Page:David Atkins - The Economics of Freedom (1924).pdf/346

 

Chapter XV

Specific Considerations

 

There are other points to be considered which bear upon the remedy proposed. These are dealt with briefly as follows:

 

Incidence of Taxation

 

Under the proposed plan the whole burden of taxation falls on land-area as truly valued by population. It is not a tax levied by a temperamental or venal appraiser upon the improved value of land measured in terms of fluctuating dollars: it is a tax based upon the occupancy-value of land-area, measured scientifically by local population-density.

By anticipating the inevitable inflation with which we are faced, we can minimize the dislocation due to a sudden change of method.^[1] For the first year there would be no taxation whatever. We propose frankly to live for one year upon our newly validated credit, just as we boldly went to war. For the second year, on the basis of a total area of 1,903,215,360 acres, the average tax, with a 10 billion dollar budget, would be approximately $5.00 per acre. Since the average density of population is 1 person per 18 acres, this would mean a tax of about 14 cents per acre in certain areas in the West where the population-density is 1 person per square mile and a tax of about $14,600 per acre in the center of New York City where the population-density is 103,823 per square mile.^[2]

Since the incidence of Federal taxation would bear equally upon all similarly populated land-area, there would be no question of discrimination, The underlying charge on range land in Texas would be the same as that upon range land in Montana, and the uniform charge would be reflected throughout

1. See page 278.
2. It may become necessary to draw a distinction between the “economic man” whose value is based on his place of working, and the “political man” whose value is based on his place of sleeping.

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