I met with long-time Finance and Land reporter, Fred Harrison: Research Director of the London-based Land Research Trust, in New York City, a couple of months ago. We talked about the vast wealth inequities allowed by land monopolizers and rent-avoiders like Goldman Sachs.
Goldman Sachs struck a deal with politicians to avoid paying property tax. Subsidized by the small businesses and home owners of New York City, the financiers are enriched, leaving the homeless searching for shelter at night. I argued that it doesn't make economic sense. Fred Harrison simply calls it cheating.
Whatever you call it, it amounts to billions lost by New York City alone, and trillions worldwide.
A video of our efforts follows:
Expanding outward to the country at large, Georgist economist and Fred Harrison's sometime collaborator, Mason Gaffney, explains the loss of economic rent further. US Governments could scrap their bad taxes and fund public services out of community-created rents. Another professor of economics, Nicolaus Tideman, calculates that income of the average American family would rise by $6,300. And yet, governments refuse to audit their fiscal performance to disclose the negative impact of political decisions on the economy. This denies citizens the information needed to make informed choices at elections.
Harrison has more videos in this series here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/sharetherents
For more information on Harrison's campaign, go to: http://www.sharetherents.org/
For further information on New York City's particular arrangements that leave working people paying a much higher percentage in property taxes than billionaires, see this slideshow I presented at the Henry George School (video pending) on similar and even more egregious examples of rent-seeking. I promise, you'll never think of property taxes the same way again.