Does Georgism work? Five years later

Lars Doucet revisits Georgism and the land value tax (LVT), summarizing Henry George’s core claim that economic progress raises unearned land rents and worsens inequality, and that taxing the unimproved annual rental value of land (often via a universal building exemption or split-rate property tax) corrects this by capturing location-based value without penalizing improvements. He explains the single-tax idea - tax land at its full rental value while eliminating other taxes - and notes broad economist support for LVT on efficiency grounds even as single-tax purity remains contested. Practical concerns dominate debate: how to model winners and losers under a revenue-neutral shift, and how to communicate that typical median homeowners usually net benefit while vacant lots and surface parking bear the biggest burdens.

Since then Doucet documents concrete momentum and a shift in strategy: enabling laws in Virginia and Kentucky, a new LVT in Baden-Württemberg, LVT-friendly leaders in the UK and South Korea, and rising interest tied to AI-driven land-price gains. Tactical lessons include prioritizing implementation work over online persuasion, doing policymakers’ homework (maps, models, presentations), and using tools his group created - legislation trackers, a CivicMapper visualizer, and the LVTShift modeling library - to build local case studies. A published political playbook and grassroots victories, like a successful Kentucky bill driven by local activists, illustrate that practical, place-based experiments are proving the concept and changing political feasibility.