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A Review of the Georgist Tax Remedy for Australia

Author/s: Garrick Small

Date Published: 1/01/2000

Published in: Volume 6 - 2000 Issue 2 (pages 46 - 51)

Abstract

Rent theory has been associated historically with the suggestion that land rent is a most suitable basis for public funding, giving rise to the single tax movement of Henry George. The political fortunes of the latter have been singularly unfavourable, and have tended to draw attention away from systematic study of rent theory. The recent trend in many texts has been to enumerate a set of shortcomings with rent theory that often owes more to a provincial rejection of the single tax proposal than to an informed and balanced critique of the apparent target. This paper reviews the fundamental political economy of land tax with special reference to Australia to demonstrate a separate set of shortcomings, not associated with rent theory. In this way the political impracticality is explained without challenging the validity of rent theory.

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Keywords

Henry George - Land Tax - Property Theory - Rent Theory - Tax Reform

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