Hacker News Reader

Comment by ItendToDisagree | Hacker News Reader

It in fact does not require their labor. It requires effective taxation of land and distribution of said taxation effectively.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgism "... revenues from a land value tax (LVT) can reduce or eliminate existing taxes on labor and investment that are unfair and inefficient. Some Georgists also advocate for the return of surplus public revenue back to the people through a basic income or citizen's dividend."

View on HN

This is the second time I've seen"taxation of land" in this thread as if the dirt my house is sitting on has the ability to write checks to the local government. I might be missing something, but all tax revenue ultimately comes from profits, or the difference between our value of something and its cost. That difference requires someone's labor. Even if there's a ton of gold under my house, someone has to dig it up, process it and find buyers. You might not think I'm entitled to 100% of the profits, but it's naive to think you're somehow not taxing labor.

All taxes come from private enterprise. All of them. It may be displaced by time, so that money I made last year pays taxes next year, but there was labor. That's why money even exists - as a store of value.

I find it misleading that American enterprise can ever be wholly "private", when it depends so much on regulation, subsidies, and public resources. Taxation goes to support the common infrastructure that makes any work possible. Problem?

> I find it misleading that American enterprise can ever be wholly "private"

It can, but not if the government grabs control of resources and industries. Do you really think corporations would simply sit on their hands if government services and resources went away? They would respond by filling the demand.

Unless private parties -- consumers -- buy stuff, there is no income. The government can intervene and distort things (and should -- I'm not a libertarian) but if there is no private commerce, there is nothing to tax.

In a society with no regulation, people still partake in commerce. It has lots of problems and I wouldn't want to live in, say, Somalia, but Somalis still engage in trade and the strongmen who run such places depend on that.

What depends on those things is our cronyism system that many people mistakenly believe to be capitalism.

Enterprises would benefit if the government stepped aside and let a true free market develop.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com