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| Wealth and Want | |||||||
| ... because democracy alone is not enough to produce widely shared prosperity. | |||||||
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Burdening
the Poor Henry George: The Single Tax: What It Is and Why We Urge It (1890) (c) The taxation of the
processes and products of labor on one hand, and the insufficient
taxation of land values on the other, produce an unjust distribution of
wealth which is building up in the hands of a few, fortunes more
monstrous than the world has ever before seen, while the masses of our
people are steadily becoming relatively poorer. These taxes necessarily
fall on the poor more heavily than on the rich; by increasing prices,
they necessitate a larger capital in all businesses, and consequently
give an advantage to large capitals; and they give, and in some cases
are designed to give, special advantage and monopolies to combinations
and trusts. On the other hand, the insufficient taxation of land values
enables men to make large fortunes by land speculation and the increase
of ground values — fortunes which do not represent any addition by them
to the general wealth of the community, but merely the appropriation by
some of what the labor of others creates.
This unjust distribution of
wealth develops on the one hand a class idle and wasteful because they
are too rich, and on the other hand a class idle and wasteful because
they are too poor. It deprives men of capital and opportunities
which would make them more efficient producers. It thus greatly
diminishes production. ... read
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Wealth
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... because democracy
alone hasn't yet led to a society in which all can
prosper
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