Re:An Analysis of Motivations for Income Redistribution [pdf]
by ArkyBeagle on Friday September 09, 2016 @08:23PM
(#12467003)
Maybe it's just me? Georgism is inherently about the proposition that taxing labor rather than rents is inherently immoral. That's rather the point of it.
I'd just like to see rents in general taxed rather than labor taxed. The theory of rents provides a means to distinguish between ... "socially useful" wealth and "sort of parasitic" wealth."
As you note, there's nothing original about this.
Re:An Analysis of Motivations for Income Redistribution [pdf]
by aninhumer on Friday September 09, 2016 @08:45PM
(#12467080)
Well I'm highly suspicious of arguments that anything in economics is "inherently immoral". I prefer to talk about outcomes.
But in any case, I'm not suggesting a labour tax, I'm suggesting a wealth tax. I think my argument is similar to George's: just as LVT encourages efficient use of land, a wealth tax encourages efficient use of wealth in general.
What I'm talking about simply owning the factory (or perhaps a better example is owning a car company, without managing it yourself).
I'm familiar with Georgism, but I had a similar confusion about land value tax. I just don't see what's so special about land compared to capital goods. I'd rather have a general wealth tax.