Land Value Tax and Badgers...

Land Value Tax and badgers... I have been having a long campaign against the state funding of badger culling in the UK - My thoughts are both animal welfare and Georgist in nature. I would welcome your thoughts on the Georgist aspects of agricultural subsidies. Fred Harrison recorded my thoughts on the subject above: My argument is the solution to M.Bovis (bovine tuberculosis) are well known and well documented. The problem is that landowners want the taxpayer to fund this to protect agricultural rents.  In my view farming must internalise the costs of production and solve their own problems. Ricardo's law of rent tells us that every £1 taken off the selling price of beef and milk by subsidy means and extra £1 of rent in the landowners pocket (or profit if the farmer owns the land). While the badger is in the public eye landowners can avoid addressing the problem. We must consider M.Bovis like industrial pollution, their is no excuse for it and it can be simply eradicated by imposing quarantine measures that the landowners must bear themselves. Private insurance premiums, instead of state handouts, would reward good farmers and punish bad farmers and this would be reflected in rents and at no cost to the taxpayer.



Comments

  1. Mark Wadsworth29 June 2012 at 23:14

    "THERE is no excuse for it and it can be simply eradicated by imposing quarantine measures that the landowners must BEAR themselves"

    ReplyDelete

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