The moral, ethical
argument: whether there was a formal Creation or not, whether
there was a Divine Creator or not, it is indisputable that the Earth was
not made by Man. From this it follows that
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The branch line to Swanage, now run as a working museum and cut off from the main system in 1972, is to be re-connected
to the national rail network, allowing regular services from places such as Bournemouth. Network Rail gave a consortium of local councils, rail and tourism
groups until the end of July to come up with £3m to fund signalling
improvements to allow regular trains to run. Dorset and Purbeck councils found the money with just hours to spare –
it will come partly from a tax on future developments in the area.
This is of course a far cry from LVT but at least recognises the principal that land values can be used to pay for infrastructure. Now just imagine what we could have if there was a proper system of LVT in place.
I have been involved in a long discussion with a correspondent on the relative merits of capital value (CV) and annual rental value (ARV) assessment. The older British
Georgists have always advocated LVT on ARV assessments because until
1993 all UK property taxes were on ARV. It was always taken for granted that LVT would be levied on ARV and this was the case in the 1939 London County Council Bill.
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Financial services are mostly
parasitic on the real economy since they produce nothing.
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"Taxation, Growth and Employment" is the title of a pamphlet produced by the right wing (we hesitate to use the term) think tank "Policy Exchange", which describes itself as
"an independent, non-partisan educational charity. We work with academics and policy makers from across the political spectrum. We are particularly interested in free market and localist solutions to public policy questions."
Using "centre-right means to progressive ends", it advocates "the wider use of market forces and the promotion of individual responsibility are ideas traditionally associated with the centre right. But we are interested in how these tools could be used to achieve progressive ends - to give new opportunities to groups that don’t have them today."
It is a useful critique of all existing taxes which provides useful ammunition for presenting our own case. But what are we to make of this?
Taxes would have no effect upon growth if the following two conditions held:
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