Meritocratic Public Policy Institute

Presentation: A Proposal for Global Improvement Through a Single Land Value Tax (SLVT) System

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Economists, listed in Note #1 below, agree that a Land Value Tax (LVT) system is the ideal type of taxation.

 

The most notable theory, put forward by political economist Henry George (1839-1897), which came to be known as Georgism, was the Single Land Value Tax (SLVT), a taxation system wherein only land (which includes natural resources and opportunities to be derived from said) are taxed, and where no other types of taxation exist.

The effect of an SLVT system is to: 

• Increase the income of companies, workers, and governments;

• Reduce tax evasion, the tax burden on working citizens and on productive enterprises, unemployment, poverty, housing, and other costs of living;

• Improve income distribution, social equity, and overall quality of life

• Increase economic efficiency;

• Reduce, if not entirely eliminate the possibility of economic bubbles caused by soaring stock and/or real estate prices, as well as substantial levels of debt, which create artificial economic growth and eventually burst, resulting in economic crises (e.g., long-term recession, stagnation, inflation, stagflation);

• Maximize returns on public investments;

• Reduce corruption; and

• Improve governmental functioning in general

 

It is our estimation that any stable nation that implements an SLVT system will, within the first year of its introduction, show a:  

• 10% increase in GDP;

• 30% increase in productive labor-derived corporate/business revenues;

• 50% increase in government revenues;

• 50% increase in workers’ salaries;

• 50% reduction in unemployment, and

• 20% reduction in poverty

 

It is our further belief that this system would all but erase unemployment within five (5) years of implementation, and poverty within ten (10) years.

 

Our belief in these figures is based on evidence of LVT system success in Hong Kong (HK) and Singapore (SG), both of which have the world’s highest government land income and lowest LCTs. They are among the world’s best performing economies.

 

According to Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Freedman, global development factors will make it more necessary and easier to implement SLVT. We estimate that within the next decade those factors will make SLVT implementation essential.

 

We have prepared a report on SLVT. It will serve as a foundational document toward the development of a PhD dissertation. To accomplish this, further research, discussion/engagement with citizens, corporations, unions, political parties, and governments will be required. When a PhD-level text has been produced, we will work to implement a successful pilot project within a population center of approximately 10,000 inhabitants. Assuming success, it would, thereafter, be applied to areas with larger populations. Absent this approach (which may be viewed as more academic and top-down) direct and immediate engagement with citizens, corporations, unions, political parties, and governments may inspire the creation of a coalition of SLVT policy supporters. Such a scenario might offer a bottom-up implementation strategy.

 

 

Accordingly, we are looking for partners, as well as endorsements by organizations and individual supporters. As regards cost, for the 2017-19 period, we estimate that we will need just under US$ 150,000.

 

In comparison to prior economic theories and ideas propounded by Georgist organizations, our innovations include:

 

1. All government income being derived solely from Land Economic Rent (LER) revenue. This is in keeping with concepts put forward by 18th century Enlightenment French economists, known as the Physiocrats, who argued that all taxation is ultimately at the expense of land rental values and Land Value Taxes (LVTs). Labor and capital (LC) would not pay Labor and Capital Taxes (LCTs) based upon their own profits/costs but, rather, it would come from LER earnings;

2. A guaranteed method for government revenues to increase up to 50% immediately after SLVT implementation;

3. Strategies to implement an SLVT system;

4. Information, data, and estimates that will incentivize a significant proportion of a given population, its government and the companies operating within a particular region to accept SLVT.

 

As you learn more about this project, we’d like to hear from you and to discover how we can best develop the partnerships that will see this initiative through to success. If you or your organization are inclined toward such a partnership, we’ll be especially interested in hearing from you.

 

Meritocratic Public Policy Institute: www.meppin.org  

 

Notes: 

1. Adam Smith, David Ricardo, Henry George, James Mill, John Stuart Mill, John Dewey, as well as Nobel Prize winning economists James Buchanan, Milton Friedman, Franco Modigliani, Paul Samuelson, Herbert Simon, Robert Solow, Joseph E. Stiglitz, James Tobin, and William Vickery.  Current Georgist economists include Harry Gunnison Brown, Raymond Crotty, Ottmar Edenhofer, Fred Foldvary, Mason Gaffney, Max Hirsch, Wolf Ladejinsky, Philippe Legrain, Donald Shoup, Nicolaus Tideman. Others: Albert Einstein, Winston Churchill, Woodrow Wilson, and Henry Ford. A more comprehensive list can be found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgism#Notable_Georgists  

2. Nobel Prize winning economist quotations: www.wealthandwant.com/themes/quotable_nobels.htm

3. Google, News, Videos:

      https://www.google.com.br/search?q=land+value+tax