What Does It Mean to Be a Libertarian

[ndrosen]

Reason has an article on what it means to be a libertarian, to which several libertarian thinkers contributed their views. In particular, I was interested by David Friedman’s view that there are different degrees of libertarianism, and different views which can be defended as libertarian. In particular, he wrote about Georgism:

“Going further afield, it is possible to construct a libertarian argument along Georgist lines for a government funded by taxes on the site value of land, on the theory that the holder owes compensation to all those deprived of access to his parcel, which, not having been produced by human effort, ought properly to be a commons. It is equally possible to construct a libertarian case in opposition, based either on a Lockean claim of just ownership or on the consequentialist argument — which goes all the way back to economist David Ricardo’s rejection of Adam Smith’s case for land taxes — about how a real-world government can be expected, in practice, to implement such a tax.”

My readers know where I stand. Perhaps I should read Ricardo; I am aware that land value taxes often end up being sabotaged or malassessed, putting the burden back on people other than landholders. But should one then just give up and agree to have the burden of government placed on productive workers instead of landholders? There are serious problems with that, as well.

Comments

[selenite0]

My preference would be to change the basis of taxation once every generation or so. The longer a system stays in place the more cheats people will discover and the more encrustations the rules will acquire. Best to just go to a clean sheet every so often. With warning, so people can make plans.