Q: In your opinion, would it be more effective to
attempt to achieve support from economists about the need
for such reform, or to bypass them in seeking to build
popular support independently from them, in that the
views of mainstream economists on the topic of land
reform might fairly be characterized as an
"intransigent"?
JES: There are some economists who are interested in
this. I think most economists would like the idea, and
would support it. But, economists spend their time on
things that they think have marketability. So it isn't
that they don't think it's a good idea; they don't think
there's any resonance in it. President Bush is still
talking about the inheritance tax, and income tax, and
they want to get involved in what other people are
talking about. It's a social phenomenon, I think. So, if
you get a lot of other people talking about it, then
they'll join the fray.
Q: You are aware that Henry George was a critic of the
moral foundations of our economic institutions. What do
you think of reform efforts toward land value taxation
based on an appeal to morality?
JES: What it fits into is that there is a wide view
today that we should tax environmental "bads" such as
pollution and the like. And switch from taxing good
things like labor. So, in a way, that's where it comes
in: let's stop taxing good things like labor, and tax
things that are resources. So the argument is, "why tax
things that are contributing to society?" ...
read the entire interview