Henry George was a printer during the later part of the nineteenth century who thought much about economics. During his lifetime, a western frontier still existed in this country, and those who were lucky or farsighted enough to get in on the ground f loor were able to earn incredible profits. Many people during this time were angered by these "unearned land increments" accruing to these lucky landowners. It is for this reason that George's Single-tax movement and book ,"Progress and Poverty" , had such a large following. He ran for mayor of New York City in 1886 on this ticket and almost won. The central tenet of the single-tax movement was that "land rent is in the nature of a surplus, which can be taxed heavily without distorting production incentives.

Henry George's argument incorporates many unrealistic assumptions, such as the assumption that government can separate the raw value of land from the value of improvements. But, in regard to this issue, Milton Friedman stated: "In my opinion, the least bad tax is the property tax on the unimproved value of land, the Henry George argument of many, many years ago."

Works by Henry George:

• Progress and Poverty