To slash taxes on work, on enterprise and consumption.
Instead, fund government from the economic rents that fall to land and monopoly. This will liberate our animal spirits as individual effort and ingenuity are rewarded directly and make an economic Golden Age possible.
Land and monopoly cannot run or hide from tax – unlike labour that sulks or capital that flees – it must pay.
This economic reform agenda is as old as political economy pioneer Adam Smith (1723-1790), who saw and condemned the costs imposed by rent-seeking behavior.
The theory was most clearly articulated by Henry George in Progress and Poverty. The success of this book, the depth of George’s thinking and the strength of his oratory prompted a world-wide movement.
Many others have arrived at the same conclusion – Nobel prize winning economists, government Treasuries and even our fellow Australians.
We want government at all levels to change their tax bases:
- Local: reform rates onto Site Value
- States and Territories: repair State Land Tax, remove regressive (bad) taxes
- Commonwealth: reintroduce the Federal Land Tax, introduce a Resource Super Profits Tax