Introduction

This book aims to explore how the Child Trust Fund (CTF) might be developed in future, and, more generally, how a new, more egalitarian politics of ownership might be advanced. I shall assume that policy makers would like to progress beyond the modest CTF introduced in the UK 2004 budget to a more radical policy of giving each citizen a substantial endowment. Some writers believe that funding citizen endowments via inheritance tax (IHT) is not politically feasible. This may or may not be true. Those who, like me, believe that IHT can be an instrument for social justice may have been taken aback when the most left-wing British Sunday broadsheet, the Observer, launched a campaign in early 2005 to reduce the impact of IHT. However, even if the people cannot be persuaded that IHT is a just tax, land taxation could substitute for IHT in this role.

The structure of the chapter is as follows. Section 1 traces the normative argument for land tax in its most persuasive proponents since Tom Paine. It shows how some of the classical arguments for IHT also work as arguments for a land tax. Section 2 asks, ‘Could land tax work?’, while section 3 asks ‘Could land tax fund a citizen’s stake?’ The answer is ‘Yes’ to both questions.

Classical arguments: Paine, Ricardo, the two Georges

Paine

Tom Paine produced the first clear proposal for a citizen's stake in 1797. The subtitle of his Agrarian justice (1995 [1797]) indicates that he had precisely the same idea as the one behind this book, although he also wished to endow an old-age pension entitlement. The title page reads: