Because the earth is finite and you having that land means it’s denied to everyone else. You shouldn’t have to pay rent to a landlord just because his great great grandfather was a Marquis, but you should compensate everyone else for excluding them from something they have as much right to as you do. The idea of the land value tax is not to punish you, but to prevent you from profiting from the work of others that increases the value of your land without you having to do anything. Henry George explained all of this better than I can.
How would this account for people who do put work into increasing the value of their land? If you decide to permanently settle down somewhere, naturally you’d want to make improvements to your home and the surrounding areas to improve your quality of life.
You’re right, technically a land value tax should be not on the total value of the land but rather on the unimproved value, so even improvements made to the land itself would still be exempt from taxation.
Because the earth is finite and you having that land means it’s denied to everyone else. You shouldn’t have to pay rent to a landlord just because his great great grandfather was a Marquis, but you should compensate everyone else for excluding them from something they have as much right to as you do. The idea of the land value tax is not to punish you, but to prevent you from profiting from the work of others that increases the value of your land without you having to do anything. Henry George explained all of this better than I can.
How would this account for people who do put work into increasing the value of their land? If you decide to permanently settle down somewhere, naturally you’d want to make improvements to your home and the surrounding areas to improve your quality of life.
You’re right, technically a land value tax should be not on the total value of the land but rather on the unimproved value, so even improvements made to the land itself would still be exempt from taxation.