Georgism, named after Henry George (1839-1897), is a philosophy and economic ideology that follows from the belief that everyone owns what they create, but everything supplied by nature, most importantly land, belongs equally to all humanity.

Georgists argue that all of the economic rent (ie, unearned income) collected from land, broadcast spectrum, mineral extraction, tradable emission permits, fishing quotas, airway corridor use, seignorage, space orbits, etc. and extraordinary returns from "natural monopolies" should go to the community rather than the owner and that no other taxes or burdensome economic regulations should be levied. In practice that implies a high land value tax (LVT), although no change in land rental prices (other than those caused by reduction of other taxes and regulations) for reasons first explained by Adam Smith.

Synonyms and variants

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Most early advocacy groups described themselves as Single Taxers, and George endorsed this as being an accurate description of the movement's main political goal - the replacement of all taxes with a LVT. In the modern era, there are groups inspired by Henry George with more of an emphasis on environmentalism or monetary economics.

In today's more economically complex world, a quick and total change to LVT is very difficult to sell politically, so "Georgist" has come into vogue, being a more general term which encompasses even incremental changes towards the ideal of the replacement of all other taxes, with a Single Tax on land.

Some Georgists are not entirely satisfied with the label. Henry George is now little known and the principle predates him. Some use the term "Geoism", with the meaning of "Geo" deliberately ambiguous. "Earth Sharing", "Geoism", "Geonomics" and "Geolibertarianism" (see libertarianism) are also preferred by some Georgists, "Geoanarchism" is another one.. These terms reflect a difference of emphasis, and sometimes real differences about how land rent should be spent (citizen's dividend or just replacing other taxes); but all agree that land rent should be fully taxed.

Predecessors

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Those who expressed similar thoughts before Henry George include: Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, John Locke, John Stuart Mill, William Ogilvie of Pittensear, Thomas Paine (notably in "Agrarian Justice", 1795), William Penn, Adam Smith, Patrick Edward Dove, Herbert Spencer. Some anarchists have been near to Georgism in some points.

George's ideas were also predated by traditional land taxes in Japan and other countries.

Famous Georgists

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Winston Churchill, Clarence Darrow, David Lloyd George, George Grey, Walter Burley Griffin, Tom L. Johnson, Albert Jay Nock, Sun Yat Sen, Leo Tolstoy, Mark Twain, Herbert Simon, Francis Neilson, William F. Buckley, Jr..

In the 2004 Presidential campaign, Ralph Nader mentioned Henry George in his platform.^*

Single-tax communities

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• Arden, Delaware, founded 1900 by Frank Stephens and Will Price.
• Fairhope, Alabama, founded 1894 by Fairhope Single Tax Corporation

See also

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• Tragedy of the anticommons
• Mutualism
• Geolibertarianism
• Democratic Freedom Caucus
• Excess burden of taxation
• Anthropocentrism

External links

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• Henry George Foundation of America
• Henry George Papers, New York Public Library
• Understanding Economics
• Henry George Biography
• Robert Schalkenbach Foundation
• Center for the Study of Economics
• Maryland Land Value Tax Project

Taxation | Economic ideologies | Libertarianism | Heterodox economics | Georgismi | Georgisme | Georgisme