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Wealth and Want | |||||||
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Fred
Foldvary Look for many more of Fred's writings at progress.org: The Ultimate Tax Reform: Public Revenue from Land Rent
Rent is the highest bid that a
normal tenant would pay for the
use of
land. Economists have divided the resources that go into production
into land, labor, and capital goods. The wealth that is produced is
distributed to the owners of these three "factors of production." That
portion that goes to landowners is rent. ...
Land includes all natural resources, including
A
tenant's payment for a site
has two
components.
Real-estate land rent and
rentals arise from the differing
productivity
of various sites: rent is the
differential between the productivity of
a site relative to the least productive marginal sites. ...
If we regard human beings as having equal moral worth, then it is morally wrong for some to be masters and others slaves. Each person therefore has proper moral ownership of his labor and wage. Such self-ownership does not extend to land, but people may properly have individual rights to possess land, since this is necessary for the application of labor, and it is efficient for land to be under private title and control. But it is not necessary for efficiency for the pure land rent to belong to the individual title holder. ... Rent is therefore the ideal source of general public and community revenue. ... The economic rent from minerals, water, and oil would be natural resource royalties that could be paid by bidding for the rights to extract, from payments based on the amount of mining, and the profits from the operations, depending on the circumstances. ... he philosophy and economics of using rent for community services and sharing the rent equally is called "geoism." The economist Henry George popularized this idea, so it has been called "Georgism" after him, although the concept was proposed a hundred years earlier by the French economists calling themselves the Physiocrats, physiocracy meaning the rule of natural law.
Geo-Rent: A Plea to Public Economists LAND AND ITS UNIQUENESS
GEO-RENT ASSESSING GEO-RENT IS EASY COMPARED TO ASSESSING SALES, INCOME, OR PROFITS GRADUAL REFORM: 20 YEARS TO 75 PERCENT NO EXCESS BURDEN MAINSTREAM LITERATURE: READ BETWEEN THE LINES Producer Surplus
Deadweight Loss Analysis The Henry George Theorem Capitalization Public Goods Externalities Club Models The Tiebout Model HOW LARGE IS THE GEO-RENT
TAX-BASE?
One bids less for land that has tax liabilities and on which profits are lower. Untax the economy, and the economy would produce greater output, which would be capitalized into higher geo-rent. OTHER ADVANTAGES OF TAPPING GEO-RENT Geo-rent taxation would
reduce sprawl ...
Dampening cycles... Tax-base of last resort ... PRIVATIZING THE
NEIGHBORHOOD
CONCLUSION Abstract:
This paper presents
an analysis of what is termed “geo-rent,” what the
plot-devoid-of-improvements would rent for in an auction. Most of the
public finance literature and current thought has disvalued and
misunderstood the actual and potential role of land and its rent for
public revenue. The qualities of land value that make it a superior
source of revenue — having little or no deadweight loss, and
capitalizing civic infrastructure and services — are recognized but
compartmentalized, ignored in the broader policy discussions. That the
“producer surplus” is in reality mostly land rent is little recognized.
The “Henry George Theorem” that rent can optimally equal the cost of
public goods is not applied to policy issues. Public finance theorists
and economists generally presume that land rent is an insignificant
portion of national income, whereas studies have estimated that a
substantial portion of government revenue could be obtained from
geo-rent. The shunting aside and disparagement of public revenue from
geo-rent has distorted economic analysis and contributes to iatrogenic
economy-hampering fiscal policy. The paper proposes a broader and more
integrated public economics which recognizes the fundamental role of
land in economies and fully incorporates the analysis of public revenue
from land rent.
The Living WageThere is a proposal in San
Francisco, California, to
establish a minimum wage of $11 per hour for companies that provide
services or lease land from the city. Those who favor this argue that
the high cost of living in San Francisco warrants requiring this wage
floor so that those workers can afford housing and other living
expenses. ...
If many workers in the city were to receive a net increase in wages, this extra money would be a pot of gold for their landlords.
So the effect of local "living
wage" laws are
generally higher taxes, higher rents and fewer services for the
residents, greater inequality, and not that much improvement in the
well-being of the poorest workers and of the city community. The
superficial appeal of this programs that only treats the effects of
poverty dissolves when subjected to economic analysis.
The fundamental reason why the least-able workers have low wages is that their labor has a low productivity and that a large chunk of their wage is taken away by taxes. The best remedy is to deal with the root cause of the problem: change the school system to raise the educational level of the students, and stop taxing wages when earned or spent. Shift the tax base from wages to land rent. These reforms would raise the pure market wages of the least able workers. Then employers would willingly pay the higher wages because the workers are worth it. Read the whole article Well being and being well off I see three ways in which one
can define "well off."
First, one is better or worse off relative to the distribution of wealth or income in a particular society. ... Secondly, being well off can be thought of as relative to the typical person in the economy. ... Third, one can define "well off" in absolute terms. ... Being absolutely well off means,
With liberty, one is free to establish whatever relationships one wishes, so long as others are also willing. With liberty and the ability to obtain wealth, one can obtain assurance of future wealth both because one is able to earn it and also because one is able to store wealth and insure oneself against risk. My Dictionary of Free-Market Economics defines "well-being" as "The amount and degree to which individuals in an economy are able to pursue and attain their ends." The only requirement for absolute well being, for someone who is mentally and physically able to produce wealth, is liberty. With liberty, one can obtain wealth, friends, and future security, express oneself as one pleases, and enjoy life in accord with one's values and lifestyle preference. Being absolutely well off does not involve any particular level of wealth beyond subsistence, since this depends on personal preference. An artist may prefer to live at subsistence and devote her time to art, and that person is absolutely well off because she is pursuing happiness in her own way. As with relative well being, one can be well off in the absolute sense without being happy, as for example a person who has much wealth but has lost love or has a serious illness. What is required for there to be complete liberty? There must be a basic law such that any act that does not invade the domain of others is not prohibited or taxed. In liberty, there are only prohibitions if there are victims who are coercively harmed, and there is restitution for damages to others. In liberty, people have equal rights and no special legal privileges. In a free society, nobody starves, because one is able to save for the future, because on obtains one's equal share of natural and civic benefits, and because the sympathy of society will not let people starve. The economic policy of liberty has four rules:
Chapter 01: ... The Foundations
of Economic Theory
Chapter 02: ... Labor and its Wages Chapter 03: ... Land and its Rent Chapter 04: ... Capital Goods Chapter 05: ... Time and Interest Chapter 06: ... Consumption and Demand Chapter 07: ... Production and Profit Chapter 08: ... Industrial Organization Chapter 09: ... Social Problems Chapter 10: ... The Pure Market Economy Chapter 11: ... Money, Inflation, and Banking Chapter 12: ... The Business Cycle Chapter 13: ... Environmental Economics Chapter 14: ... Economic Growth, Development, and Population Chapter 15: ... Governance and Public Choice Chapter 16: ... Public Goods and Public Finance Chapter 17: ... The National Economy Chapter 18: ... International Trade Chapter 19: ... History and Schools of Economic Thought Chapter 20: ... The Law of Human Progress Underprivileged or Rights-Deprived? Poor folk are often labeled
"underprivileged" and richer folk are called "privileged." For example,
there is a book titled "One Nation,
Underprivileged: Why American Poverty Affects Us All."
But "privileged" and "underprivileged" are confused and misleading
expressions. If you think the poor are "underprivileged," then you
don't really understand poverty.
What is a "privilege?" The term originally meant "private law." A privilege is a special advantage or prerogative or immunity or benefit given only to some people only because they have power or are favored by those with power. If everyone is entitled to something, like freedom of expression, or if everyone may obtain an item such as a passport with the same rules applying to all, then it is not a privilege but a right. Whether a rich person is "privileged" depends on how he got the money. ... So if a person is poor, it is not because he is lacking in special protections, subsidies, and other privileges. A person is usually poor because he has been deprived of the natural right to work. Governments world-wide impose barriers between labor and productive resources, keeping some workers deprived of labor and others who do work deprived of their earnings from labor. Taxes on wages create a wedge between the cost of labor to employers and the take-home pay of the worker. More costly labor results in less employment. Taxes on the income from capital goods and on the sale of goods has the same effect. There are unemployment taxes, disability taxes, and payroll taxes that increase the tax wedge. On top of that, there are minimum-wage laws that prevent the least productive workers from getting hired. There are permits, zoning, and other rules and costs that also prevent some workers from becoming self-employed. Deprived of the full natural right to peaceful enterprise and labor, and the natural right to fully keep one's earnings, the poor have little or no income, and depend on charity and governmental assistance. To call them "underprivileged" is a lie. The rights-deprived poor do not need privileges. They just need government to stop interfering with their right to work and save! The biggest privilege world-wide is subsidies to landowners. ... There has been confusion about what is a right and what is a privilege. ... Some consider a patent a privilege, but it too is a right. ... Some also consider a corporation to be a privilege, since the firm has a charter from a government. ... Real privileges are favors arbitrarily given to some groups and not others. ... The really underprivileged folks are all consumers, taxpayers and those who are restricted from peaceful and honest practices or have to pay extra to the government while others are unrestricted and non-taxed. These people lack privileges which others have. The proper remedy is not to expand privileges, but to eliminate all governmental privileges. That is why libertarians and geoists alike have the motto: "Equal rights for all; privileges for none!" Read the whole article |
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Wealth
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... because democracy
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prosper
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