Georgists - Criticisms

Criticisms

Although both advocated workers' rights, Henry George and Karl Marx were antagonists. Marx saw the Single Tax platform as a step backwards from the transition to communism. He argued that, "The whole thing is... simply an attempt, decked out with socialism, to save capitalist domination and indeed to establish it afresh on an even wider basis than its present one." Marx also criticized the way land value tax theory emphasizes the value of land, arguing that, "His fundamental dogma is that everything would be all right if ground rent were paid to the state."

Fred Harrison provides a full treatment of Marxist objections to land value taxation and Henry George in "Gronlund and other Marxists – Part III: nineteenth-century Americas critics", American Journal of Economics and Sociology, (November 2003).

George has also been accused of exaggerating the importance of his "all-devouring rent thesis" in claiming that it is the primary cause of poverty and injustice in society. More recent critics have claimed that increasing government spending has rendered a land tax insufficient to fund government. Georgists have responded by citing a multitude of sources showing that the total land value of nations like the US is enormous, and more than sufficient to fund government.

Murray Rothbard criticized Georgism in Man, Economy, and State as being incongruent with subjective value theory, and further stating that land is irrelevant in the factors of production, trade, and price systems.