February 23, 2017

How do you tax land deemed “junk space”?

Nicholas D Rosen writes that Henry George, “writing in 1879, noted that if labour-saving technology reached perfection, labourers would get nothing and capitalists would get nothing; all production would go to the owners of land, as land would still be needed despite automation”, “Instead of taxing robots, tax the land” February 23

And Rosen uses that to argue for “letting people keep what they earn by their own efforts, and putting the burden of taxes on those who enjoy the privilege of holding land that they did nothing to create.”

“what they earn by their own efforts”? Oops I thought we were referring to robots.

“privilege of holding land”? Oops, most people don’t care one iota about land; they just want to be close to each other, preferably close to the 1%, in order to have a better chance to make it. Recently Kjell A Nordström, a Swedish economist, mentioned in that in 30 years five million will inhabit Greater Stockholm and that other parts of the country emptied of people would become economic "junk space".

@PerKurowski