Comments on: How Would a Georgist Single Tax Work in Monopoly?

By: James James

James James — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 11:23:12 +0000

Georgism is out-dated; you don’t have to be a Georgist to advocate LVT. The most modern version of LVT ideology I’m aware of is Mark Wadsworth’s.

By: Isegoria

Isegoria — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 15:33:15 +0000

I'm not sure that Henry George understood unimproved land value as location value derived from improvements on others' land.

By: James James

James James — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 12:55:43 +0000

Not quite sure how your field would be valued if you and all your neighbours had removed the stones from the soil. This is clearly an improvement to the land, so shouldn’t be taxed, but I can’t think of a method designed to measure location value that wouldn’t accidentally tax the improvement.

By: James James

James James — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 08:51:00 +0000

One thing that took me a long time to grok was what is meant by the “unimproved value of the land”. This means the rental value of your land if it is unimproved, empty, but it doesn’t mean the rental value if everyone’s land was unimproved. It means the value of your land if it was empty but surrounded by improved land. E.g. if you owned a crater on Piccadilly surrounded by shops and hotels.

The idea is that it is location that gives your land its value, and that one reason locations are valuable is because of network effects. It’s much less confusing if instead of talking about the “unimproved value of the land”, you talk about “location value”.