Editing Land value tax (section)

=== Henry George ===
[[File:Henry George.jpg|thumb|upright|right|[[Henry George]] in 1865]]
{{Main|Henry George|Georgism}}

[[Henry George]] (2 September 1839 – 29 October 1897) was perhaps the most famous advocate of recovering land rents for public purposes. A journalist, politician, and [[political economist]], he advocated a "[[single tax]]" on land that would eliminate the need for all other taxes. George first articulated the proposal in ''Our Land and Land Policy'' (1871).<ref>{{cite book|last=George|first=Henry|year=1871|title=Our Land and Land Policy, National and State|url=https://archive.org/details/ourlandandlandp00georgoog|publisher=White & Bauer [etc.]|pages=35–48|isbn=9781230444703|author-link=Henry George}}</ref> Later, in his best-selling work ''[[Progress and Poverty]]'' (1879), George argued that because the value of land depends on natural qualities combined with the economic activity of communities, including public investments, the [[economic rent]] of land was the best source of tax revenue.<ref name="George 1879"/> This book significantly influenced land taxation in the United States and other countries, including Denmark, which continues ''grundskyld'' ('ground duty') as a key component of its tax system.<ref name=kjk/> The philosophy that natural resource rents should be captured by society is now often known as [[Georgism]]. Its relevance to public finance is underpinned by the [[Henry George theorem]].

Henry George (1839–1897) was an American economist who developed the concept of the Single Tax on land value.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Progress and Poverty {{!}} Online Library of Liberty |url=https://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/george-progress-and-poverty |access-date=2025-04-12 |website=oll.libertyfund.org}}</ref> In his 1879 book ''Progress and Poverty'', George argued that private land ownership allowed individuals to gain unearned income through rising land values,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Roncaglia |first=Alessandro |title=A Brief History of Economic Thought |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2017}}</ref> contributing to inequality and poverty. He believed that as populations increased and cities expanded, landowners profited not from their own labor but from the economic activity of society. George’s proposed land value tax was designed to capture this unearned income and redistribute it for public benefit.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dye |first=Richard F. |title=Land Value Taxation: Theory, Evidence, and Practice |publisher=Lincoln Institute of Land Policy |date=May 28, 2009 |isbn=978-1558441859 |edition=Illustrated}}</ref> His ideas influenced urban policy debates in the United States and abroad and continue to be discussed in relation to housing affordability and wealth inequality. Modern economists, including Thomas Piketty, have noted that land and real estate remain significant sources of wealth concentration.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Piketty |first1=Thomas |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt6wpqbc |title=Capital in the Twenty-First Century |last2=Goldhammer |first2=Arthur |date=2014 |publisher=Harvard University Press |jstor=j.ctt6wpqbc |isbn=978-0-674-43000-6}}</ref> George's work is recognized for linking economic justice to land ownership and for promoting policy reforms aimed at reducing inequality.