What is Georgism?
Georgism is an economic and political philosophy based on the writings of the American Henry George. It starts with a simple idea: nobody made the land, so nobody has a natural right to hold it for private gain without paying the community. George wanted to tax the value of land itself, not the buildings on it, and not wages, goods or savings. He believed that this tax would pay for government, cut out unfair profits from owning land, and push people to use sites well. Georgists are neither classic socialists nor free-market purists. They accept markets, private business and property in what people build. They want the gains from land and natural resources to be shared.
Core beliefs
- Land and natural resources are the common heritage of all people.
- The rental value of land is created by the community and should go to the community.
- People should keep the full rewards of their labor and capital.
- A tax on land value should replace taxes on work, trade and buildings.
- Land speculation causes booms, busts and poverty alongside plenty.
- Markets work best when monopoly gains from land are removed.
History
Henry George was a journalist and self-taught thinker who saw poverty grow next to wealth in booming California. In 1879 he published Progress and Poverty, which asked why progress did not end want. The book became a worldwide bestseller. In 1886 George ran for mayor of New York City, backed by labor groups, and finished second, ahead of Theodore Roosevelt. He died in 1897 during a second campaign. Georgist ideas spread widely. Tom L. Johnson, mayor of Cleveland from 1901 to 1909, was a leading follower. Lizzie Magie patented a board game in 1904 called The Landlord's Game, meant to show the harm of land monopoly, and it later influenced Monopoly. Georgism influenced reformers in Britain, Australia, Denmark and Taiwan, where Sun Yat-sen drew on George's ideas. The Nobel winning economist William Vickrey was a later supporter.
Variants
Some Georgists favor a single tax on land value as the only tax. Others see it as one important tax among several. They also differ on where the money should go: some want a citizen's dividend paid to everyone, others want it spent on public services. Modern writers extend the idea to other scarce public assets, such as the radio spectrum, mineral rights and even carbon emissions. A few strands lean toward the free market and others toward the left.
Criticisms
Critics say the land tax would not raise enough to pay for a modern state, so a single tax is unrealistic. Valuing land separately from the buildings on it is hard, particularly in dense cities. Many people bought land believing it was a safe asset, and critics say that taxing away its rent would be unfair to current owners unless they are compensated. Some economists worry that heavy taxes could hurt farmers and small owners with little cash. Georgists reply that land taxes are among the hardest to dodge, that assessment methods have improved, and that the transition could be gradual.
In practice
Pure Georgism has rarely been tried, but parts of it exist. Some places tax land more heavily than buildings, as Pittsburgh did for decades in the twentieth century. Hong Kong has long funded its government partly through public land leases. Denmark has a small Georgist party, and economists often praise land value taxes as efficient. On the 12 axes it scores toward Free on Markets and strongly toward Global on Trade, with a lean toward Democratic on Authority.