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Why should the people in power ever institute this? It would ruin all of them.

meric 11y ago
The land value tax was a nail in the coffin to the decadent Roman empire. People just got up and left their property. ...the decay of trade and industry was not a cause of Rome’s fall. There was a decline in agriculture and land was withdrawn from cultivation, in some cases on a very large scale, sometimes as a direct result of barbarian invasions. However, the chief cause of the agricultural decline was high taxation on the marginal land, driving it out of cultivation. Jones is surely right in saying that taxation was spurred by the huge military budget and was thus ‘indirectly’ the result of the barbarian invasion. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historiography_of_the_fall_of_the_Western_Roman_Empire https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historiography_of_the_fall_of_... History does not repeat, but it surely does rhyme.
branchless 11y ago
The same reason they ever implement anything: because they are either worried about losing all their power / something even more "abrupt".
- beccasanchez 11y ago
  In all of history, the elite have never been more secure. They've never had anything close to the level of surveillance and policing as today. The police today are literally thousands of times more effective at their job than the time of the French Revolution. No one with a clue is worried about anything "abrupt". Rebellion is literally impossible.
  - branchless 11y ago
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_England_riots https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_England_riots Did they put guns on Big Dog since 2011? What's changed? Good old UK had to stop the press reporting on it they were so flustered.
    - beccasanchez 11y ago
      That riot in no way threatened the existence of the state, or the privileges of the elite. Your example proves my point. There is nothing to fear from the poor. They are completely checked and have no access to power whatsoever.
      - branchless 11y ago
        They can go further. IMHO jury is out.

meric 11y ago

The land value tax was a nail in the coffin to the decadent Roman empire. People just got up and left their property. ...the decay of trade and industry was not a cause of Rome’s fall. There was a decline in agriculture and land was withdrawn from cultivation, in some cases on a very large scale, sometimes as a direct result of barbarian invasions. However, the chief cause of the agricultural decline was high taxation on the marginal land, driving it out of cultivation. Jones is surely right in saying that taxation was spurred by the huge military budget and was thus ‘indirectly’ the result of the barbarian invasion. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historiography_of_the_fall_of_the_Western_Roman_Empire https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historiography_of_the_fall_of_... History does not repeat, but it surely does rhyme.

branchless 11y ago

The same reason they ever implement anything: because they are either worried about losing all their power / something even more "abrupt".

beccasanchez 11y ago
In all of history, the elite have never been more secure. They've never had anything close to the level of surveillance and policing as today. The police today are literally thousands of times more effective at their job than the time of the French Revolution. No one with a clue is worried about anything "abrupt". Rebellion is literally impossible.
- branchless 11y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_England_riots https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_England_riots Did they put guns on Big Dog since 2011? What's changed? Good old UK had to stop the press reporting on it they were so flustered.
  - beccasanchez 11y ago
    That riot in no way threatened the existence of the state, or the privileges of the elite. Your example proves my point. There is nothing to fear from the poor. They are completely checked and have no access to power whatsoever.
    - branchless 11y ago
      They can go further. IMHO jury is out.