that the single tax take all of the income due to location and
fertility. This, according to George, would "render it impossible for
any man to exact from others a price for the privilege of using those
bounties of Nature to which all men have an equal right."

106. RESULTS CLAIMED FOR THE SINGLE TAX.--George claimed that the
application of the single tax was highly desirable. If, through the
medium of this tax, the government were to take from the land-owners
all the location and fertility value of their land, two great benefits
were to result. First, rich landlords would be deprived of much
unearned wealth. Second, the wealth so secured, called the unearned
increment, could be used to make life easier for the poor. Ultimately,
George went so far as to claim, the single tax would "raise wages,
increase the earnings of capital, extirpate pauperism, abolish
poverty, give remunerative employment to whoever wishes it, afford
free scope to human powers, lessen crimes, elevate morals and taste
and intelligence, purify government, and carry civilization to yet
nobler heights." The steps by which George arrived at this gratifying
conclusion are obscure, and practically every modern economist agrees
that too much has been claimed for the theory. Nevertheless, there is
much to be said on both sides of this interesting question.

107. ARGUMENTS FOR THE SINGLE TAX.--Single taxers claim that it is
just to take from land-owners that land value which is not due to
their individual efforts. Fertility, on the one hand, is due
originally to the bounty of Nature, and as such belongs to all men
alike, rather than to particular individuals. Location value, on the
other hand, is due to community growth, and should therefore be taken
for the benefit of the community at large.