Henry George

Henry George (September 2nd, 1839 - October 29th, 1897) is a political economist American, and the most influential partisan of the single Impôt on the ground.

Its life

Born with Philadelphia, Henry George embarked bound for the California with old sixteen years. After an unfruitful attempt as gold digger, it succeeds in making career in the field of the edition, beginning as typographer to finish editor and owner of a newspaper. Some of its first the most noticed articles had as a subject the Chinese immigration, which according to him was to be contained.

At the time of a voyage to New York, Henry George was struck by the apparent paradox which poverty was deeper in this old city than in the State, however less developed, of California. This provided him the subject and the title of its book published in 1879: Progress and Pauvreté ( Progress and Poverty ), which was an immense sold success with 3 million specimens. Henry Georges develops the idea to with it that the near total of the richnesses create by technological advances and social in a market economy are monopolized by the landowners and monopolized by the means of the rents. This concentration of richnesses is according to him the cause of poverty. George considered the fact of depriving some of the natural resources available like a true injustice. He thought that such restrictions were a form of Esclavage, referring to the concept of the paid Esclavage (Wage slavery).

George developed this diagram of thought through her personal experience of poverty, her discovery of various social groups during her voyages and her study of California of the time of her strong growth. He had noticed in particular that the construction of the Railroad in California had pushed with the rise the prices of the grounds and the value of the rents as quickly even more quickly as the wages.

Its economic theory

George developed the more important elements of her economic theory at the time of a criticism of an illustration used by Frederic Bastiat to explain the nature of the Intérêt and the Profit.

Bastiat took for example James and William, both carpenters. James had built his hands a plane and had lent it to William for one year.

Would James be satisfied to see himself returning a plane in good state later one year? Certainly not! He will expect to receive a board moreover, as interest. The key of the theory of the interest is to include/understand why. Bastiat Claimed that James had given to William, for one year, “the means, with the tool, to increase the productivity of his work”, and wants a compensation for this increase in productivity.

George did not accept this explanation. He wrote “I think that if all the richnesses consisted of tools like the plane and if all the productions were those of carpenters - i.e. if the richness were made up only of the inert matter of the universe, and the production only consisted in working this inert matter in various forms, then the interest would constitute only one flight of industry, and could not exist a long time.” But a share of the richnesses is carrying fruits, like a cow and a bull, or a grape juice tank to be fermented out of wine, or… the ground. The inert planes and another tools (and most inert of all, money) are not direct sources of interests, except belonging to the same “circles of exchanges” social carriers of profits like these.

Its political proposals

Although being especially known for his plea in favor of the replacement of all the taxes by a single tax on the ground ( Land Tax ), Henry George also formulated a great number of ideas as regards economic policy. Following the example movement Open source , George was very critical against the patents and to the copyrights. It supported the replacement of the patents by State aid in favor of the inventions and research, the dismantling of the monopolies when that was possible, and tax or regulation on the natural monopolies. Henry George was in favor of a mixture of Economic liberalism and social programs made possible by the tax on the ground and the monopolies. Economists modern as the “Nobel Prize” of economy Milton Friedman admit the potential benefit of this " Land tax" , because to the difference in the others taxes, it does not assign the price of the consumer goods. The ecologists consider that the ground is the common property of humanity, and some are in favor of taxation or fines of pollution. Others, like the American economist Nicolas Tideman and the activist Alanna Harzok continue to promote the idea of a tax on the ground.

Died and rebirth of its thought

In 1886 he was candidate at the post of mayor of New York, and finished second (in front of Theodore Roosevelt). He presented himself again in 1897, but died four days before the election. Surroundings 100.000 people witnessed its funeral.

According to his/her little girl Agnes of Thousand, Progress and poverty as its following books made of Henry George the third most famous man of the United States behind Mark Twain and Thomas Edison. He was also a very popular speaker who made even several speeches abroad in countries like the Ireland, the Scotland where the access to the ground was (and is always) a crucial political question.

Its ideas, to a certain extent, were applied in South Africa, with Taiwan, Hong-Kong and in Australia.

Its popularity declined during the 20th century; however, there exist always of numerous organization which promotes its ideas, and of many famous men were influenced by Henry George: George Bernard Shaw, Leon Tolstoï, Sun Yat-SEN, Herbert Simon and David Lloyd George…. One of its disciples, Lizzie Magic, invented in 1904, to illustrate the operation of the " Land tax" , the board game which was at the origin of the Monopoly.

In its last book, Martin Luther King quoted Henry George to support her thesis in favor of a universal income. During the presidential election of 2004 in the United States, Ralph Nader supported the idea of a tax on the pollution and the value of the grounds.

A criticism

The writings of George received their share of criticisms. The Austrian economist (see " Austrian school ") Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk, for example, put forth a negative judgment on the thesis of George on the plane of the carpenter.

Written Böhm-Bawerk, “At the base, it is impossible to support its distinction of the branches of productions in two classes, in one whose the force vital of nature is supposed to be made up a special element which functions in harmony with work and in the order of which it is not true… the natural science for a long time proved us that the co-operation of nature is universal… The muscular movements of the person using the plane would be not very useful, if it were not assisted by the forces and the natural properties of flat.

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