This idea has its roots in political economics of the 17th and 18th centuries — the French Physiocrats and even John Locke! Adam Smith wrote “Ground-rents and the ordinary rent of land, are . . . the species of revenue which can best bear to have a peculiar tax imposed on them.” John Stuart Mill noted that “Landlords grow richer in their sleep without working, risking or economizing. The increase in the value of land, arising as it does from the efforts of an entire community, should belong to the community and not to the individual who might hold title.” They saw that the value of land is not on account of what you do but rather by what you neighbors do. Mill called it the “unearned increment,” the noted British statesman, William Gladstone, “lazy income.”

There is simple justice in taxing rents to support government and not taxing the wealth that people earn. John Houseman, an actor perhaps most widely known as Professor Kingsfield in the long-running TV series, The Paper Chase, later became the TV pitchman for Smith Barney. In his advertisement, the tag line was “They make money the old-fashioned way — they earn it.” To be sure, there have been rentier elites throughout history, but we need not continue the practice.