can result in overuse or over-extraction. Instead, Commons recommends an income tax-based approach to forests similar to

13832-558: The state should not provide aid to creditors in the form of sheriffs, constables, courts, and prisons to enforce collection on these illegitimate obligations. George did not provide any data to support this view, but in today's developed economies, much of the supply of credit is created to purchase claims on future land rents, rather than to finance the creation of true capital. Michael Hudson and Adair Turner estimate that about 80 percent of credit finances real estate purchases, mostly land. George acknowledged that this policy would limit

13965-468: The supply of land is fixed. Spatial rent is still the primary emphasis of Georgists because of its large value and the known dis-economies of misused land. However, there are other sources of rent that are theoretically analogous to ground-rent and are debated topics of Georgists. The following are some sources of economic rent. Where free competition is impossible, such as telegraphs, water, gas, and transportation, George wrote, "[S]uch business becomes

14098-419: The supply of land is perfectly inelastic , land rents depend on what tenants are prepared to pay, rather than on the expenses of landlords, and so the tax cannot be passed on to tenants. Standard economic theory suggests that a land value tax would be extremely efficient—unlike other taxes, it does not reduce economic productivity. Milton Friedman described Henry George's tax on unimproved value of land as

14231-527: The tariff set him against Powderly and others in the labor movement. In 1897 , George again ran for mayor of New York City. However, he had his fatal stroke during the campaign. During George's life, communities in Delaware and Alabama were developed based on his single tax on land and this legacy continued through applications in a number of areas around the world, including Australia, New Zealand and Taiwan . George's first stroke occurred in 1890, after

14364-575: The territory was returned to the Republic of China . Georgist ideas were also adopted to some degree in Australia , Hong Kong , Singapore , South Africa , South Korea , and Taiwan . In these countries, governments still levy some type of land value tax, albeit with exemptions. Many municipal governments of the United States depend on real-property tax as their main source of revenue, although such taxes are not Georgist as they generally include

14497-435: The theme and title for his 1879 book Progress and Poverty , which was a great success, selling over three million copies. In it George made the argument that a sizeable portion of the wealth created by social and technological advances in a free market economy is possessed by land owners and monopolists via economic rents , and that this concentration of unearned wealth is the main cause of poverty. George considered it

14630-497: The total cost of those investments . George used the example of urban buildings that provide free vertical transit, paid out of some of the increased value that residents derive from the addition of elevators. George was opposed to or suspicious of all intellectual property privilege, because his classical definition of "land" included "all natural forces and opportunities." Therefore, George proposed to abolish or greatly limit intellectual property privilege. In George's view, owning

14763-419: The transition could be phased in slowly. George has also been accused of exaggerating the importance of his "all-devouring rent thesis" in claiming that it is the primary cause of poverty and injustice in society. George argued that the rent of land increased faster than wages for labor because the supply of land is fixed. Modern economists, including Ottmar Edenhofer have demonstrated that George's assertion

14896-714: The transportation of utilities (water, electricity, sewage), information (telecommunications), goods, and travelers. George advocated that these systems of transport along "public ways" should usually be managed as public utilities and provided for free or at marginal cost . In some cases, it might be possible to allow competition between private service providers along public "rights of way," such as parcel shipping companies that operate on public roads, but wherever competition would be impossible, George supported complete municipalization . George said that these services would be provided for free because investments in beneficial public goods always tend to increase land values by more than

15029-533: The use of the community, of that value which is the creation of the community. It is the application of the common property to common uses. When all rent is taken by taxation for the needs of the community, then will the equality ordained by Nature be attained. No citizen will have an advantage over any other citizen save as is given by his industry, skill, and intelligence; and each will obtain what he fairly earns. Then, but not till then, will labor get its full reward, and capital its natural return. George believed there

15162-549: The value of all improvements made to that land to remain with investors. George was in a position to discover this pattern, having experienced poverty himself, knowing many different societies from his travels, and living in California at a time of rapid growth. In particular he had noticed that the construction of railroads in California was increasing land values and rents as fast as or faster than wages were rising. George first ran for public office in 1869, when he sought

15295-584: The value of buildings and other improvements. One exception is the town of Altoona, Pennsylvania , which for a time in the 21st century only taxed land value, phasing in the tax in 2002, relying on it entirely for tax revenue from 2011, and ending it 2017; the Financial Times noted that "Altoona is using LVT in a city where neither land nor buildings have much value". In 2023, Detroit mayor Mike Duggan and Michigan State Representative Stephanie Young proposed replacing existing property taxes with

15428-439: The vulnerability that market economies have to credit bubbles and property manias would be reduced. Income flow resulting from payments for restricted access to natural opportunities or for contrived privileges over geographic regions is termed economic rent . Georgists argue that economic rent of land, legal privileges , and natural monopolies should accrue to the community, rather than private owners. In economics, " land "

15561-500: The yield of such a tax." Economists who study land conclude that Schumpeter's criticism is unwarranted because the rental yield from land is likely much greater than what modern critics such as Paul Krugman suppose. Krugman agrees that land value taxation is the best means of raising public revenue but asserts that increased spending has rendered land rent insufficient to fully fund government. Georgists have responded by citing studies and analyses implying that land values of nations like

15694-531: Was (and still is) a major political issue. In 1886 , George campaigned for mayor of New York City as the candidate of the United Labor Party, the short-lived political society of the United Labor Party . He polled second, more than the Republican candidate Theodore Roosevelt . The election was won by Tammany Hall candidate Abram Stevens Hewitt by what many of George's supporters believed

15827-484: Was Massachusetts in 1888 under the leadership of Richard Henry Dana III. By 1891, more than half the states had adopted it too. George supported the use of "debt free" (sovereign money) currency, such as the greenback , which governments would spend into circulation to help finance public spending through the capture of seigniorage rents. He opposed the use of metallic currency, such as gold or silver, and fiat money created by private commercial banks. George advocated

15960-499: Was an important distinction between common and collective property. Although equal rights to land might be achieved by nationalizing land and then leasing it to private users, George preferred taxing unimproved land value and leaving the control of land mostly in private hands. George's reasoning for leaving land in private control and slowly shifting to land value tax was that it would not penalize existing owners who had improved land and would also be less disruptive and controversial in

16093-494: Was by far "the most famous American economic writer" and "author of a book which probably had a larger world-wide circulation than any other work on economics ever written." George was born in Philadelphia to a lower-middle-class family, the second of ten children of Richard S. H. George and Catharine Pratt George (née Vallance). His father was a publisher of religious texts and a devout Episcopalian , and he sent George to

16226-754: Was elected as the League's new President the following year. The League merged with the Henry George Institute and the South Side Single Tax Association and renamed itself the Scottish Land Restoration Federation . Two further organisations were born of the demise of the League—the Scottish Land Restoration Union and the Scottish League for the Taxation of Land Values . Bowman left this post in 1892, but

16359-446: Was eventually forced to go to the streets to beg. The George family struggled, but George's improving reputation and involvement in the newspaper industry lifted them from poverty. George began as a Lincoln Republican , then eventually became a Democrat . He was a strong critic of railroad and mining interests, corrupt politicians, land speculators, and labor contractors. He first articulated his views in an 1868 article entitled "What

16492-468: Was formed as the "Scottish Land Restoration League". William Forsyth became its first President, and McHugh its first Secretary. The group immediately spread to other cities around the nation. Among those who joined were many former members of the Land League. A second tour by George at the end of 1884 attracted less attention, and McHugh was accused of mismanaging its publicity. Already, the League

16625-426: Was fraud. In the 1887 New York state elections , George came in a distant third in the election for Secretary of State of New York . The United Labor Party was soon weakened by internal divisions: the management was essentially Georgist, but as a party of organized labor it also included some Marxist members who did not want to distinguish between land and capital , many Catholic members who were discouraged by

16758-539: Was hired as a printer for the newly created San Francisco Times . He was able to immediately submit editorials for publication, including the popular What the Railroads Will Bring Us (1868), which remained required reading in California schools for decades. George climbed the ranks of the Times , eventually becoming managing editor in the summer of 1867. George's first nationally prominent writing

16891-613: Was his 1869 essay The Chinese in California , in which he wrote that Chinese immigration should be ended before Chinese immigrants overrun the western United States. George worked for several papers, including four years (1871–1875) as editor of his own newspaper, the San Francisco Daily Evening Post , and for a time running the Reporter , a Democratic anti-monopoly publication. George experienced four tough years of trying to keep his newspaper afloat and

17024-424: Was immensely popular in 19th-century America and sparked several reform movements of the Progressive Era . He inspired the economic philosophy known as Georgism , the belief that people should own the value they produce themselves, but that the economic value of land (including natural resources ) should belong equally to all members of society. George famously argued that a single tax on land values would create

17157-607: Was in decline, and when it stood five candidates in the 1885 general election , they received a total of only 2,359 votes. McGhee soon assumed the Presidency of the League. In 1888, some members, around Keir Hardie , formed the Scottish Labour Party , and ceased to work with the League. McGhee left his post in 1889, to become honorary President of the National Union of Dock Labourers . Alexander Bowman

17290-442: Was opposed to tariffs , which were at the time both the major method of protectionist trade policy and an important source of federal revenue, the federal income tax having not yet been introduced. He argued that tariffs kept prices high for consumers, while failing to produce any increase in overall wages. He also believed that tariffs protected monopolistic companies from competition, thus augmenting their power. Free trade became

17423-622: Was passed eventually—but without the land tax. In 1931, the minority Labour government passed a land value tax as part III of the 1931 Finance act. However, this was repealed in 1934 by the National Government before it could be implemented. In Denmark, the Georgist Justice Party has previously been represented in Folketinget . It formed part of a centre-left government 1957–60 and was also represented in

17556-580: Was the land value tax of six percent which it levied in its territory. The German colonial empire had previously had economic problems with its African colonies caused by land speculation . One of the main reasons for using the land value tax in Jiaozhou Bay was to eliminate such speculation, which the policy achieved. The colony existed as a German protectorate from 1898 until 1914, when seized by Japanese and British troops in World War I . In 1922,

17689-459: Was to be advanced by the inhabitant, or by the owner of the ground, would be of little importance. The more the inhabitant was obliged to pay for the tax, the less he would incline to pay for the ground; so that the final payment of the tax would fall altogether upon the owner of the ground-rent. Both ground-rents and the ordinary rent of land are a species of revenue which the owner, in many cases, enjoys without any care or attention of his own. Though

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