Does Georgism Work? Five Years Later
5 hours ago
- Land value tax (LVT) enables laws passed in Virginia and Kentucky, with growing state-level legislative momentum in the U.S. and international interest in the UK and South Korea.
- Lars Doucet's initial theory of change shifted from prioritizing online debates to focusing on practical, local policy work with willing lawmakers and community activists.
- Successful LVT advocacy requires providing policymakers with ready-to-use tools like land valuation models, visualizers, and political playbooks to overcome objections and implementation barriers.
- Georgia's core thesis that land is economically significant is strengthened by South Korea's high land value-to-GDP ratio and robust annual parcel valuation system.
- LVT generally cannot be passed to tenants, except in cases of pervasive rent control combined with specific tax increase pass-through allowances, as seen in Denmark.
- Land valuation is feasible when based on data quality, procedural rigor, horizontal uniformity, and regular updates, as demonstrated by Korean, German (Qingdao), and historical U.S. examples.
- Historical Georgism declined due to automobile-driven suburban sprawl, which temporarily relieved land rent pressure but is now exhausted in the Second Gilded Age.
- Doucet attributes recent LVT advocacy achievements to writing impactful blog posts that attracted collaborators and activists, rather than traditional networking.