A Revised Geoist FAQ
What is geoism? What is land value taxation? Who was Henry George? What is Ricardo's law or rent?
If you don't know, you're in the majority. What if I told you there was a tax out there that was really a tax in name only and much more akin to a user fee. What if I told you this tax would actually lower animosity, most likely increase wealth production, was Non Agression Principle-compatible, fit my demand for expressing values, and could work in a statist society, an anarchist society, or almost any type of society in between? You'd probably call me insane or an idealist or something.
Sometimes, there are fundamental problems which can be addressed and whose solutions have little downside. So, what is there to know about this economic system you've never heard of? I outline the basics, based off of Todd Altman's Geolibertarian FAQ (which was itself a catalyst for my own economic and ethical views).
If you don't know, you're in the majority. What if I told you there was a tax out there that was really a tax in name only and much more akin to a user fee. What if I told you this tax would actually lower animosity, most likely increase wealth production, was Non Agression Principle-compatible, fit my demand for expressing values, and could work in a statist society, an anarchist society, or almost any type of society in between? You'd probably call me insane or an idealist or something.
Sometimes, there are fundamental problems which can be addressed and whose solutions have little downside. So, what is there to know about this economic system you've never heard of? I outline the basics, based off of Todd Altman's Geolibertarian FAQ (which was itself a catalyst for my own economic and ethical views).
Benefits Overview
Each of the following sections has benefits grouped by the type of things a certain person might care about. However, the entire list of benefits (I could think of) are listed here. These benefits presume geo-libertarianism with a citizen's dividend paid to all adults. The figures used are best estimates for The United States. In other political situations, your mileage may vary.
- Alleviates poverty without causing dependence
- People pay for what they receive, not for what they produces
- Reverses urban sprawl
- Lowers government operating costs
- Makes government more efficient
- Ends or severely curtails the clawback phenomenon
- May lowers apartment rents
- Lowers home/land purchasing prices
- Lowers start up costs for businesses
- Difficult to evade and doesn't lead to offshoring
- More transparent
- Simple and salient: The more complex the tax system, the easier it is for wealthy people to find loop holes.
- Lowers tax collection costs
- Untaxes productive activity
- Reduces taxes on ecologically-efficient activity
- Increases employment rates
- Increases the demand for labor and thus wages
- Sufficient rent collection will cause fringe land to be freely available, causing rents on owned land to decrease.
- Increases the supply of living and working spaces in highly demanded areas, which means lower rents.
- Provides a means to untax buildings and the property manager's improvements.
- Land owners compete for tenants with more effort eg fixing the AC, toliet, etc faster
- There’s no need for sales or income taxes which make products more expensive.
- With vacant lots and derelict buildings put to use, there’s more land left for homes, parks, public spaces, etc.
- Incentivizes activities like vertical urban farming (towers, rooftops, etc)... Even the roof top is a opportunity to collect rent if the landowner has an incentive to put the roof on the market.
- Incentivizes intensive organic/ permaculture farming techniques with more food grown per acre.
- Less expensive to become a "home owner"
- The funds that would go to a bank to pay a mortgage would instead be paid out to the government, replacing other taxes.
- Smooths "property" (ie land) market volatilty.
- No penalization for adding an extension to your home, fixing the shingles or repainting.
- No penalization for hiring people or for being employed.
- More space left for farming
- More space left for nature
- Under a land value tax, land rent/ value is a perpetually growing fund; the more land value that is recycled efficiently, the greater the surplus of rent there is. Tax expenditure would be judged by how much it raised land values. Expenditure that raises land value by more than the expenditure itself is considered efficient spending.
- Regardless of how much is spent on welfare, there is less need/ demand for welfare.
- Wages are by and large created by individuals. Taxing these activities reduces individual incentive to work hard. A land value tax is much fairer and creates better incentives than other taxes since land value is created by the activity of the community around the land instead of the individual landowner.
- Progressive taxation does not mean that poorer people pay less. Rich people pay higher taxes yes, but those that own land are poised to recollect all of the taxes they pay and much more through passive increases in land value, value created by public investment in services and infrastructure.
- Fairness in taxation is not paying in proportion to ability to pay, it’s paying for benefits received.Only then do we truly create the means for social justice and economic growth.
- Less power to the banks - people don't need as large of a mortgage because it's more "pay as you go"
- Less interest to the banks for the same reason
- Helps reduce the Austrian side of the boom/bust cycle because most of the malinvestment is into economic land.
- Less need to work for others - shorter work week, more leisure time
- Easier for young people to get started in life
- Reduces crime
- Allows smaller governments or maybe even anarchy
The Undeniable Logic of The Harm of Non-Compensatory Exclusion from Nature
Forget practicality, forget justice, human goal actualization, whatever. If you believe in either the self-ownership principle or the harm test, then you are forced to recognize the injustice of non-compensation for exclusive control of natural opportunities.
My logic is undeniable.
My logic is undeniable.
Good for the Economy
Good for Ecology
Good for Liberty
Good for Humans
The Homesteading Principle is a Dead End
The FairTax is a Scam
I hate wage taxes and I think most people do too even if they accept that "taxes are the price we pay for civilization." The IRS has turned into one of the most feared agencies carrying the power to make someone's life a living hell. Businesses have gone bankrupt, houses have been lost, families have been broken up all due to the IRS.
Given the horrors of the current system, almost anything seems better. There is one system that has been proposed as a revenue-neutral replacement to get rid of the wage tax and IRS (at least in one's personal life) - the FairTax. An unfortunate number of libertarians have jumped on board with this tax despite it being terrible (though, arguably, not as terrible as wage taxes).
I believe that the FairTax is both misguided and dangerous and it distracts people from asking certain important tax policy and political structure questions necessary to get more liberty.
Given the horrors of the current system, almost anything seems better. There is one system that has been proposed as a revenue-neutral replacement to get rid of the wage tax and IRS (at least in one's personal life) - the FairTax. An unfortunate number of libertarians have jumped on board with this tax despite it being terrible (though, arguably, not as terrible as wage taxes).
I believe that the FairTax is both misguided and dangerous and it distracts people from asking certain important tax policy and political structure questions necessary to get more liberty.
Trapitalism
Why LVT can't be Passed On
Implementation Details
Why New Hampshire is Winning
LVT and Cigarettes : An Absurd but True Connection
