> Some wealth is just transferred, like rent or interest.
Both of those are an exchange, not a transfer. Taxation is a transfer.
> Some wealth is just transferred, like rent or interest.
Both of those are an exchange, not a transfer. Taxation is a transfer.
They may be an exchange, but they are not "creation".
We are arguing whether wealth flows to people who already have it, rather people who "create it". My augment is both.
An artist creates wealth by painting a beautiful painting. Then he exchanges that wealth for money.
At no point was wealth "transferred" to the artist.
McDonald's creates wealth by designing and building a system to deliver hamburgers. McDonald's then exchanges that wealth for cash from its customers.
BTW, who gives money to people who already have it? Not me. I doubt you do, either. I don't know anybody who does. The transactions are always exchanges - you are getting something in return.
I think perhaps you are discussing too many threads simultaneously. I'm fully onboard with Maccas and Artists creating something thus creating wealth.
Also, yes, transaction are exchanges. Nobody is arguing that. You pay rent and in exchange you may use the land (productively or not)
My argument is that people are forced to pay rent to people who didn't create anything, but because they hold a piece of paper that says they own it.
The argument is, did the person who owns the land "create" anything. My argument is no.
The person who owns it bought it from person who created it.
The person who bought it then manages it, maintains it, organizes it, advertises it, pays taxes on it, etc.
And there's nothing wrong with that.
If rentable places were not allowed to be sold, very very few would exist. This is because people specialize - some build rentals, some manage them. Both are productive enterprises.
You can become a landlord if you want. Borrow the money, buy a rental, and rent it out. But you'll find out it's a lousy business.
I broadly agree with you, but there is really a point here about land ownership.
Although developments of the land do improve the value, and thus land ownership has significant utility economically by incentivizing this, there isn't really an economic justification for the owner receiving value for the land itself- why should someone have exclusive rights to a piece of land they didn't create? They bought it, sure, but why did the previous owner have perpetual exclusive rights?
I'd advocate for a small property tax as a replacement for other taxes, because the component that does tax "land value" won't cause economic harm, but all of income tax causes deadweight loss. (Note, Land Value Tax is great in theory, but impossible to define practically- property tax good enough, much harder to game!)
Note that in practice, the biggest abuser of land hoarding is local governments with extremely restrictive zoning that stops productive development of the land- from an economic perspective they own the land, and have sold (or in reality, seized) some but not all of the rights from the 'landowner'. Although this can have advantages to help with coordination problems, in practice it's caused enormous economic damage to many cities by preventing development. At its heart, it's a problem with land hoarding.
>The person who owns it bought it from person who created it.
The land was not created, it existed long before humans. It was taken by force and the strong began extracting rent from the weak.
I'll check out of diverting this into a 10,000 year old grievance.