Land Is a Big Deal

The conflicts of the last century have trained us to see capital and labor as two fundamentally opposed camps–if we want to stimulate growth and economic progress, it means squeezing workers, and if we want to take care of workers it means accepting higher taxes, more barriers to starting and running a business, and a hit to overall economic growth (or so the conventional wisdom goes). But what if we've been missing out on a crucial piece of the puzzle, something that flips the entire script?

In this book, an evaluation of and elaboration on Henry George's seminal work, Progress and Poverty, Lars A Doucet uncovers the hidden role of land in shaping the entire economy - and once you've seen it, you can't un-see it. Land, and the policies that govern it, hold an incredible and largely forgotten power over our lives. When land is wasted and squandered, we get sky-high rents, oppressed workers, ruined businesses, depleted natural resources, a polluted earth, and an impoverished society. Land is a big deal, and this book will explain the problem and what we can do to solve it.

"Lars Doucet has thought more deeply about land taxes than anyone I've ever met...and I've met just about everyone."—Noah Smith

"Lars's work is intellectually fascinating and among the clearest and most compelling writing in support of land value taxes that I've seen."—Vitalik Buterin

"Why land matters more today than ever… and why economists, urbanists & everyone else need to take Henry George seriously."—Richard Florida, co-founder Bloomberg CityLab

"I applaud Lars' attempt to take a LVT seriously by looking at the technical obstacles, including assessment of land. Efforts like his are going to be key in taking this from a great theory to a policy reality."—Joseph Caissie, State Assessor, Alaska