Man cannot profit from owning capital without using it, which means to employ labor. Man can profit from owning land without using it, which means unemployed labor. A low tax on land will not add one foot to the State; a high tax will not drive one acre away. A low tax or no tax on capital will bring to the State the means of developing its resources and employing its labor; a high tax will drive capital away and leave unemployment.
Which is your town/city/county/state/nation going to do? Will she listen to the land speculators, and lower the taxes on vacant land? Or will she give heed to the business men and farmers, and lighten the taxes on industry? Much depends upon her decision.
adapted from Tax Facts, January, 1928.
Think about the unused and underused land within the borders of your town or city. It is not neutral. It is a drag on your economy and contributes nothing, whil the owner sits and waits for someone to meet his price. It is held out of use to create an unearned windfall for its owner.
We ought to examine our tax policies for the incentives which make it possible for some owners to put the land in their portfolio to little or no use. I'm not concerned with land of genuinely little value, but with land served by infrastructure that we-the-people have taxed ourselves to provide and maintain. We accord landholders a privilege in taxing them but lightly, month in and month out, on the value of their holdings. (At the same time, we make a big mistake by taxing the improvements and "personal" property, including vehicles and business equipment, of those who have improved their land to make it useful and productive. I am reminded of Enoch Ensley's important statement:
NEVER TAX ANY THING
THAT WOULD BE OF VALUE TO YOUR STATE,
THAT COULD AND WOULD RUN AWAY, OR
THAT COULD AND WOULD COME TO YOU.
Our elected representatives ought to be reminded of that, and then asked to ponder how to implement it. I commend to their attention Fred Foldvary's article "The Ultimate Tax Reform."
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