Taxation Under Marxism versus Georgism

Julian Hickok

[A letter to the editor, printed in the Philadelphia Inquirer, 17 July, 1973]

A letter July 11 protests that [Karl] Marx had been misquoted in a previous letter. It is irrelevant whether he said "from everyone according to his faculties" or "according to his abilities." The terms are synonymous. The ramification of statements made by Socialists are not limited to words of Karl Marx but there seems to be unanimous agreement among them that "taxation should be in accordance with ability to pay" rather than in "accordance with benefits received."

This is evidenced in the income tax, particularly that it should be graduated, so that more is taken from those with higher incomes for distribution to those with less. That is one form of robbery that should be abolished. The Sodnlw.1; make no distinction between earned and unearned incomes.

It is misleading to say that "a man's wage is equal in value to that which he has produced." In our complex society no man produces anything atone. All who contribute, from the point of extraction of natural resources to the finished product, should be compensated in accordance with the value of the goods and services in the open market.

Lincoln's statement that things produced by labor "of right belong to those whose labor produced them," refers to the reward to labor applied to the land as opposed to the extraction of any part of wages for use of the land. There are three factors in the production of wealth; land, labor and capital. That part of the product due to advantages inherent in certain land is "rent"; that to labor is "wages"; and that to the use of capital is "interest."

Since the earth is the birthright of all mankind, the rent of land belongs to the people and should be taken by government for equitable distribution, as in public facilities and services. Wages and interest should be distributed in accordance with the value of goods and services under competition in the open market.

The proposal of Henry George was to use the existing machinery of taxation to take more of the rent of land for public uses and to reduce or eliminate the burden of taxation now imposed upon the worker and his capital. The issue is between "Marxism" or "Georgism" whether we are to be slaves or free men.