One economist argued almost every tax should be replaced with a single tax on land

Henry George's 1879 bestseller argued landowners get richer simply because a growing economy raises land values around them, not because they did anything productive, so society should tax away that unearned gain instead of taxing wages or buildings. The book outsold every American title except the Bible for years and influenced the board game later known as Monopoly.

— Henry George, Progress and Poverty — 1879
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