Reply #42: Yes, I do. [View All]

You didn't build it, or cause it to be created. Going back far enough, your land 'title' is based on theft or conquest.

Even if you disagree with that, you probably agree that you own yourself, and your claim to yourself is much stronger than your claim to the land you own. Yet you pay a third of your wages in taxes - put another way the government has a third share of your ass.

To rectify this, I think that a man's wages should be his to keep - they should not be taxed. Wages can be paid in kind - a self employed carpenter's wages are the furniture he builds. He can then trade his products for something more useful to him, usually money. This trade, this transaction, this sale should not be taxed either - any sales tax is merely an indirect tax on his labor.

Another indirect tax on his labor is a tax on the ownership of his products. If the tax man assesses a 1% personal property tax on building furnishings, that is an indirect tax on the carpenter's labor. If the carpenter is commissioned to build a mill for a bread company, and what that bread company earns from the mill is taxed, that too is an indirect tax on the carpenter.

All of these indirect taxes tend to detract from the carpenter's business - generally reducing the number of people employed, as carpenters or otherwise. The presence of unemployed people means that potential employers can offer low wages and poor working conditions - without many alternatives, people must accept them.

Conversely, if these taxes were removed, potential employees would become scarce, and they could demand higher wages and better working conditions.

Furthermore, if you consider the world the natural birthright of all mankind, the right to exclude people from a portion of it naturally comes with a price. It is far more just to pay that to the people, rather than the guy who happened to own it previously. Taxes on land values shift the payment from the previous owner to the public purse.