The Land Questions: #35 -- the land in the path of progress (1)

a bit out of sequence ...

35. He worked hard.  He played by the rules. He bought up land before the interstate highway was announced, and his widow and orphans now have a very valuable land portfolio, for which others will pay a high purchase price or high lease prices for generations.  Is it right to exact an estate tax of 50% or so on the true market value of that estate?

A. No! Widows and orphans must be protected!  We wouldn't want them to have to depend on the social safety net.

B. No! The dollars he spent to buy that land decades ago were already subject to an income tax -- maybe two (federal and state) -- and the heirs are entitled to keep all the increase from the purchase price, even if that is a 20% increase, or a 200% increase, or a 2000% increase, over the purchase price.

C. No! The man had foresight, and we ought to honor, reward and encourage that!

D. No!  The interstate highway could have been re-routed, and the man and his widow and children could have been left high and dry.  They took a risk, and we ought to reward them for their brilliance!

E. An estate tax is a good way to capture this socially-created windfall once per generation.  After all, he can't take it with him.  Half for the heirs, half for the community that created the value. Seems fair, and keeps them out of the social safety net.

F. An estate tax is better than nothing, but it is a poor alternative to collecting some significant portion of the rental value of the land, month in and month out, whether that rental value be low (before the interstate highway's route is determined) or high (after it is announced and built, and the community grows up around that highway).

G. Your suggestions?

Comments

[David Chester]

Answer G should follow with an explanation about how imperfect the present system of land tenure is. None of these proposed solutions are satisfactory so any one of them has practical aspects which do have some appeal and sense of justice. The replacement of privately owned land by leasing from the government with compensation paid to the land owner is difficult to adjust to, but it should be the bottom line.