UK joblessness set to rise for sixth month

An article in The Times today reports that “the deteriorating employment outlook is emphasised by a survey today from the Royal Bank of Scotland, which suggests that numbers in work fell in every region of the UK last month, and at the fastest rate since late 2001, as most parts of the country suffered a fall in economic activity. The steepest falls in employment levels were in Wales, the North East and the South West, with the jobs market holding up best in the South East, according to the monthly RBS regional purchasing managers’ survey.”

Much of the theory behind land value taxation is blindingly obvious

, which is probably why it gets ignored. It is no surprise that the economy is weakest in places remote from centres of population. One of the most important concepts is that of the “margin”, which was noted by David Ricardo and led to his formulation of the Law of Rent. The margin is the location at which economic production is just about worth while. Places like Cornwall, the North East and Wales lie at the economic margin. Adverse events will knock the margin out of use and production will not take place there. Under LVT, there is no taxation at the margin and so all possible productive locations can be utilised. Existing taxes on production have the effect of knocking marginal locations out of use. Any adverse events such as difficult trading circumstances or rises in energy or transport costs will hit the edge locations further. With LVT instead of existing taxes, the damaging effects of economic difficulties are minimised, as it creates tax havens precisely where they are most needed.