Re: Relative poverty, a problem?

On Mon, 02 Apr 2007 08:11:00 -0400, Bob Kolker <nowhere@xxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

royls@xxxxxxxxx wrote:

No, I proved it. You just didn't understand the proof because you
don't know any economics. LVT would reduce the tax burden on farming
because it would end the taxation of the farmer's inputs and
production, and would only recover what the farmer would otherwise be
paying to the landowner for doing nothing.

Yeah. Instead the money will be going to the government for doing
nothing.

That is of course a stupid lie. The rent of land is principally
_created_ precisely by the services and infrastructure government
provides, and the opportunities and amenities the community (of which
government is the sole legitimate agent) provides.

You will notice that the government did not once blessed thing
to create the unimproved land.

But it of course created most of the land's unimproved value, which is
what the LVT recovers. It also created and secures the private
landowner's title to the land, without which it would be of little or
no use to him.

Stupid liar.

It merely -claims ownership- and

No, that is just another stupid lie. Government only administers
possession and use of land in the capacity of trustee. The only
alternative to such an arrangement is the Law of the Jungle, and the
sort of existence Hobbes so accurately described as "solitary, poor,
nasty, brutish and short."

fortifies the claim with the tools of force and violence.

There is no possible method of allocating land other than force. It
is either the private force of feudal warlords and their private
armies of mercenaries, thugs and psychopaths, or the public force of a
government by and for the people. The historical record regarding
which is better for people could hardly be less ambiguous.

The government
becomes the very landlord you despise.

No, stupid liar, because unlike the private landowner, the government
doesn't just _KEEP_ the money for itself. It spends it for the
purposes and benefit of the public, mostly in ways that create the
land rent in the first place. And the public that government
represents is due just compensation for the violation of its right to
use the land.

So the government is far better qualified to recover the land rent
than a private landlord for two independently conclusive reasons:

1. Unlike the private landowner, the government helps create the land
rent.
2. Unlike the private landowner, the government does not just keep the
rent, it spends it for the purposes and benefit of the public that
both helps create the rent and is owed compensation for being deprived
of the land.

You are destroyed.

And please do not tell me how
governments somehow embody the society or the public. Look at the U.S.
government and you will see just how wrong that is.

I agree that there are good governments and bad -- and some are very
bad. But there is no such thing as a good society that lacks a
government altogether, and any government will be improved through
recovering land rent for its expenditures.

-- Roy L
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: whats wrong with eastern germans?
    ... When the land is privately owned, and the land rent is ... When a competent government spends money on pretty much anything, ... given away to private landowners for doing nothing. ...
    (sci.econ)
  • LVT, more arguments against---again
    ... would be reasonable not to tax land, since there was no rent to tax. ... land is never absolute---and that includes the right of government to levy ... compensation. ...
    (sci.econ)
  • A trip into Indias rebel-held territory
    ... government can't stamp out ... This land has been occupied. ... Mr. Purusiti has title to five acres outside the village of Bikrampur, ...
    (soc.culture.pakistan)
  • Re: Lucas: Shame on the redistributionists
    ... >private ownership and returned to the government for administration. ... Government administers possession and use of the land within its ... >people who never killed anyone but simply and honesty paid full market ... "Pure ground rent is in the nature of a 'surplus,' which can be taxed ...
    (sci.econ)
  • Royal Wealth (continued)
    ... The Crown Property Bureau and How it Got That Way: ... The history of the land owned by the Thai monarchy, ... The government funds flowing into the PPB increased to about 15 percent of state ... In bargaining over his diminished role, King ...
    (soc.culture.malaysia)