Editing Henry George (section)

===Socialization of land and natural resource rents===
[[File:Everybody works but the vacant lot (cropped).jpg|thumb|Everybody works but the vacant lot.]]
Henry George is best known for his argument that the [[economic rent]] of land (location) should be shared by society. The clearest statement of this view is found in ''[[Progress and Poverty]]'': "We must make land common property."<ref>{{cite book |last=George |first=Henry |title=Progress and Poverty: An Inquiry into the Cause of Industrial Depressions and of Increase of Want with Increase of Wealth |year=1879 |volume=VI |chapter=The True Remedy |chapter-url=http://www.econlib.org/library/YPDBooks/George/grgPP26.html |access-date=May 12, 2008 |isbn=0914016601 |publisher=Robert Schalkenbach Foundation |location=New York}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Lough |first1=Alexandra |title=The Last Tax: Henry George and the Social Politics of Land Reform in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era |url=https://www.academia.edu/4996856 |website=Academia.edu |quote=George only sought to make land common property through the socialization of land rent, or what many have called the "unearned increment" of land value.}}</ref> By [[land value tax|taxing land values]], society could recapture the value of its common inheritance, raise wages, improve land use, and eliminate the need for taxes on productive activity. George believed it would remove existing incentives toward land speculation and encourage development, as landlords would not suffer tax penalties for any industry or edifice constructed on their land and could not profit by holding valuable sites vacant.<ref>Backhaus, "Henry George's Ingenious Tax," 453–458.</ref>

Broadly applying this principle is now commonly known as "[[Georgism]]." In George's time, it was known as the "single-tax" movement and sometimes associated with movements for land nationalization, especially in Ireland.<ref>{{cite web |title=Supplement to Encyclopædia Britannica |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VlU_AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA720 |date=1889 |quote=The labor vote in the election was trifling until Henry George had commenced an agitation for the nationalization of land.}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=The American: A National Journal, Volumes 15–16 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vSEgAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA21 |date=1888|last1 = Thompson|first1 = Robert Ellis|last2 = Barker|first2 = Wharton}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=A Reception to Mr. George |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9C00EEDB1F3EE433A25752C2A9669D94639FD7CF |website=The New York Times |date=October 21, 1882 |quote=Mr. George expressed his thanks for the reception and predicted that soon the movement in favor of land nationalization would be felt all over the civilized world.}}</ref> However, in ''Progress and Poverty'', George did not favor the idea of nationalization.

<blockquote>I do not propose either to purchase or to confiscate private property in land. The first would be unjust; the second, needless. Let the individuals who now hold it still retain, if they want to, possession of what they are pleased to call their land. Let them continue to call it their land. Let them buy and sell, and bequeath and devise it. We may safely leave them the shell, if we take the kernel. It is not necessary to confiscate land; it is only necessary to confiscate rent.<ref>{{cite book |last=George |first=Henry |title=Progress and Poverty: An Inquiry into the Cause of Industrial Depressions and of Increase of Want with Increase of Wealth |year=1879 |volume=VIII |chapter=How Equal Rights to the Land May Be Asserted and Secured |chapter-url=http://www.econlib.org/library/YPDBooks/George/grgPP33.html |access-date=Nov 27, 2016 |isbn=0914016601 |publisher=Robert Schalkenbach Foundation |location=New York}}</ref></blockquote>