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3 His Policy Proposals
Although best known for his advocation of replacement of other taxA tax is an involuntary fee paid by individuals or businesses to a government. Taxes may be paid in cash or kind (although payments in kind may not always be allowed or classified as taxes in all systems). The means of taxation, and the uses to which thees by land taxes, Henry George formulated a comprehensive set of economic policies. Much like the modern Open Source movement, George was highly critical of restrictive patents and copyrights. George advocated replacement of patents with government supported incentives for invention and scientific investigation and dismantling of monopolies when possible – and taxation or regulation of "natural monopolies". George advocated a combination of unfettered free markets and extensive social programs made possible by taxes on land and monopolies. Modern day economists like Nobel Prize winner Milton Friedman admit that Henry George's Land tax is potentially beneficial because, unlike other taxes, land taxes tend not to affect the prices of consumer products. Modern day environmentalists have resonated with the idea of the earth as the common property of humanity – and some have endorsed the idea of substantial taxes or fees on pollution as a variant of land value taxation.
4 Death and Subsequent Influence
In 1886 George ran for mayor of New York, and polled second (ahead of Theodore Roosevelt). He ran again in 1897, but died 4 days before the election. An estimated 100,000 people attended his funeral.
According to his grand-daughter Agnes de Mille, Progress and Poverty and its successors made Henry George the third most famous man in the USA, behind only Mark Twain and Thomas Edison. [1] He was also popular as a speaker, even making several speaking trips abroad to places such as Ireland and Scotland where access to land was (and still is) a major political issue. His ideas were taken up to some degree in South Africa, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Australia – where state governments still levy a Land Value Tax, albeit low and with many exemptions. An attempt by the Liberal Government of the day to implement them in 1909 as part of the budget caused a crisis in Britain which led indirectly to reform of the House of Lords. Henry George was familiar with the work of Karl Marx – and predicted that if Marx's ideas were tried the likely result would be a dictatorship.
Henry George's popularity declined in the 20th century; however, there are still many Georgist organisations in existence, and many people who do remain famous were heavily influenced by him, such as George Bernard Shaw, Leo Tolstoy, Sun Yat Sen, Herbert Simon [2], and David Lloyd George. A follower of George, Lizzie Magie, created the board game Monopoly in 1904 to demonstrate his theories.
In his last book, Martin Luther King quoted Henry George in support of a guaranteed minimum income. In the 2004 Presidential campaign, Ralph Nader endorsed consideration of pollution taxes and Land Value taxation.
