10 Facts About Georgism

Georgism, called in modern times Geoism, and known historically as the single tax movement, is an economic ideology holding that, although people should own the value they produce themselves, the economic rent derived from land—including from all natural resources, the commons, and urban locations—should belong equally to all members of society.

The term Georgism was invented later, and some prefer the term geoism as more generic.

Georgism went on to explain that "by taking for public use that value which attaches to land by reason of the growth and improvement of the community", it would, "make the holding of land unprofitable to the mere owner, and profitable only to the user".

Georgism is related to the school of ecological economics, since both propose market-based restrictions for pollution.

Key issue to the popular adoption of Georgism is that homes are illiquid yet governments need cash every year.

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Richard T Ely agreed with the economic arguments for Georgism but believed that correcting the problem the way Henry George wanted, without compensation, was unjust to existing landowners.

Robert Solow endorsed the theory of Georgism, while being wary of the perceived injustice of expropriation.

Solow stated that taxing away expected land rents "would have no semblance of fairness"; however, Georgism would be good to introduce where location values were not already privatized or if the transition could be phased in slowly.

An early criticism of Georgism was that it would generate too much public revenue and result in unwanted growth of government, but later critics argued that it would not generate enough income to cover government spending.

Later, Hayek said that the theory of Georgism would be very strong if assessment challenges did not result in unfair outcomes, but he believed that they would.