Might make a 'Georgism 102' sequel next year to address some common questions and rebuttals I'm seeing in the comments...

This quote is on the back of George’s headstone in New York. “The truth that I have tried to make clear will not find easy acceptance. If that could be, it would have been accepted long ago. If that could be, it would never have been obscured. But it will find friends - those who will toil for it; suffer for it; if need be, die for it. This is the power of Truth.” -Henry George, Progress and Poverty

Ever since I learned about georgism I've got this eerie feeling that it is no coincidence that this theory is so unknown to the public, almost never talked about and not taught in schools…. There isn’t a single person in power that doesn’t own a lot of land. Correct me if I'm wrong here.

it’s crazy how many simple changes to society that could be made to improve everyone’s life but are stopped by the 0.1 percent

Problem? The ones who can make this a reality are the same ones who are benefiting from it being the way it is.

Thank you for speaking on Georgist taxes. Some of us finance types love it.

Georgism is incredibly based, but sadly politically extremely difficult - not because it would hurt lots of ordinary people (just the opposite), but because even now, 12000 years after the invention of agriculture in what we think of as a knowledge economy, the correlation between land ownership and political power remains incredibly strong.

Taiwan, Denmark and Estonia also have LVT and it just works. Estonia for example has an 82% home ownership rate.

You somehow look less nerdy that I expected

Your video on this 4 years ago literally spawned my academic career; I read Progress and Poverty days afterward cause I was so convinced. Now I am starting my masters in political economy focused on land policy. You are a Georgist hero, I think. I have been reading this book called Land Value Taxation Around the World by Robert Andelson, which explores all the attempted implementations throughout the world up until 2000, essentially no one ever took it far enough, even though it was working.

As an Alaskan (and an aspiring urbanist), it was a huge surprise to see the PFD mentioned in a video on LVT! The idea of replacing property taxes in some capacity with LVT has been floated a few times in recent years, most notably by the Organization Strong Towns. This video will be a fantastic resource for groups in Alaska looking to further improve state policy. Hats off to you, friend!

Doxxed a pro Putin oligarch in less than 30 seconds, god I love this channel

Fun fact! At the start of the game 'eve online,' speculators bought factories- an asset limited in number- and just left them to rot hoping they would gain in value. As a result, the devs implemented an LVT for those factories based on the value that they could potentially create, and sure enough those factories soon began to be of use as they were forced to produce things with them or to sell them off to someone who would.

I've been a big fan of Georgism ever since I read/saw some content about it a couple years back. As your video suggests, George and his theories were immensely popular in the 19th century (his treatise _Progress and Poverty_ outsold every other book ever written except for the Bible in the 1890s), yet in the modern day and age, there are very few people who have even heard of the man. Call me a conspiracy theorist, but I think fading into complete obscurity is an incredibly curious fate for an economic school of thought that quite literally dominated the Western world for a time. We learn about Adam Smith ad nauseum, after all, and he died nearly 50 years before Henry George was born. There is most certainly a vested interest of the landed elites to suppress public knowledge of his writings. Some have argued that many of these elites founded schools of business and filled the economics departments with anti-Georgists for the express purpose of "recasting" Neo-classical economic doctrine to downplay the importance of land. Thankfully, the internet is making it easier to supplement what we learn about political economy in our formal educations. I'm very hopeful that videos such as this gain significant traction and make the idea more attractive, especially as a way to bridge the gaps in the increasingly polarized political landscape we see today. Kudos for a well-composed video explaining the system, arguing for its consideration, and using your platform to open eyes to alternate systems of economics that aren't just the overplayed "neo-liberal capitalism vs. Marx-inspired socialism/communism."

The entire video follows from this: "You deserve to fully own the fruits of your labour. No one deserves to fully own the fruits of no one's labour, i.e., land."

Another argument in favor: the government has an incentive on improving infrastructure since that would increase the land value and thus the government revenue

Sun Yat Sen's principles revolved around this idea and it has made Taiwan one of the most prosperous countries in Asia.

'Redistributing wealth' should be renamed 'wealth recovery from the unproductive'

I like how this video starts by casually doxxing a corrupt oligarch

A Libertarian friend of mine told me for ages that I needed to look into the Land Value Tax. We have quite different political philosophies, so I was shocked when I realized how reasonable it actually is.

It really blew my mind when I first learned about it. Looking at my city where property values have practically tripled since I was a kid - it's all land value! All those million dollar homes people are sitting on? That is literally the money right there that we should have in our economy, that's our higher wages, our public services, infrastructure, and lower rents locked away on someone's asset sheet. Tax the land!

Didn't know about Georgism 20 minutes ago and now I'm an absolute supporter of it.

Fun fact (IIRC): Georgism is what inspired the original board game of what we nowadays call Monopoly.

Always a fan of spreading the knowledge of Georgism.

I just watched that Down the Rabbit Hole video about EVE. They had the same problem in that game when speculators bought up all the factories that produced ships because they expected to make money in the future. The response was to tax all factories for simply existing. This forced speculators to sell the factories to those that would utilize them or start utilizing it themselves. Housing has become the literal worst issue for first worlds. It’s gonna cause either a true collapse or a worldwide, French style riot if it isn’t addressed. Like why the fuck am I gonna pay $1500 for a single bedroom when that’s literally a mortgage???

It's so depressing living in a world with the knowledge that life could be almost like a utopia for everyone yet the greed and corruption of the 0.1% is so strong that the majority lives and dies in a world so unjust

This is the best explanation of Georgism to date. On a side note, your outro reminds me of the lyrics of Solidarity Forever: It is we who plowed the prairies, built the cities where they trade Dug the mines and built the workshops, endless miles of railroad laid Now we stand outcast and starving midst the wonders we have made They have taken untold millions that they never toiled to earn But without our brain and muscle not a single wheel can turn We can break their haughty power, gain our freedom when we learn

As a long-time Georgist, this is probably the best introductory video that I have seen on the subject. Thanks for helping spread the word! 🙏👏💯

I love the “if you raise the rents, we tax you more”

Let's gooooooooooooo

I really appreciate you videos. They give me a different perspective on things that mainstream media doesn’t. They bring up ideas and topics that the news and politicians don’t seem that enthusiastic to talk about, all while having a positive and encouraging attitude. Thank you for spreading awareness about these topics and thus showing us, the people, alternatives to what mainstream media preach about. Keep up the good work, and I’ll be happy to see your next video, whatever it will be about.

I have been sold on LVT for a long time now but always struggled to get across it's benefits - this video is fantastic.

We need more people talking about this in academia and on the streets. Even if it doesn't turn out to be as good as you portray it, it may still be a far better solution to some of our old societal problems. You definitely sparked an interest in many of us, including me. I never heard of georgism before your first video on it. Thanks, man! Keep up the amazing work.

Sad part is, I know a lot would simply dismiss Georgism as a "bunch of commie/socialist bs" despite seeing all the advantages.

LVT and Pigouvian taxes are the only two taxes that don’t create deadweight loss.

People work for their income, so it makes sense why people consider the income tax unfair. However, if you don't do anything as a land owner, it makes sense why you should be footing the bill. If you reward production and penalize non-production, naturally, there'll be more production and thus more resources and new products to go around. Land tax > Income Tax.

Brilliant work, it's such a shame that this idea isn't mainstream anymore (used to be in before WW2). Hopefully your work contributes in opening peoples eyes :)

Britmonkey making a second video about Georgism is unexpected but I’m all for it

I've been a Georgist for a couple years now, glad you're talking about it. I was saddened by jREG when he said that it's a dead ideology.

As many people should see this video as possible. I think bringing this idea back into the public eye of discussion is a very good cause. I have been interested in the LVT for a while now and this video really does do an amazing job at explaining it. I'll definetly be sharing this with people. Thank you for your great work, have a wonderful rest of your day mate.

Georgism is unironically an excellent compromise between left and right, socialism and capitalism. I’m a centrist liberal and this is exactly what I want. A society where people can get rich and be rewarded if they actually create something useful (ie. ideal capitalism) but also where there is less wealth inequality (ie. ideal socialism).

Dude I freaking love your videos. These topics you cover are things I am not well informed on because a lot of the time I didn’t know they existed! Even accounting for any bias you have, I still learn so much of the core of these issues. Please keep making more.

I hate watching these videos because they make me realise how much better the world could be.

Im not going to lie I initially didn’t like this idea because it presents a similar problem to taxing wealth, your taxing money that doesn’t exists. But the more I listened the more I was convinced and now love the idea. Living in America makes me consider at what governmental levels this could be instituted and if I trust the government to abolish all other taxes.

I certainly agree that this tax scheme is likely the most fair one can think of but the problem is how to evaluate the value of the land? the government will have HUGE incentive to over-evaluate everybody's land..

H. George died at 58. And not a single landowner mourned his passing, I'm willing to bet.

Yay!! Another Georgism vid. Brilliant work we always. Hello fellow Georgist! 🔰 we need to spread the word of HG as far and wide as we can!! 📣📣📣📣

"This is the best idea that will never happen." This was the part I was waiting for, a explanation for why despite all the pro's, this tax remains unutilized by most of the world. Landlords getting in the way surely cant explain all of it

Never heard of this before and wow...

Based Britmonkey making yet another video on Georgism. Somebody tag Tom Nichols in this so he can watch this instead of trashing it like he did in that video on Monopoly.

I will certainly use this in the future

Commenting for the algorithm so we can make this go viral. WE GETTIN OUT OF THE SPRAWLED SUBURBS WITH THIS ONE

The more I learn about georgism the more I like it.

I'm confused. How does all this make the rich richer? If it doesn't make the rich richer, it's never happening.

My eyes have been opened. Consider me a convert to georgism

I’ve never been a fan of paying taxes for something I own, but this does seem like a good solution for multiple problems.

they did this in eve online and it solved their speculative investors problems real quick

An economic system at its core, is a method to distribute resources efficiently and effectively, thus if idle resources are common, than the economic system had fail at its job, all these idle land, idle workers, idle capital, is a sign that ours economic system have failed us.

This would be so hard to put in place. Who would determine the value of that land vs the property ? We have a land value tax (taxe foncière) in France which adjust annually based on the CPI, but since the 70s, home prices have gone up about 500% in Paris, versus a c.30% CPI. Would that mean a 470% land value tax increase ? No, because Parisian flats are way more moderns and buildings well maintained versus what we had in the past. Furthermore, Haussmanian buildings (ie old classic Parisian ones) are worth more than those built in the 70s because they are prettier and in lower supply (we don’t build them anymore). Would this be included in the LVT or not ? Because you can extract value from the historical building by it just existing and not create anything. All you have to do is not let it collapse. Basically, there’d just be tons of loopholes to go through…

Old Brompton Road Tube Station! That was the headquarters for the University of London Air Squadron. I was a member just before it was sold - some of my most formative moments happened in that building. The ‘secret’ tunnels to the old underground platform were amazing. It’s extremely depressing to see it reduced to doing literally nothing.

Well, i m convinced. But i have one question, and maybe cause i am simply uninformed, but how do we decide the value of the land? Specifically outside of the city? Specially farmers that may own alot of land and higly productive but do not make that much revenue at all.

I've been really interested in Georgism since Tolstoy wrote about it and supported the idea!

This is one of the coolest channels on youtube

The reason I love Georgism is because it cuts through alot of the ideologically driven debates of our time with an intuitive message: Considering that no one through their labours produced the land, why is it that you pay so much to other people for it?

LVT is such a simple and effective thing, we need more people just talking about it, thanks man

You have buffed Britain’s average handsomeness up by tons

Thanks for using your platform to highlight Georgism and the LVT. I'm hopeful we'll see more progress in my lifetime

These videos make me hopeful then I go outside and I'm sad again haha

My pride in being an American is automatically increased by like 5% simply because of the fact that Henry George was also an American.

This is a brilliant idea that would benefit the mass majority of the global population... which is the exact reason it'll never be allowed to happen :(

Best youtube video of 2023.

Thr thing about LVT is: it works, but it shouldn't be exclusively LVT, there are other things that need to be taxed to prevent exploitation, like giant investment firms could manipulate the markets without any concerns if they just stayed away from land for example.

The problem I see if it were ever implemented is the government just adding this tax to the rest of them, while cutting none of the others.

As an Oregano, I can report that there was an effort in the very early 1900s to bring a land value tax to Oregon, very shortly after the state adopted the referendum process. The measure was rejected by voters though. I wish I knew why.

Georgism is amazing. There are some problems, but they all have solutions: *How do you decide the land value?* I've seen multiple options: -It could be based on annual auctions -It could based on the rent (so landlords can't just raise the rent to profit more). -It could be based on property appraisals - that does involve some bureaucracy, but it ensures that property is used productively. The Netherlands already does this with their wealth tax. -In Taiwan, property-owners declare their own price. So they can say a low price to lower their taxes BUT it's also the price at which the state can force-buy your property. Also you can't avoid that by setting the price too high, because then you'll have higher taxes. *Will public parks be replaced with high-rises because that's 'productive'?* Parks can be left out of the system by the government. However, the govt has incentives to increase their tax revenue, and so they probably would turn parks into valuable real-estate. *Will the taxes on my home be so high that I'll be forced to sell and move?* Sadly yes, if you live in the city-centre. So Georgism/LVT would basically be Eminent Domain but the free-market version. At least you'd get paid the value of your land. Or you could get a loan to build an apartment block on your land and live in the penthouse. But I've seen other versions where the tax ignores your first home, and only affects rental properties/second houses/businesses (That's also how they do wealth tax in the Netherlands). *Does this cause more or less gentrification?* Less (I think). Rent and goods would be cheaper in these areas, and it'd be easier for existing residents to buy a house (because there would be fewer landlords since it'd be harder to speculate with property). -But at the same time, landlords could still choose to rent to richer tenants from other neighborhoods. And Georgism creates a pressure to build 'productive' things - which could mean rejecting the local culture and replacing it with Starbucks if that's more profitable.

India has this exact system for several decades (Except the Citizen Dividend). It's the first time I've realised that not all countries have it. (In India, a land is valued by the local government based on a variety of different criterias. Then that value is compared with the rent earned on the property. The higher of the two is taxed, meaning if rents rise, then the tax rises as well )

Why is it the first time in my 36 years of existence I am hearing of this awesome concept?! Love the video!!

Great remake/expansion of one of your classics!

your editing style is addictive!!! I'm binge watching to learn and be spoiled by the production value 😁😁😁

My takeaway always is that Georgists are right, they're just not right enough. Would be a good start to then build upon though.

It sounds like a lot of the UK economy is based around financial bubbles that are more important to the government than actually creating a country where people can afford to live in.

I think the most over powered yet underrated skill *Jesus* had was the *tax evasion* ability. Truly a legendary one.

There’s one issue with Georgism you forgot to cover, that being that the top billionaires and millionaires hold so much power that they’d never let that happen by ANY means necessary they literally run the show

It all sounds good. But doesn’t take into account the huge levels of corruption. So much tax is given away to friends of MPs/Ministers. And it’ll never happen anyway. Too many people in Parliament own land/property and rent it out. They’ll never pass a law that takes money away from themselves.

My landlord is a city owned non-profit organization. Its the largest landlord in my city. The second largest is a non-profit organisation owned by the state. My landlord owns the whole street. There is a community center in an old slaughterhouse, a kebab place, a couple of cafes. Everything next door. I don't own a car, because there is a tram station 5min away and I can use Carsharing if I need to transport something. My rent is low too! Actually, rent is cheap everywhere in the city. I can report issues on their website and city owned repairmen will come within 1-2 days and fix it. I like my landlord. And I like the city :)

2nd video I've seen on this and I'm certainly liking what I'm hearing.

Honestly, this makes capitalism work, sure there's still ways for rich people to get away with taxes like buying art and such, however this makes it so people like bill gates buying up a lot of land essentially get punished for doing so, 10/10, would tax the land

This is a level up from the "Everything crisis" video about real estate 👍👍👍

18:38, I must say as a Kiwi, I'm downright appalled by how high how rents are. How government is just too incompetent to fix it because they benefit from it.

this is a very good idea

BritMonkey continues to never disappoint.

Ideal system but the rich will never let it happen

Thanks for making content for us!

This is why we need to stop whining about the plight of British 'farmers'. Stop calling them farmers and use their proper name: multimillionnaire landowners.

Land owners aren't the only rentiers in modern society who get to sit back and make money from other people's hard work with next to no risk. Big tech platforms are similar in benefitting and taking 40% of the value from the work of creators, on an internet created with public money. People who are anti-capitalist are usually angry at rentiers, not capitalists. They really need to learn the difference. Hard working people including capitalists don't like rentiers either so if they educated themselves they might even get capitalists on their side. Capitalists invest in their businesses. Rentiers invest in lobbying a.k.a bribery and it pays well.

The only problem I could see with this is corporations ditching physical office buildings and doing entirely remote work to avoid taxes.

my one question is how do city parks work? a pretty, open field doesnt really seem like an efficient use of space, and i worry that they might cease to exist and replaced by endless buildings. i love all the ideas proposed here, but thats just the one thing im worried for

The primary reason why it is so difficult for people to understand the benefits of a Georgist economic system is because the value of Nature is literally at the roots of all human economic activity, and a shift toward taxing land values rather than taxing economic productivity would completely and utterly transform every facet of human civilization from the ground up. This makes LVT seem as if it's overly simplistic to many people, who have been conditioned to believe Economics and Finance are terribly complex fields that cannot possibly be understood by the hoi polloi. So, when we say, "We can literally save the whole world with this one weird trick," people's brains immediately dismiss the idea.

The criticism of land value tax is that it focuses only on land. The updated Georgist views of taxing economic rents includes finance and all monopolies. This is an aspect of Michael Hudson's work on debt.

Land tax has many advantages, but one thing that is almost always ignored in these videos is how to fairly appraise it's value. It's very easy to implement flat land tax (each square meter in the borough is taxed the same), and it's reasonably easy to tax the complete value of the improved land by tracking it's past selling price and maybe a threat of forced buyout if there is a suspicion of undervaluation. But how do you separate the value of land from the value of the improvements? Also the video goes a bit too far into fantasy land painting an overly positive picture of the side effects, ignoring the law of supply and demand in determining the prices of rents and services.