The case for a land value tax is overwhelming

A growing number of commentators, economists, and policymakers are calling for different approaches to taxation that recognized that land is a different kind of asset. This paywalled article is referenced here because it is coming from one of the leading economist / journalists in the mainstream press, The Financial Times. "

"A paper published by the Centre for Economic Policy Research in 2021, entitled “Post-Corona Balanced-Budget Super-Stimulus: The Case for Shifting Taxes onto Land”, provides a superb overview of all the relevant arguments for today. Its authors have also provided an excellent summary in VoxEU.

The moral case for separating the return on natural resources from that on other assets is that the former pre-exist human efforts. Their value depends on the latter, but most definitely not on those of their owners. The land under my house has, for example, increased enormously in value over the past few decades. I did nothing to earn this. It was the result of the efforts of all those who contributed to making London richer, including, of course, the public at large, through their taxes. A large part of the agglomeration value of productive cities is in this way captured by those who happen to own the land."

by Martin Wolf, The Financial Times

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