Re: Eminent Domain Abuse

From: David Schwartz (davids_at_webmaster.com)
Date: 03/19/05 

Date: Sat, 19 Mar 2005 15:38:49 -0800

<royls@telus.net> wrote in message news:423cab3f.22976326@news.telus.net...
> On Sat, 19 Mar 2005 12:54:32 -0800, "David Schwartz"
> <davids@webmaster.com> wrote:
>
>>"Andy F." <never.mind@tesco.net> wrote in message
>>news:d90338f1.0503190543.4a16594a@posting.google.com...
>>
>>> This is where you're making a mistake. The laborer can only recover
>>> the value by making a prior agreement with the landowner.
>>
>> This assumes the land is already owned when he does the labor.
>
> ?? Why woudn't it be?

    Because land in raw form cannot be bought or sold. Someone has to expend
effort to make land ownable. You cannot buy land on Jupiter right now.

>>just as land on the moon is currently worthless and cannot even be
>>bought or sold.

> There is a difference between unimproved land and worthless land. See
> below. Land on the moon is not merely unimproved. It is economically
> worthless.

    Exactly. Someone has to add that value to the land. And when that
somoene adds that value, it is not somehow owned by "the community", it is
owned by the person who created it.

    The LVT argument rests on their being some "excess value" not created.
But there is no such "excess value". There only appears to be because you
look at the things that are already there.

>> Please precisely define what "unimproved" means.

> In its natural state, without fixed improvements, but _with_ any
> desirable qualities it has as a result of the usable services and
> infrastructure government provides, the opportunities and amenities
> the community provides, and the natural characteristics nature
> provides.

    This can only apply meaningfully to small pieces of land. This requires
the existence of "surrounding land". It does precisely what I claimed it
did, which is ignore how things got the way they are and just divvy up the
profits that have already been made.

    You look at the land we already have and the value it already has and
you say, "this is here, who gets it?". You totally ignore that it had to get
here somehow and that the people who made it are entitled to it.

    If the government provides instrastructure that improves the value of
that land, why can't it get that value by contract? If the community
provides services, why can't it charge for those services? Why is a tax
needed? A tax, by definition, exceeds the value of any service provided in
exchange for it. A tax, by definition, is not a voluntary payment and
doesn't require the consent of the taxee.

    If you want to say "government should be able to charge for the value of
any services it provides", then fine. Do you need to take consent out of the
picture?

    DS

Relevant Pages

  • Re: reasoned argument v. religious true belief
    ... Land is almost always ... often to escape the community, ... You can't encourage discoverers by telling them they can ... "And we can do the same thing with the land, people can trade ...
    (sci.econ)
  • Re: automated reply to Georgist spams
    ... Land is almost always ... often to escape the community, ... You can't encourage discoverers by telling them they can ... "And we can do the same thing with the land, people can trade ...
    (sci.econ)
  • Re: in reply to the Georgist spammer
    ... they invariably claim that recovery of publicly created land ... often to escape the community, ... You can't encourage discoverers by telling them they can ... "And we can do the same thing with the land, people can trade ...
    (sci.econ)
  • Re: automated reply to Georgist spams
    ... they invariably claim that recovery of publicly created land ... often to escape the community, ... You can't encourage discoverers by telling them they can ... "And we can do the same thing with the land, people can trade ...
    (sci.econ)
  • Re: automated reply to Georgist spams
    ... they invariably claim that recovery of publicly created land ... often to escape the community, ... You can't encourage discoverers by telling them they can ... "And we can do the same thing with the land, people can trade ...
    (sci.econ)
Quantcast