Conversation

I have a lot of fans of Georgism / Harberger taxation in my life; naively requesting balance: what are the most interesting arguments against such property taxation schemes? n.b. Practical arguments like "people don't like it" or "it's politically impossible" aren't interesting!
10
25
This Tweet was deleted by the Tweet author. Learn more
Curious how you respond to George's specific args for land's specialness wrt rents, ie wages are earned from fruits of one's own labor; returns to land improvements are indirect products of labor; capital is "stored-up labor" and interest is oppt'y cost on labor derivatives; etc?
1
Capital being stored labor can be a helpful metaphor in some contexts but a metaphor is all it is. Whether a given thing is or is not capital in the first place depends on whether it is employed in a productive process, which in turn depends on ever-changing mental frameworks
1
The broader point is, George's idea that land's ininproved value is derived from factors wholly outside the control of its owner, and not merited by anything the owner did, is also true of almost everything we can own.
3