The Hidden Taxable Capacity of Land: Enough and to Spare
Gaffney's detailed argument that the economic rent of land in the US is large enough to fund government at all levels without taxing labour or capital.
Summary
In this 2009 paper Mason Gaffney addresses the most common revenue objection to Georgism head-on: is there enough land rent to actually fund government? His answer is an emphatic yes. He argues that conventional estimates drastically understate land's taxable capacity by omitting categories of rent and by ignoring how the tax base expands once distortionary taxes are removed.
Key Argument
Gaffney enumerates "hidden" sources of land and resource rent typically left out of national accounts — including under-assessed urban land, the rental value of public land and natural resources, spectrum, and aviation/transport corridors. He further invokes ATCOR (All Taxes Come Out of Rent): because other taxes are ultimately borne by land rent, removing them causes land values — and thus the LVT base — to rise. The combined effect, he argues, is a rent base "enough and to spare" to replace existing taxes.
Bears On
- Outcome: Land rent could fund government
- Concept: ATCOR
Sources
- Mason Gaffney (2009), "The Hidden Taxable Capacity of Land: Enough and to Spare." PDF
- Complete free archive of Gaffney's work: masongaffney.org