The Single Tax: A Seattle Paper Takes On Henry George

The single tax aims to abolish all other taxes, direct and indirect, federal and state as well as municipal. The whole aim and scope of Henry George's philosophy is to abolish private ownership of land, and the single tax is a mere device to accomplish that end without too much disturbance of existing forms. On pages 363-365 of "Progress and Poverty" George says:

"We should satisfy the law of justice, we should meet all economic requirements, by at one stroke abolishing all private titles, declaring all land public property and letting it out to the highest bidders in lots to suit, under such conditions as would sacredly guard the private right to improvements.

"We already take some rent in taxation. We have only to make some changes in our modes of taxation to take it all.

"In this way the state may become the universal landlord without calling herself so, and without assuming a single new function. In form the ownership of land would remain just as now. No owner of land need be dispossessed, and no restriction need be placed upon the amount of land any one could hold. For, rent being taken by the state in taxes, no matter in whose name it stood or in what parcels it was held, it would be really common property, and every member of the community would participate in the advantage of its ownership."

Under the single tax there is no way of ascertaining "actual land values," except by putting up the land to the highest bidder at frequent intervals; the present assessed values are sometimes much above, sometimes much below the real value; the aim of the single tax is to take the actual rental value of land yearly as an impost; whoever takes the full rent of the land which the single tax theory requires owns the land, and the occupier must pay rack rent or run the risk of dispossession.

These are some of the obvious objections to the single tax theory if it were placed in practice, which it never will be, because the farmers, the workingmen and the mechanics will never accept the proposal of Mr. George to put all taxes on the rental value of the land. They will persist in their endeavor to compel personal property to pay its share of the cost of government, despite the fact that the practical difficulties in the way of bringing personal property to book are very great.

We can understand the enthusiasm with which land reformers welcomed Henry George in England, because in England the land tax was fixed in law under the reign of William the Third. Since that date the land has increased in value immensely, but the tax has never been altered save when it has been remitted. The national taxes in England have been levied on the people and the local taxes have been levied, not on the property but on the tenants. The renters in England have been taxed to pay for betterments that have prompted grasping landlords to advance rents. But in America the farmer pays in taxes "the unearned increment" of his lands, and George's proposition to confiscate all the rent of land proper, exclusive of buildings and other improvements, by taxation finds no favor with the American farmer or workingman who have any property, because they see that the George theory reduced to practice would rob labor and increase the income of the plutocrat, would dismantle the cottage and protect the palace.

Under George's scheme the poor would really be robbed to help the rich. The house that costs a million would pay no tax, while the lot on which it stands would pay no more tax than a similar lot owned by a mechanic. This would result in the confiscation of all small properties and concentration of all real estate in the hands of the most wealthy, for only the large buildings could pay the land tax. Those able to build the most expensive structures would be able to endure the tax that would mean confiscation to a poor house and landholder.

The single tax of course is not a real issue, and really obtains no serious attention from anybody save the lazy and unthrifty who dream, drool and lounge their lives away waiting for that Utopian hour when every idler who does something for nothing will get what he wants.