4 ms·

I absolutely do have qualms with the entire organization and find ezra klein to be a snake. The idea that a self proclaimed anarchist who spoke against the stat

I absolutely do have qualms with the entire organization and find ezra klein to be a snake. The idea that a self proclaimed anarchist who spoke against the state as being an exploitative entity, promoting increased state taxes on land, is amusing until you realize the context of him living in the period of Russian aristocracy.

andrepd 5y ago
Anarchist thought has a long tradition of seeing certain things as "commons" which are illegitimately appropriated by private concerns. This includes things as land, air, natural resources, cultural heritage, etc. But more importantly, the part where you speak of "state taxes" makes me think you have no idea what you're talking about, since the original idea of Henry George was to distribute the LVT in the form of a citizen's dividend, equally among every person regardless of any criteria. A prescient form of UBI if you will.
- boredumb 5y ago
  If the state is coercing you to pay taxes for the land you live on, it is a state tax. We can all collectively start referring to chickens as horses, we can even refer to aviaries as a prescient form of stables, but it is not going to change the nature of the bird. The naive idea that exchanging all the taxes for a single land tax will result in anything but all of the current taxes with an additional state tax on land is ahistoric to put it kindly. As of the time of writing we do pay taxes on land as well as taxes on labor, taxes on commerce, taxes on investments, taxes on inheritance, taxes on imports, taxes on value added to goods, sin taxes, tax stamps for government services, taxes on energy, taxes on roadways, taxes on gifts, taxes to enter or leave airports, and even taxes to live in certain cities. In the US these did not exist until after the civil war and since then they've become the rule and not the exception, to repeal all of them and replace them with a LVT is great, but to expect the modern state to not feature creep every single one of the current taxes back in place within a few decades gives me a huge pause.

andrepd 5y ago

Anarchist thought has a long tradition of seeing certain things as "commons" which are illegitimately appropriated by private concerns. This includes things as land, air, natural resources, cultural heritage, etc. But more importantly, the part where you speak of "state taxes" makes me think you have no idea what you're talking about, since the original idea of Henry George was to distribute the LVT in the form of a citizen's dividend, equally among every person regardless of any criteria. A prescient form of UBI if you will.

boredumb 5y ago
If the state is coercing you to pay taxes for the land you live on, it is a state tax. We can all collectively start referring to chickens as horses, we can even refer to aviaries as a prescient form of stables, but it is not going to change the nature of the bird. The naive idea that exchanging all the taxes for a single land tax will result in anything but all of the current taxes with an additional state tax on land is ahistoric to put it kindly. As of the time of writing we do pay taxes on land as well as taxes on labor, taxes on commerce, taxes on investments, taxes on inheritance, taxes on imports, taxes on value added to goods, sin taxes, tax stamps for government services, taxes on energy, taxes on roadways, taxes on gifts, taxes to enter or leave airports, and even taxes to live in certain cities. In the US these did not exist until after the civil war and since then they've become the rule and not the exception, to repeal all of them and replace them with a LVT is great, but to expect the modern state to not feature creep every single one of the current taxes back in place within a few decades gives me a huge pause.