The Case Against the Single Tax (Johnson 1914) — and Foldvary's Rebuttal

Summary

This page carries a century-spanning exchange over the single tax:

• Alvin S. Johnson, "The Case against the Single Tax," The Atlantic Monthly, January 1914. Johnson — an economist who taught at Columbia, Chicago, and Cornell, and later co-founded the New School — wrote the era's most prominent mainstream-press attack on the Georgist program at the height of its political salience, characterizing the single tax as "propaganda for the universal confiscation of land."[1] As a named, dated, prestige-venue critique by a serious economist, it is a primary exhibit for how the profession's rejection of George reached the educated public (the academic side of that story is on Blaug and the corruption narrative).
• Fred Foldvary, "The Case Against the Case Against the Single Tax," progress.org, December 17, 2017. Foldvary's point-by-point rebuttal a century later, arguing Johnson's critique was "anti-scholarly" and rested on mischaracterizing rent capture as confiscation.[2] Cited per the wiki's source hierarchy as the advocate-side response (level 6), not as independent evidence.

Why the Pair Matters

Most objection traffic on this wiki concerns modern academic critiques; Johnson 1914 is the historical high-water mark of respectable opposition — useful for the single-tax narrative's deployment guidance (the "confiscation" framing Johnson used is still the reflex objection) and for the movement-decline story (the 1909 People's Budget era's backlash in the American press). Foldvary's reply demonstrates the standard modern answers: a tax on rent flow confiscates no title, and the earned/unearned distinction Johnson dismissed has since acquired an empirical literature (capitalization; capital-share).

Verification note

Both items verified by title/author/date/venue via multi-snippet corroboration; neither full text was retrieved this session (proxy-blocked) — Foldvary's specific counterarguments are characterized only at the level his title and snippets support. Scan depth Light. [VERIFY: Johnson's article in the Atlantic archive for exact page range and fuller quotation; Foldvary's rebuttal points on direct read.]

Bears On

• Concept: Single Tax — the proposal under attack
• Narrative: The Single Tax · The Corruption of Economics
• People: Fred Foldvary

See Also

• E. R. A. Seligman — the prior generation's leading academic critic
• Rothbard's 1957 critique — the other canonical hostile statement on file
• Objection: LVT can't raise enough revenue

Sources

1. Alvin S. Johnson, "The Case against the Single Tax," The Atlantic Monthly, January 1914. — used for the critique's existence, venue, author, and the "confiscation" characterization (A/E-claims; quotation under 50 words, snippet-corroborated — see verification note).
2. Fred Foldvary, "The Case Against the Case Against the Single Tax," progress.org, 17 December 2017. Article — used for the rebuttal's existence and framing (D-claims, attributed; level-6 advocate source).