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Tuesday, December 23, 2008

What To Tax

Kevin Bjornson wrote:  "Objecting to tax-financing is one thing; surely, libertarians can all agree on that (except for Brian and his land taxes)."

To be precise, I favor taxing only aggression: monopolizing, consuming, polluting, or congesting the commons.  If you're a non-aggressor, and thus do not violate the Lockean proviso to leave "as much and as good", then you should not be taxed.

More details at http://ecolibertarian.org/manifesto

The idea of taxing site value is not original to me.  Advocates and sympathizers of such a tax include:

Political Theorists

  • Adam Smith
  • Thomas Jefferson
  • Tom Paine
  • William Penn
  • Ben Franklin
  • Frederic Bastiat
  • John Stuart Mill
  • David Ricardo
  • Henry George
  • John Locke
  • William Lloyd Garrison
  • John Dewey
  • Lysander Spooner
  • Benjamin Tucker
  • Robert LeFevre
  • Frank Chodorov
  • Albert J. Nock

Academic Economists

  • Milton Friedman
  • James Buchanan
  • Robert Solow
  • Fred Foldvary
  • Franco Modigliani
  • Paul Samuelson
  • Herbert Simon
  • James Tobin
  • William Vickrey
  • Tyler Cowan

Libertarians

  • David Nolan (AZ) - founder of the LP
    • "What kind of taxation is least harmful?….My own preference is for a single tax on land, with landholders doing their own valuation."
  • John Hospers (CA) - first LP presidential nominee (1972)
  • Karl Hess - LP News editor, 1986-1990
  • Russell Means - runner-up for 1988 LP presidential nomination, losing by 3 votes to Ron Paul
  • Steve Dasbach (VA) - former Chair, LPUS; member of multiple LPUS Platform Committees
  • Fred Foldvary (CA) - geolibertarian economist, 2000 LP candidate for Congress
  • Carl Milsted (NC) - LNC member c. 2002
  • Dan Sullivan (PA) - past chair, LP of Allegheny County
  • Lorenzo Gaztanaga (MD) - LPMD Chair c. 1994; LNC member c. 2002
  • Lois Kaneshiki (PA) - LPPA Chair and LNC member, c. 2002
  • Wayne Parker (MS) - LPLA Chair c. 1996; LPMS ex-Chair; 2002 LP candidate for Congress MS-4
  • Paul Gagnon (VA) - founder, LP of Fairfax County
  • Henry Haller (PA) - multiple LPUS Platform Committees
  • Mik Robertson (PA) - 2006 LPUS Platform Committee
  • Guy McLendon (TX) - 2006,2008 LPUS Platform Committee
  • Brian Holtz (CA) - 2006,2008 LPUS Platform Committee
  • Robert Capozzi - 2008 LPUS Platform Committee
  • Starchild - former Chair, LP of San Francisco
  • Ron Rosenberger (PA) - 1998 LP candidate for PA Senate
  • Chris Toto (NJ) - former chair, LP of Mercer County