John R. Commons
American institutional economist (1862–1945) at the University of Wisconsin who called himself a Georgist, drafted a state land-value tax bill, and estimated that roughly 95% of American millionaire fortunes traced to land and franchise values.
Overview
John R. Commons (1862–1945) was an American institutional economist, labor historian, and progressive reformer who spent most of his career at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he helped originate the "Wisconsin Idea" of university faculty advising state government and later served as president of the American Economic Association.[1] Wikipedia's own category labels for Commons include "Georgist economists," reflecting that he explicitly carried forward Henry George's "single tax" economics — with a focus on land and monopoly rents — as a "Georgist" or "Ricardian" strand within his broader institutionalist framework.[1]
Mason Gaffney and Fred Harrison's The Corruption of Economics credits Commons with drafting Wisconsin's Grimstad Bill, a state land-value tax proposal, with the young assemblyman (and later professor) Harold Groves as a supporting sponsor.[2] The same source attributes to Commons the claim, drawn from his 1922 article "A Progressive Tax on Bare Land Values" (Political Science Quarterly 37(1), 41–68), that roughly 95% of American millionaire fortunes traced to land and franchise (monopoly) values rather than to productive enterprise — a figure used in the wiki's broader narrative about land's role in fortune-building.[2][3]
See Also
- The Corruption of Economics (book) — the discovery source for Commons's role and the 95% estimate
- Narrative: The Corruption of Economics — the broader historiographical narrative Commons's story is embedded in
- John Bates Clark — the American neoclassical economist Gaffney casts as Commons's institutionalist-vs-marginalist foil
- Edwin R. A. Seligman — the era's leading single-tax critic, for contrast
- Single Tax
- Gaffney, Two Centuries of Economic Thought on Taxation of Land Rents — profiles Commons's Grimstad Bill and his three-tier income-tax proposal (low on wages, medium on capital, highest on land income) alongside two centuries of other economists' positions
Sources
- "John R. Commons," Wikipedia — John R. Commons — used for basic biographical facts (1862–1945, University of Wisconsin–Madison, AEA presidency, "Wisconsin Idea," and his self-identification with Georgist/Ricardian economics).
- Mason Gaffney & Fred Harrison, The Corruption of Economics (1994) — used for the Grimstad Bill drafting role, Harold Groves connection, and the 95%-of-millionaire-fortunes claim ("Stratagem" essay §1). See the wiki's book page.
- John R. Commons (1922), "A Progressive Tax on Bare Land Values," Political Science Quarterly 37(1), 41–68 — Oxford Academic listing (abstract/landing page free; full text paywalled) — the primary article Gaffney and Harrison cite for Commons's land-value-tax proposal and fortune estimate; not independently read in full this session.
Verification note. A direct quotation or page locator from Commons (1922) for the "95% of millionaire fortunes" figure, and independent confirmation of the exact wording and context of the Grimstad Bill's provisions, were not located this pass; this stub relies on the secondary account in Gaffney & Harrison.