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Noah Smith on Georgism
Economist-blogger Noah Smith's influential essays defending land value taxation and arguing how to make it politically viable.
Summary
Noah Smith, the economist and widely-read blogger (Noahpinion), has written several influential pieces advancing land value taxation to a mainstream economics-literate audience.
Key Pieces
- "A Misguided Attack on Land Value Taxes" (2015) defends LVT against common objections, walking through the efficiency and incidence arguments.
- "How to Sell Georgism to the Middle Class" addresses the political economy of adoption — proposing framings (like social wealth funds and citizen's dividends) that could make LVT politically viable rather than merely correct.
Smith's engagement matters because he writes for a broad, influential readership and approaches LVT as a pragmatic reformer rather than a movement insider.