Are these questions TOUGH, or TAME? In any case, they'll come up eventually. Why not give 'em a try right now? Your Name: Your Email address 1. Your Zany Definitions Why do you define things this way? Do other economists define things this way or some other way? Is this just your weird conception of things? Will anyone else understand me if I use these definitions in conversation? 2. The Monopoly Thing Why do you say that land is a monopoly? I thought monopoly was about “cornering the market” on something. Anyone is free to buy and sell land at whatever price they can get for it, so what’s monopolistic about that? 3. Big Deal I don’t think land is anywhere near as important as you say. I read in an economics textbook that rent is less than 2% of national income. The real problem is with the fat cat rich people who control all the money. Don’t we need an income tax to keep them from getting even richer? 4. Margin of Production? Just an idea... When you say wages and interest depend on the margin of production, you are talking about times that are gone and will never come again. This is a modern economy. Nobody will be able to pack up and go to the frontier; that’s a fantasy. 5. Skyscrapers Everywhere! You say you want to discourage landowners from holding their land out of use, and that by removing taxes from improvements, you will encourage building. What’s to stop unrestrained new construction from eating up every bit of open space in the city? I think maybe we need a few vacant lots just for breathing room. 6. That’s MY land. I’ve earned the money to pay off the mortgage on my little scrap of real estate. I paid for my land fair and square and I ought to be able to do whatever I want with it - including sell it at a profit. That’s just how the system works. 7. What about the risk? Listen, the whole point of the free market is that individuals, making self-interested decisions, buy and sell things in an efficient way. Don’t people buy and sell real estate in an efficient way? Land speculators take risks like everyone else, and there is a need to compensate risk in a free market. So, doesn’t the landowner have a right to collect rent as compensation for the large risk undertaken in making that investment? 8. Exploitation! Maybe you can raise the Margin of Production a bit. But that won’t stop greedy capitalists from paying the workers as little as they possibly can. Large corporations will still use every opportunity to fix prices. This idea of yours simply is not revolutionary. 9. Confiscation! Henry George himself says that if all the land rent is all collected, then the selling price of land will go down to zero. You people are asking me to approve a reform that will take away the value of my land! You’re taking away my property without compensation! Why should I accept that? 10. What about the tax base? While we're on the subject, if collecting all the rent takes away the land's value, then isn't this tax system going to destroy its own base? Once the government collects the rent the first time, won't it be gone after that? 11. Rent is Unearned? How do you figure? George says that the rent of land is unearned by the landowner, but what about the land value that the landowner creates by putting up a huge improvement? That improvement brings people and business onto all the surrounding sites. Shouldn't the landowner be allowed to keep the rent that he or she created? | Home | Teachers Corner | Greaduate Research | Search |
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