Progress & Poverty part 3

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ourearthhome | May 07, 2008

Wendell Fitzgerald, a longtime member of the Henry George School of San Franc...

ourearthhome | May 07, 2008

Wendell Fitzgerald, a longtime member of the Henry George School of San Francisco, talks about who Henry George was and some of his insights into economics, the cause of poverty amid great wealth and public policy especially around the issue of appropriate taxation. George's ideas have been suppressed since the beginning of the 20th century because vested interests did not like the fact that he pointed out an incontrovertible flaw in what is now known as free market economics.

Simply stated: the value of land is created by society as a whole due to the increase of population and its increasing ability to be productive all of which takes place on, in or from land. Individual landowners do not create the value of their land while they do create the value of improvements and the goods and services produced on the land. This simple insight led George and some of his predecessor to conclude that since the community needed a source of revenue to pay for community services, and because all of these services increased land value, that the most appropriate source of revenue was to assess against the value that community creates, i.e. land value. At the same time he said taxes on producers and improvements should be eliminated to avoid the incentive killing effect of such taxes. He pointed out that private collection of community created land value is not only an economic injustice against society as a whole and non-landowners in particular but but also was/is the prime motivation for land speculation and what we now know as urban sprawl and most if not all environmental abuse. Google Henry George and see HenryGeorgeSF.org.
Produced by DanShaw.com.

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Uploader Comments (ourearthhome)

  • 1 year ago

    Hi!

    HGS Chicago student. Watching now. My only comment right now is: A LITTLE government is a good thing. I think part of the genius of George's plan (public rent collection and no other taxes) is that it helps us right-size and decentralize government. In a more prosperous economy, many federal/state functions (e.g., welfare, "grants") would be exposed as redundant. The common sense of shifting all functions affecting purely local interests to local governments would become obvious.

    africkinamerican 1 year ago
  • 3 months ago

    @africkinamerican You have this correct. Big government would shrink and power would return to local governments. Local communities would become self sufficient in a way not possible without using the locally community created value of land as THE main source of revenue to pay for local government. The "relocalization" movement is beginning to catch onto this. A community cannot ever really relocalize if it depends on tax revenues and subsidies from non-local sources.

    ourearthhome 3 months ago
  • 2 years ago

    I'm confused by this part - if you have "title" to the land (for how long?) and you are paying "rent" to the government - who "owns" the land ?

    jbryant13 2 years ago
  • 2 years ago

    The title holder remains the owner and continues to have certain rights and obligations. Title holders can use, get loans against he property, rent the property and sell it. At the same time they are responsible for paying property taxes and any other assessments communities have against the property. I am suggesting that property owners be responsible only for paying taxes on their land value and not on the value of their improvements. Not really much different than the current situation.

    ourearthhome 2 years ago
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Video Responses

This video is a response to Capitalism vs Socialism (pt2): Government is a Good Thing!
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