Geolibertarianism
A political philosophy combining libertarian individual rights with the Georgist principle that land rent belongs to the community — LVT as the one legitimate tax.
Definition
Geolibertarianism (geo-libertarianism) fuses libertarian commitments — strong rights to self-ownership and to the fruits of one's labour — with the Georgist position that land and natural resources are common property whose rent belongs to all. Geolibertarians typically argue that a land value tax is the one legitimate source of public revenue, because it collects value that belongs to no individual, while taxes on labour and capital are unjust takings of earned income.
The Core Argument
Self-ownership implies you own what you produce — so taxing wages or capital is a violation. But no one produced land; exclusive title to a location excludes everyone else from a natural opportunity. Geolibertarians resolve this by saying you may hold land exclusively provided you pay its rental value to the community you exclude. This reconciles private tenure with equal rights to the earth.
Lineage
The view descends from classical liberals and from Henry George himself, who saw his program as pro-market and anti-monopoly. It overlaps with the "left-libertarian" tradition and informs modern proposals like the Harberger tax.
See Also
Sources
- Henry George (1879), Progress and Poverty — wiki summary
- Geolibertarian writings collected at the School of Cooperative Individualism.