Andreessen and Henry George

Reader comment on: Andreessen on the Collapse of Civil Order in San Francisco

Submitted by David Weinkrantz (United States), Jul 2, 2021 17:22

The housing affordability crisis and efforts to deal with it have been going on for a long time. The recent surge in unemployment is drawing attention to a deeper problem that is longstanding.

The political economist Henry George wrote about this same phenomenon
back in 1879 in his classic book "Progress and Poverty." He recognized that increases in population and in economic activity would increase the price of land giving landholders a huge gain while making housing unduly expensive for working people.

George devised a plan to solve the problem. He proposed a land tax of sufficient size to transfer the profit generated by popular demand for a limited supply of land from landlords to the public treasury.

In 1886 he ran as a candidate for mayor of New York City in which post he hoped to implement his plan. Unfortunately, he lost to the corrupt Tammany Hall candidate. Theodore Roosevelt, the future president, came in third.

It is not too late.

We can still enact George's program and thereby provide for public needs while lowering or eliminating taxation of the general public.

There are other factors to address also.

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Other reader comments on this item

Title	By	Date
so why are we putting up with people having sex in other people's front yards and stabbing three-year olds with used syringes? [98 words]	Luis	Jul 3, 2021 02:53
⇒ Andreessen and Henry George [190 words]	David Weinkrantz	Jul 2, 2021 17:22

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