Milton Friedman
The free-market economist (1912–2006) who, despite opposing most taxes, called the land value tax 'the least bad tax.'
Overview
Milton Friedman (1912–2006), Nobel laureate and the most influential free-market economist of the 20th century, is an unlikely but important witness for land value taxation. Generally hostile to taxation, Friedman made a notable exception for the tax on land.
"The Least Bad Tax"
In a 1978 interview, Friedman remarked that "the least bad tax is the property tax on the unimproved value of land, the Henry George argument of many, many years ago." The quotation is among the most cited in the Georgist literature precisely because it comes from an economist with no Georgist sympathies — it reflects the cross-ideological consensus that a tax on a fixed factor causes no deadweight loss.
Significance
Friedman's endorsement demonstrates that the efficiency case for LVT does not depend on accepting George's broader moral philosophy: even a thinker committed to minimal taxation concedes that, if you must tax, land is the place to do it.
See Also
Sources
- Milton Friedman, 1978 interview (the "least bad tax" remark), widely cited in the land-tax literature.