Approach of Henry George

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Approaches of Henry George and Walter Rauschenbusch Henry George offered a single value tax on land property. This tax would be so large that it would give an incentive for the owner to use the land in a productive way. Doing so would create wealth and jobs in response to the ongoing poverty and social problems. Henry George used a more logical and radical approach when coming up with this solution. As economic growth occurred, so did technological advances. The rapid growth in economy and technology meant that the value of land had also increased. With advancements like electricity, telephones, cameras, coal mining, factories, railroads and many others, this meant that the quality of life had significantly increased. This in turn caused the value of land to increase. Wealthy individuals were able to capitalize on this economic growth and make profit. This left the working class lagging behind compared to the wealthy. There was an unequal distribution of wealth during this economic growth. Wealthy individuals were able to purchase land with ease compared to the working class. Henry George offered a single tax on land properties in order to give an incentive to put the land to use. This meant hiring for labor and employing workers. This would create more wealth and allow better quality of living for the working class. Social Darwinism states that the strong would see their wealth increase and weak would see a decrease. In other words, it meant that the economy operated under “survival of the fittest”. Henry George's solution still kept along with Social Darwinism. It gave more opportunity for success but did hand it out freely. Men and women still had to work for their success and wealth if they wanted it under the new single tax. Henry George was also critical on monopolization. If a majority of business or products was monopolized, it meant that opportunity for

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