Why LVT is a red herring

[Tony Gosling]

Land Value Tax is a Red Herring - A castle in the sand
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At the actions we've (The Land Is Ours) had in the past whenever a LVT
speaker bothers to appear they bore the pants off all & sundry who quickly
find better things to do -such as wandering round enjoying the countryside
or planting veg.  At Wisley there were only three people left listening out
of sixty or so after only 5 minutes of the LVT revolutionary polemic. 

LVT people are trying to hijack the grassroots Land Reform movement which
is founded on returning the land to the people from the illusion of
'ownership'. One thing Henry George was right about was that no-one can own
land. Why then tax someone for something that's not even theirs? 

To stop boring the virtual pants off everyone on the Diggers 350 list would
BurnsCurtis please reply tho the emails I've sent him/her off list.
Particulary with reference to who/where he/she comes from. So we can have a
chat on the phone.


At 17:57 25/01/02 -0000, burns_curtis wrote:
>Well currently you are taxed on your labour.  The harder you work the 
>more they tax you.  A disincentive.  For your kids have only one tax.

I stopped reading your treatise at that point.

If only that were possible or true anywhere - if there is to be 'only one
tax' that tax should be on luxury goods of some sort, not land - which is a
basic essential for all.  All basic essentials of life - water - food -
especially those, like land - which are a free gift to mankind - must be
tax free or the most poor will fall victim to that tax. 

Is that what you want?

LVT forces private land ownership on us, which anyone who accepts 'the
earth is a common treasury for all' rejects - The Diggers accepted that
people have rights of use on land but do not own it.

LVT - once collected - would have to be managed by quite possibly corrupt
and definately corruptible taxmen and politicians to say nothing of the
mass of evidence from around the world that forcing people to pay tax on
land means they have to use more intensive methods than they would otherwise.

LVT'ers seem to forget Britain carried on very much more autonomously run -
with local courts/laws/customs before the Romans when there was no money.
Money/Tax is fraudulent and part of the problem not the solution.   See the
Money fraud education site  http://www.fame.org   if you want to get up to
speed on money. Money has become a kind of twisted 'manna from heaven' that
everybody needs but privately owned national banks have a monopoly in its
creation.  And they make massive so-caled 'profits' merrily creating it out
of nothing and lending it out at interest to everyone - especially the
government.

With LVT you're saying you must pay a tax if you want to live on land - ie
just to exist - That's precisely what you should not have to pay tax for.
Maybe a posh house on the land but absolutely never the land itself. 

Watt Tyler and the anti-Thatcher poll tax rioters would have a few things
to say to you about taxing people for growing their own food.

Burnscurtis - lets have a chat.

Tony Gosling
0117 944 6219