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A Georgist EU?

Written on . Posted in Politics.

What if the EU had been constructed on Georgist principles, with the following conditions for membership?

  •  No agricultural subsidies or guaranteed prices permitted
  • No taxes to be levied on goods, services, individuals or companies.(with possible exception of alcohol, tobacco and other harmful substances, and gambling)
  • No tariffs to be charged on imports from outside the EU.
  • A minimum percentage of public revenue to be raised by a tax on the rental value of land (at least, say 60% on entry, 80% after five years).
  • A small carbon tax, on the basis that the emission of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere is the use of a “common” – though not too much as it hits people in remote and colder regions.
  • Contributions to the central fund to be in proportion to:the aggregate land rental value of each country, plus revenues from all other taxes (all taxes come out of land rental value – it follows from Ricardo’s Law of Rent)

Such a scheme would have allowed free movement of people as immigrants could easily have found means of supporting themselves. A common currency would have been possible if desired, though in that situation we would be agnostic on the subject. It would probably have worked very well. The only trouble is that the privileged classes would not have bought the idea, and they are in charge.