Spencer Heath Archive

Item 2213

Letter to the Editor of the Christian Science Monitor from Charles G. Baldwin, a Georgist friend of Heath’s much inclined towards his ideas.

February 1937

 

 

Tax Adjustments and Unemployment

To The Christian Science Monitor:

 

It is highly important, in the “breathing space” which has been secured for us, to solve the problem of unemployment. It must be solved first in theory and then gradually society must be brought to conform in prac­tice as nearly as may be.

 

So much is said about taxation that per­haps the root of the trouble lies in tax ad­justments. As an ideal up to which we may work with expectation of a solution, I sub­mit these recommendations as a basis for real democracy:

 

1. That all taxes be paid out of the annual rental value of the land, because all public services and dis­services are reflected in the annual rental value of the land, ex­clusive of improvements.

 

2. That all economic barriers be removed. (This means tariff duties, quotas, and embargoes.)

 

3. That each taxpayer be given a vote for each dollar paid.

 

4. That landowners in each tax district organize at once on

the basis of one vote for each tax-dollar and offer to

       proportion­ately increase their own tax bur­den in

       exchange for better public services and therefore

       higher an­nual rental values, and gradually to relieve

       industry of all taxes.

 

William J. Ogden, in his book entitled A Tax Talk to Business Men, shows that one half of the annual rental value of lands would be sufficient to pay all state and municipal taxes.

 

CHARLES G. BALDWIN, Baltimore, Md.