Should be neoliberalism is destroying the illusion of liberal democracy.
Evonomics
Nobel Economist Says Inequality is Destroying Democratic Capitalism
Angus Deaton | Senior Scholar and the Dwight D. Eisenhower Professor of Economics and International Affairs Emeritus at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and the Economics Department at Princeton University
Please support a 100% land value tax on the unimproved value of land, not including buildings or improvements to the site, only “location, location, location” value. We can use the revenues from a LVT to reduce taxes on earnings and output. Taxation is the price of a civilised society; civilised society and public services create land values; so let's fund public services out of 'service charges' on land values. The main aim is to make land owners pay for the value of the public services they receive instead of making businesses, workers and consumers pay for the cost of those public services through very arbitrary and damaging taxes and then making them pay for the value of public services, in rent/mortgage repayments. So the system is rigged, it is a massive ongoing transfer of wealth from the productive economy to landowners, and the transfers of wealth from the productive economy to simple landowners (the selling price of land) need to be reduced to £nil and we can do that with 100% land value taxation. The case for a Land Value Tax instead of a Progressive Property Tax is simple. The main difference between a Land Value Tax and the current council tax and business rates tax system we have right now is that the current system is appraised on the value of the entire property, instead of just the land it sits on. That makes existing property taxes a partial tax on productive investment, which gets us less investment in buildings and improvements than we’d get without that tax. If you invest in the quality of your property by building an extra floor or by renovating the retail space, your tax bill will be higher. To really appreciate how bad this is, consider the fact that heavy machinery is included in business property valuations, so you will be taxed heavily for setting up a new electric car factory on a previously derelict bit of brownfield. LVT replace Council Tax (or PPT), BR, SDLT, IHT and so on, that happens on Day One, VAT, Employer's NIC, Employee's NIC and Basic rate income tax.
ReplyDeleteWhy have excess inequality when you can put the rate up to 100% tax on land value.