A Georgist finance minister?

2020-08-19

Bill Morneau is out and Chrystia Freeland is in as our new federal finance minister. I don’t have strong opinions about Freeland other than that I enjoyed her cameo in Bill Browder’s Red Notice.

Well, that and this awesome tweet:

Yes! Time for Henry George revival! "@mattyglesias: Property taxes are a barbarous relic. Tax land instead: http://t.co/0ZtmDXvz #georgeism"
— Chrystia Freeland (@cafreeland) June 14, 2012

My expectations of politicians are low enough that I don’t imagine many of them to know who Henry George was, let alone have any familiarity with his work.

Chrystia Freeland does though, and she appears to be a fan. I love that.

The progressive movement owes its name to Henry George’s Progress and Poverty, first published in 1879, in which he proposes a single tax on land values. This might be the most underrated book and idea in economics.

I’ll dig deeper into the benefits of a land value tax in a follow up post. For now, buy the book and read it. You’ll be in good company.