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... an American political economist , and the most influential proponent of the collection of the rental value of land as the sole income of the state. His philosophy was that of freedom, taxation was and is, a man made interferance with that philosophy.
Henry George ( 2nd September, 1839 – 29th October, 1897 ) The Georgist school of thought takes its identity from the work and insights of 19th century journalist, economist, and political leader Henry George, who died in 1897 at the young age of 57. In his short life, however, he managed to spawn a school of economics of lasting impact, based on his prolific writing and speaking as well as his dedicated pursuit of economic justice H. William Batt, Ph.D. The general framework of George's social philosophy is rooted in the view of Thomas Jefferson that the root cause of social problems is an inequality of rights.
The problem Henry George addresses is the problem of involuntary poverty. He sees this problem essentially as one of unequal rights to land. His teaching is founded upon the right to use land, land being the whole material universe, the "reservoir" as he says, from which all production comes. Because we are many the right to use land is an equal right.
Henry George argues that the task of government is to secure these equal rights to land for everyone. However, George points out that observation of the institution of private property in land shows that it entails the very opposite of equal rights in land.
In the social law of rent (the fact that productivity is enhanced by location) George finds an "adjustment" in nature that permits government to secure the equal right to land. For, if government took the value of locations, each would be left with land of equal value. By discouraging the holding of land for gain this charge would also permit all to use land.
The value given by location is land value. If collected taxes on production might be done away with. For that reason his proposal was called a 'single tax'. Some have reduced that proposal to some limited use of land value taxation.
More generally George gave a proposal that assists in the resolution of many land problems. Where land is held exclusively the occupant must pay for the social and natural advantages that constitutes the value of its location. Other land is common and subject to the equal right of all to use. The "market value" of such land and of those common services on it are captured in the value of land held exclusively.
George considered that the value of land would rise faster than wages as a proportion of production. He also believed that it exceeded the needs of government and that it might be made use of for cultural puposes or distributed among the citizens as a kind of 'dividend'.
In 1886 George ran for mayor of New York, and polled second (ahead of Theodore Roosevelt). He ran again in 1897, but died 4 days before the election. An estimated 100,000 people attended his funeral . Progress and Poverty, and his other writings, made Henry George the third most famous man in the USA, behind only Mark Twain and Thomas Edison . (http://www.schalkenbach.org/who-was-henry.html) An attempt by the British Liberal Government of the day to implement a penny in the £ (0.4%) rate on land value in 1909 as part of the budget caused a crisis in Britain which led directly to reform of the House of Lords. Henry George was familiar with the work of Karl Marx – and predicted that if Marx's ideas were tried the likely result would be a dictatorship. Henry George's popularity declined in the 20th century ; however, there are still many Georgist organisations in existence, and many people who remain famous were heavily influenced by him, such as George Bernard Shaw , Leo Tolstoy , Sun Yat Sen , and David Lloyd George. A follower of George, Lizzie Magie , created the board game Monopoly in 1904 to demonstrate his theories. In his last book, Martin Luther King referenced Henry George in support of a guaranteed minimum income. (http://www.progress.org/dividend/cdking.html
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