HG in The Economist

[Frank de Jong]

In this week’s The Economist, a long article celebrates the newspaper’s 175th anniversary. In it, it says that liberals should focus on two serious problems. One of them is land; and they offer (on pp.48-49) a generous review of LVT and endorsement of Henry George himself. Their chart tracking the last 175 years logs 3 books, the first of which is the publication of P&P.

https://www.economist.com/essay/2018/09/13/the-economist-at-175

Quote from the article: The best solution to this is not new: it was well known, and pursued by liberals, in the 19th century. Tax landowners according to the underlying market value of the land that they own. Such a tax would capture for society part of the windfall that accrues to a landowner when his local area thrives. Land taxes capable of replacing all existing property taxes (which are raised on the value of what sits on the land, rather than just the land itself) and then some would greatly sharpen the incentive to develop. Because the amount of land is fixed, a land tax, unlike most other taxes, does not distort supply. At the same time, ease planning restrictions. It is no good raising the incentive to develop if regulation then stands in the way. But development rights have been so far collectivised in many cities as to come close to undermining the very notion of property. The curtailment of development rights enriches even owners of vacant plots; if the windfall gains from soaring property values are heavily taxed, NIMBYism will not be such a profitable strategy. The problem is getting those owners to give up the windfall and submit to a land tax in the first place.