Introductory Stuff
Georgism in 300 Words
Why is the Rent So High? (Video)
Geoism FAQ
The Law of Rent
All Taxes Come Out of Rents (ATCOR)
The Henry George Theorem
*The latter two concepts follow logically from The Law of Rent. The Law of Rent simply points out the bargaining power of land -- that title owners can suck up all the economy's extra wealth (beyond the margin of production). In the macroeconomic short-run, taxes simply reduce the amount of wealth available for landlords to take (ATCOR).
The Henry George theorem states that, per the Wiki page, "...under certain conditions, beneficial investments in public goods will increase aggregate land rents by at least as much as the investments cost." In my opinion, this has little to do with "beneficial investments in public goods"; rather, it is simply the fact that government is spending wealth back into the economy, where wealth beyond the margin of production will go either to (1) Government in taxes, to be looped into future cycles, or (2) Landlords in rents, to disappear. In other words, ATCOR describes the short-term, single-cycle action of taxes' diverting wealth from capture by landlords, and the Henry George Theorem describes the long-term action of the taxed wealth being spent and becoming subject once again to the Law of Rent, flowing to its inevitable resting place: the pockets of landlords.
It is important to note that these laws pertain to macroeconomic averages and should not be used to justify taxation (except land value taxation, of course). Production taxes in rural areas do not come out of rents because in rural areas there are no rents. In rural areas, only wages exist to be stolen. Taxes on people using marginal land only make those people simultaneously slaves to and wards of the State. When you start to understand land economics, you'll start to understand ... well, pretty much everything, but namely, maps like this:
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| Funny coincidence (not): People tolerate higher taxation where land rents are higher. |
That's a cartogram of the 2012 presidential election returns at the county level, but it may as well be a cartogram of 2012 land values, high and low.
Recessions and Depressions
The 18-year Boom-Bust (Land) Cycle
Although monetary policy can exacerbate it, this cycle is due to the real economics of land. If you understand that a land price is just the estimated, capitalized value of future rents, then you'll understand the cycle so: (1) The economy chugs along, boosting land values, (2) Because land rent collection is always a free ride, land speculation becomes the only game in town, diverting wealth from wages and capital, (3) Land prices soon reflect more capitalized rents than the dispossessed, underpaid, unemployed producers of the area are capable of producing and paying in the future, especially now that they have no access to highly-priced land, and of course (4) Land prices crash.
