LVTFan is a reference to Land Value Taxation, and if there was ever a system of taxation that deserves to have fans, it is this one.
A bit of background. I was an American Studies major in college, and concentrated on Marketing in business school, both many decades ago. If you had told me, even 10 years ago, that I would ever be seriously interested in issues of public finance, I would have told you with great assurance that you had the wrong person. What could be interesting or important about how governments finance their spending? It struck me as a dreary topic, an offshoot of a dismal science.
How could public finance be relevant to the subjects that I care about? How could it make any significant difference in people's lives? We all know, of course, that taxes are bad for the economy, right? But beyond that, what difference?
I should have known better. I grew up knowing that my grandparents were passionate about a particular kind of tax reform. And despite their gentle and consistent encouragement, I never delved into the ideas they found so persuasive. It wasn't until after they were gone that I started exploring, starting with their files and their library, which I'd rescued from oblivion for sentimental reason. Slowly, even grudgingly, I came around to something pretty close to their point of view. And more surprising to me, I found it sufficiently compelling that I felt I needed to get actively involved in sharing these ideas.
About 25 years ago, I took some aptitude tests, and one of the recommendations I received at the time was that long term I should either open my own business or take on a grand cause. It never dawned on me that the grand cause would be perhaps the grandest out there -- poverty -- or that I might be able to make a useful contribution to its elimination.
And had it not been for the opportunities created by the existence of the internet, I would probably not have gotten involved. But I felt that perhaps I could make myself useful by creating a website that would help others find answers to their questions about this particular tax reform and the difference it could make in our society.
The website is http://www.wealthandwant.com/. The URL is from the subtitle to Progress & Poverty, the 1879 book which described the connection between the huge advances in technological progress and the increases in poverty -- evident even then. That subtitle is An inquiry into the cause of industrial depressions and of increase of want with increase of wealth ... The Remedy.
Hmm. wealth ... want ... industrial depressions .... very relevant in the 21st century.
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