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  • Henry George: Progress and Poverty: An inquiry into the cause of industrial depressions and of increase of want with increase of wealth ... The Remedy
    This is perhaps the most important book ever written on the subjects of poverty, political economy, how we might live together in a society dedicated to the ideals Americans claim to believe are self-evident. It will provide you new lenses through which to view many of our most serious problems and how we might go about solving them: poverty, sprawl, long commutes, despoilation of the environment, housing affordability, wealth concentration, income concentration, concentration of power, low wages, etc. Read it online, or in hardcopy.
  • Bob Drake's abridgement of Henry George's original: Progress and Poverty: Why There Are Recessions and Poverty Amid Plenty -- And What To Do About It!
    This is a very readable thought-by-thought updating of Henry George's longer book, written in the language of a newsweekly. A fine way to get to know Henry George's ideas. Available online at progressandpoverty.org and http://www.henrygeorge.org/pcontents.htm

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« The Earth-for-All Calendar: February 16 -- Necker | Main | A 1938 NYT Letter to the Editor: Collecting Ground Rent »

February 16, 2012

The Land Questions: #16 -- Paying for War

16. How should we pay for the war in Afghanistan?

A. Don't worry about that.  Our children should pay for it, and their children if necessary, with interest accumulating.  The economy will grow sufficiently that it will not unduly burden them.

B. We should pay for it via federal taxes on wages.

C. We should pay for it via a federal tax on sales (or consumption).

D. We should pay for it via a federal tax on land value; people and corporations (domestic or foreign) who own land in midtown Manhattan or downtown Los Angeles would pay a lot; those who own rural property would pay little or nothing.  Tenants' rents -- residential,  commercial, agricultural -- would cover their share, and be collected from landlords.

E. We should pay for it via royalties on non-renewable natural resources. (Whose natural resources?  from U.S. soil? from Afghanistan soil? other?)

F. Your suggestions?

Posted on February 16, 2012 at 05:15 AM in financing war, income tax, inter-generational equity, land value taxation, location, location, location, natural resource revenues, natural resources, oil, pay for what you take, payroll tax, public spending, sales taxes are wrong, the disenchanted, the land questions |

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