SA18. WHAT WOULD IT BE LIKE (IF WE GOT WHAT WE WANT)? By Tommas Graves

“When are businessmen, politicians, college professors and ordinary citizens who ask the silly question, “what state aCheap Pandora Beads UK gency enforces natural laws,” going to realise that the terrible crises of war, depression and runaway inflation are the natural enforcement agencies of natural laws? It better be soon!” So said Seymour Rauch in his essay “Credit and the Rent-Interest Index” HG News September 1953.

Let us suppose that we have come to realise the force of natural law, and decided to collect public revenue and eliminate the disastrous tax system we had in its place. The transition has been tricky, as we have had to unwind so many unnatural results of the old system.  So here we are thirty years on. Why thirty? It has taken a generation to deal with the disastrous effects of a wholly dysfunctional tax system. By now, we no longer attach the vast bulk of our taxes to wages. We have devised a suitable mechanism to collect public revenue, that is, that part of production attributable to the efforts of the whole community. The result of the efforts of individuals are retained in full – no tax deductions. The cost of living has come down by the cancellation of all indirect taxes – VAT, petrol duty and all the rest. A great rebalancing has taken place. The general level of wages has risen to the maximum available from the best site still Pandora Charms UKavailable for use. The accumulation of wealth in the hands of those who thought “this land is mine” has been stopped in its track.

As public revenue was gradually collected, the value of land has fallen, and now has no private value. Landowners still have their land, so long as they pay the appropriate annual charge, but land is no longer counted as wealth. A house can now be bought for the price of a house. Mortgages have fallen to a small proportion compared with the old basis. The level of debt has plummeted, and the money supply likewise. Those who took out mortgages when they had to purchase the land as well as the house have been encouraged to honour the debt they took on, and many find that the increase in wages makes this possible. But also a debt forgiveness scheme has been set up, whereby those whose accumulated assets arose partly or wholly from land appreciation before the changes can voluntarily hand this to the scheme,  which is used to reduce all old mortgages pro-rata. This has become possible following the realisation that land is a free gift, without which the changes noted above would not have been possible.

After about twenty years, government expenditure began to fall as some parts of the welfare state became unclaimed. It was found that public revenue was buoyant as the cancellation of taxation added to it but impacted on city centres instead of marginal areas. For some years is has been possible to reduce government debt, and there is speculation about what might be done with a surplus in future. But much infrastructure improvement has been funded, and the fact that this is speedily paid for by an increase in public revenue has created a wholly different attitude.

If you have difficulty in imagining how all this might come about, read “Prime Minister” by John Stewart. He has also written a sequel “The Years Afterwards” which he will make available on request.  But what would life be like?

WHAT WOULD LIFE BE LIKE?                                                                                                        2.

• If you can buy a house for the price of a house
• If wages/earnings rise to the maximum you can earn from the best site still available
• If you gladly pay to the community any extra product due to locational benefits
• If you enthusiastically support infrastructure improvement
• If you keep the whole product of your own work
• If you only pay for the honest work of others, but not for the free products of nature
• If your government operates solely on location values received, avoiding debt and debt interest
• If you can always find a suitable site for your business, available at an annual charge
• If, expecting your neighbours to do the same, keep your land in good condition.

QUESTIONS TO BE ANSWERED BY PROPOSED REFORM

1. Would the downward pressure on wages be reduced?
2. Would our children be able to buy a house for the price of a house, not ten times that including interest?
3. Are sites available for use, if only the annual location value charge is met?

LOCATION VALUE TICKET is the amount a user pays the community for the advantages the community has given to the site.