Land-Value Taxation: The Equitable Source of Public Finance

by Wenzer,K.C.

• ISBN13: 9780765604484
• ISBN10: 0765604485
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-06-01
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

This collection of 20 essays (18 of which are original) examines the merits and shortcomings of Land-Value taxation, which has a benign economic influence, and how it compares and contrasts with the conventional property tax. The latter is shown as deterring enterprise to the detriment of employment and as pushing up the cost of improving property with inflationary consequences. The former, with evidence from places where it is already in use, is shown to encourage optimum land use, foster employment, and prevent urban sprawl. One of the other benefits of Land-Value taxation is that it is not a tax that can be avoided or circumvented, helping to reduce the cost of tax collection and enforcement. Contributions by a distinguished, interdisciplinary group of scholars include four, previously unpublished essays by William S. Vickrey, the 1996 Nobel laureate in Economics.

Author Biography

Robert V. Andelson is professor emeritus of philosophy, Auburn University. He is also president of the International Union for Land-Value Taxation and Free Trade, and Distinguished Research Fellow of the American Institute for Economic Research Herbert Barry III is a professor at the University of Pittsburgh Hanno T. Beck is founder and president of the Benjamin Banneker Center for Economic Justice, Columbia, Maryland Harry Gunnison Brown was a distinguished economist who lived from 1880 until 1975. He received his Ph.D. from Yale in 1904. He taught economics there and subsequently at the University of Missouri, where he became chairman. After retirement he continued his role of educator at The New School, the University of Mississipi, and Franklin and Marshall Roy Douglas is emeritus reader at the University of Surrey, England Godfrey R. A. Dunkley has studied and tutored economics at the School of Economic Science in South Africa and served two terms as the president of the International Union for Land Value Taxation and Free Trade Fred E. Foldvary teaches economics at John F. Kennedy University, California State University at Hayward, and the University of California at Berkeley Extension Mason Gaffney is professor of economics at the University of California at Riverside Damon J. Gross received his Ph.D. in philosophy at the University of Iowa. He has taught part-time at a number of universities and is published in the fields of social and political philosophy C. Lowell Harriss is professor emeritus of political science, Columbia University; chairman of the Robert Schalkenbach Foundation; and faculty associate, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy Alanna Hartzok is state coordinator for the Pennsylvania Fair Tax Coalition Jerome F. Heavey is chairman of the Department of Economics and Business at Lafayette College and a senior adviser for the Fiscal Reform Project to the Russian Federation Vernon I. Saunders received his M.Sc. from the University of Western Ontario and worked for the Eastman Kodak Company T. Nicolaus Tideman is professor of economics, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University William Vickrey was a professor of economics at Columbia University. He was a Nobel laureate for economics in 1996 in sharing the honors with James Mirrless. He died shortly thereafter Kenneth C. Wenzer is a historian. He received his Ph.D. in history from the Catholic University of America Thomas R. West is associate professor of history at the Catholic University of America

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
Some Reasons That Americans Do Not Listen to Henry George	3	(10)
Kenneth C. Wenzer
A Modern Theory of Land-Value Taxation	13	(4)
William Vickrey
Simplification, Progression, and a Level Playing Field	17	(7)
William Vickrey
Henry George, Economies of Scale, and Land Taxation	24	(13)
William Vickrey
Propositions Relating to Site-Value Taxation	37	(9)
William Vickrey
Land Speculation and Land-Value Taxation	46	(12)
Harry Gunnison Brown
Tax Reform to Release Land	58	(42)
Mason Gaffney
Fundamental and Feasible Improvements of Property Taxation	100	(9)
C. Lowell Harriss
Taxing Land Is Better than Neutral: Land Taxes, Land Speculation, and the Timing of Development	109	(25)
T. Nicolaus Tideman
Interest Originating from Invested Rent: Social or Private?	134	(8)
Robert V. Andelson
Henry George: A Celebration of Land and Labor	142	(10)
Thomas R. West
The Rise of the British Land-Taxing Movement: How It All Began	152	(14)
Roy Douglas
Comments on the Problem of Public Revenue	166	(18)
Damon J. Gross
The Ethics of Rent	184	(21)
Fred E. Foldvary
Land-Value Taxation and Ecological-Tax Reform	205	(19)
Hanno T. Beck
Psychological Perspective on the Land-Value Tax	224	(15)
Herbert Barry III
Pennsylvania Farmers and the Split-Rate Tax	239	(30)
Alanna Hartzok
In Defense of the Two-Rate Property Tax	269	(8)
Vernon I. Saunders
Why Tax Land?	277	(8)
Godfrey R.A. Dunkley
The Single-Tax Fiscal System	285	(10)
Jerome F. Heavey
About the Contributors	295	(4)
Index	299