The Historical and Political Science Association of Johns Hopkins met monthly and abstracts of papers presented were published in the University Circulars. The 24 year old graduate student of Philosophy (major) and Economics (minor), Thorstein B. Veblen, presented work he did for a course taught by Richard T. Ely (Instructor in Political Economy).
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PROCEEDINGS OF UNIVERSITY SOCIETIES.
Abstracts of the More Important Papers Read at Recent Meetings.
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Historical and Political Science Association.
December [1881] meeting.
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Mill’s Theory of the Taxation of Land, by T. B. VEBLEN.
With the advance of society the rent of land increases. This increase is independent of any effort of the landlord, being the product of the activity of the community. The State should therefore, by a peculiar tax, appropriate this “unearned increment” and not permit it to go to the owner of the land. To obviate all injustice to owners who have bought land with the expectation of being permitted to enjoy the future increase of its rent, the State is to offer to buy the land of the owners at its market price as an alternative to their keeping it and paying to the State the increase of rent. As a consequence of such an alternative, land having a speculative value would be sold to the State in order to avoid loss to the owners. The measure would act as a fine on the holding of land, to the amount of the speculative value, and lead to an almost universal nationalization of land; differing, however, from generally entertained schemes for the State’s getting possession of land, in that the expense of the change would be more equitably distributed on all classes of the community. No immediate redistribution of wealth would take place, but, neglecting all probable undesirable secondary effects of the change on the people, an advantage would accrue from an increased compactness of population, making possible a saving of labor.
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Source: Johns Hopkins University. University Circulars. No.13, February, 1882, p. 176.
Image Source: “A young Thorstein Veblen as a Carleton grad” from the Veblen farmhouse restoration webpage. Incidentally, that farmhouse is now a bed-and-breakfast.