LAND TAX v. POVERTY.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 2379, 8 October 1887, Page 2 (Supplement)

LAND TAX v. POVERTY.

Mr. Hkxby Gkokgb was asked how his proposed land tax would increase the demand for labor and diminish the supply to snob nn extent that it would ahoU-di poverty. He replied that the reasons were fully shown in his “ Progress and Poverty,” and proceeded as follows : “In brief, ho wever, the reason is that when more work is required than there are men to do it, wages rise to the point of earnings, and when every one can find work for which he gets the value of his produce, there can bo no involuntary poverty'. One laborer too many in a community will bring the wages of that community down to the minimum. There would be one man out of work. If it were the s ime man all the time, ho would starve and thus solve the problem ; but as he would not want the problem solved in that way, he would underbid some one, who would underbid some one else, and he some one else, and so on until to bid lower wonld bo impossible. But one laborer short in the same community would raise its wages to the earning point. Guo employer would always want another man, and the bidding for this man would go around and around the circle of employers until every man got all ho etrned. After that point was reached some employer would work for wages rather than pay higher wages to others and thus balance supply and demand respecting workmen. Of course this illustration supposes a community in which production neither increases nor diminishes ; in which there arc neither births nor deaths, and where there is neither immigration nor emigration. It illustrates a principle, - and nothing more. To apply that principle to the United States : There are 2,000,000 people seeking for opportunities to work. There are not the same people all the time ; if they' were they would speedily die off. But they and those with whom they change places continually bid against all who are employed, and thus press wages down. If vacant land were free, as it would bo under a. land value tax, there would be an outlet which neither births nor immigration could choke. Tlie unemployed need not go upon this land to produce this.result. That would bo produced by the putting of the boat land to more productive uses, winch would create a demand for labor; by the withdrawal of men with small capital from the ranks of the unemployed into the ranks of employers, which would at once diminish the supply of and increase the demand for employes; and by the voluntary retire-im-nt of men with little or no capital, but with skill and energy, from the ranks of the employed to the ranks of independent laborers. Thus, no matter how great the increase of population, there would always ha “ one man short” iu the labor market; for the land of this country is for all practical purposes, in nn economic sense, boundless. And meantime with the increase of population, while there would bo groat areas of desirable hind to ho had for nothing, the more desirable land would increase in value, thus yielding to the community at large a steadily increasing revenue, which would equalize differences iu natural opportunities and enable the community to do practically without taxation all those tilings that require groat capital and are in the nature of monopolies, such as building bridges and high ways, draining marshes, maintaining forests and so on.