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| Wealth and Want | |||||||
| ... because democracy alone is not enough to produce widely shared prosperity. | |||||||
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Burdening the
Poor Henry George: The Single Tax: What It Is and Why We Urge It (1890)
(c) The taxation of the processes and products
of labor on one hand, and the insufficient taxation of
land values on the other, produce an unjust distribution
of wealth which is building up in the hands of a few,
fortunes more monstrous than the world has ever before
seen, while the masses of our people are steadily
becoming relatively poorer. These taxes necessarily fall
on the poor more heavily than on the rich; by increasing
prices, they necessitate a larger capital in all
businesses, and consequently give an advantage to large
capitals; and they give, and in some cases are designed
to give, special advantage and monopolies to combinations
and trusts. On the other hand, the insufficient taxation
of land values enables men to make large fortunes by land
speculation and the increase of ground values —
fortunes which do not represent any addition by them to
the general wealth of the community, but merely the
appropriation by some of what the labor of others
creates.
This unjust distribution of wealth
develops on the one hand a class idle and wasteful because
they are too rich, and on the other hand a class idle and
wasteful because they are too poor. It deprives men of
capital and opportunities which would make them more
efficient producers. It thus greatly diminishes
production. ...
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Wealth and Want
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... because democracy alone hasn't yet led to a society
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