![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ndrosenThis is the second part of the speech I gave at a Toastmasters meeting on September 2.
It’s not enough to imagine an ideal tariff. George wrote that an actual tariff that emerges from the political process resembles what a protectionist thinker might propose as a bucket of paint thrown against a wall resembles a fresco by Raphael. Introducing a tariff bill into Congress is like tossing a banana into a cage full of monkeys. Every industry capable of being protected engages in frantic lobbying.
These and other arguments take up much of the book, but then, after confuting the protectionists, George addressed the questions of why many workers supported protectionism, and why standard free trade wasn’t good enough. There were still hunger and pauperism in Britain after repeal of the Corn Laws.
Free trade makes a country richer just as improved machinery in factories makes a country richer, and should tend to increase wages. But neither one necessarily does increase wages if the tendency is checked. The trouble was that increased productivity goes into raising land rents, not wages.
If you think these nineteenth century ideas are irrelevant to the world of today, by the way, read what people are saying about wage stagnation, and look at what has happened to real estate prices over the past sixty years.
George advocated what he saw as true free trade. That did not mean tariffs for revenue only, as in post-1846 British “free trade.” It meant ending all tariffs, and also ending all internal taxes which infringed on people’s rights to keep the fruits of their own labor, and engage in voluntary exchanges with others.
Instead, government should be financed by taxing the value of land. This would free labor from taxation, and it would also keep land from being held out of use by land speculators. That way, laborers could find employment for themselves, and would not have to accept low wages to work for others.
Henry George became the leader of a mass movement and one of the most famous men in America. In 1886, the year Protection or Free Trade was published, he was drafted by the labor movement to run for mayor of New York City, and would probably have won if the ballots had been counted honestly.
Today, George is rather obscure and the Georgist or single tax movement is small. Yet some of us believe that an ignored truth is still true, that the economic and social problems of today cannot be solved without addressing the land question, and that an issue is not settled until it is settled right.
Happy Henry George Day.
It’s not enough to imagine an ideal tariff. George wrote that an actual tariff that emerges from the political process resembles what a protectionist thinker might propose as a bucket of paint thrown against a wall resembles a fresco by Raphael. Introducing a tariff bill into Congress is like tossing a banana into a cage full of monkeys. Every industry capable of being protected engages in frantic lobbying.
These and other arguments take up much of the book, but then, after confuting the protectionists, George addressed the questions of why many workers supported protectionism, and why standard free trade wasn’t good enough. There were still hunger and pauperism in Britain after repeal of the Corn Laws.
Free trade makes a country richer just as improved machinery in factories makes a country richer, and should tend to increase wages. But neither one necessarily does increase wages if the tendency is checked. The trouble was that increased productivity goes into raising land rents, not wages.
If you think these nineteenth century ideas are irrelevant to the world of today, by the way, read what people are saying about wage stagnation, and look at what has happened to real estate prices over the past sixty years.
George advocated what he saw as true free trade. That did not mean tariffs for revenue only, as in post-1846 British “free trade.” It meant ending all tariffs, and also ending all internal taxes which infringed on people’s rights to keep the fruits of their own labor, and engage in voluntary exchanges with others.
Instead, government should be financed by taxing the value of land. This would free labor from taxation, and it would also keep land from being held out of use by land speculators. That way, laborers could find employment for themselves, and would not have to accept low wages to work for others.
Henry George became the leader of a mass movement and one of the most famous men in America. In 1886, the year Protection or Free Trade was published, he was drafted by the labor movement to run for mayor of New York City, and would probably have won if the ballots had been counted honestly.
Today, George is rather obscure and the Georgist or single tax movement is small. Yet some of us believe that an ignored truth is still true, that the economic and social problems of today cannot be solved without addressing the land question, and that an issue is not settled until it is settled right.
Happy Henry George Day.
