Run the Government Like a Business
Mike Curtis
[
GroundSwell, January 2012]
If Mitt Romney and the corporate backed candidates for congress win
in the next election it seems more than likely they will, at the very
least, want to run our governments like a business. Is this a good
idea? Its hard to imagine anything less equitable or inefficient
than a system, which takes from each a percentage of their income or
outgo in a sales tax without any reference to the value of benefits
received by the taxpayer.
Exactly how they would run the government like a business, I can only
imagine. I suppose they could have each level of government charge for
the services and the infrastructure that people use? Certainly the
government could charge for each mile that is driven on all the roads
and highways with an EasyPass. Governments could charge for many
things, but, how they would charge for police and fire and national
defense, I have no idea.
However, when we think about how the economy works, there is an
amazingly simple and efficient way to run the government like a
business. It is simply a free market exchange: title to the natural
opportunities on which we live and work and from which we produce our
food, clothing, shelter, and everything else we consume, in exchange
for the rental value of those opportunities each year.
It is well imbedded in our consciousness that those who steal the
results of our labor, whether it be a robber or the government, have,
to an equal degree, transgressed our inherent right to our selves and
our own existence. And we all need access to land. To say that one
person has a greater right to the ownership of land is to say that he
has a greater right to life, for no one can exist without land. Our
inherent sense of justice demands that we all have an equal right to
the landed opportunities and an exclusive right to the fruits of our
labor.
By supporting government with the rental value of land we can
eliminate all taxes that confiscate the fruits of labor and productive
investments, and make the natural opportunities of our land a common
asset for us all.
The value of land equals the advantage. When a house is in a safe
neighborhood, has nearby access to the freeway, is located in a good
school district, people pay extra. Those external benefits are not
produced by the builder, but the government even though the
builder sells them along with the house. Each of those advantages adds
to the value of the land. What about an ocean view? Its value comes
from the exclusive title government gives to a natural resource, no
less than the title to land with oil or gold.
Look at the most valuable industrial land. It has the deep water
advantage for a port; it has access to railroads and heavy duty
utilities. If the rental value of the land was paid to the government,
not only could the corporation and its stockholders keep what their
corporation produced, but if the river ever needed dredging or rail
service was interrupted, the rental value of the land and the
corporate payment to the government would fall by the same amount.
Almost every public expenditure worthy of making, either increases or
prevents from falling the rental value of land. A government that ran
like a business would charge for those values. Land is a natural
opportunity. It could have no value without a government granted title
to its exclusive possession.
The larger and denser the population the greater the potential for
each person to specialize their efforts-to produce in economies of
scale. A supermarket in a village of 50 people would be a waste of
labor and capital, but a supermarket in a city of 10,000 is a super
efficient application of both.
The larger and denser the population the more efficient each person
has the potential to become; but, because the land on which the
population is dense is already owned, all the greater productivity is
accounted for in the rental value of the land. Ultimately, it is the
presence of people that create the value of land. But, without the
infrastructure and public services: water, sewer, streets and bridges,
police and fire protection the density of population would be limited;
the efficiency of people would be diminished, and the rental value of
land would be a small fraction of what it is or has the potential to
be.
The public collection of rent is a system of equal and common
opportunities with the guarantee that the government will not rob
anyone of the fruits of their labor. If this system of running the
government like a business were implemented, not only would the
workers and all producers enjoy for themselves what was being stolen
in taxes, but the unused and underused land would be put on the
market. Some land would have no value at all. There labor and capital
would get their full rewards, and this free land opportunity would
offer an alternative that would raise the rate of wages everywhere.
Free land is what gave America the highest wages in the world, and
free land would again give America the highest wages in the world
again.
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