# Endorsements and Objections explained — Progress and Poverty > Chapter companion for Progress and Poverty by Henry George. ## What happens George presents endorsements from prominent economists like Ricardo, McCulloch, and John Stuart Mill, who admit that a tax on land rent is just and efficient, and notes the historical precedent of the French Physiocrats. He then addresses objections, particularly the difficulty of separating land value from improvements, arguing it is practically feasible and that the real obstacle is the powerful interest of landowners. He concludes that a single tax on land values would foster civic virtue and equalize wealth. ## Themes in this chapter ### The Single Tax on Land Values George argues that a single tax on land values is the best method of raising public revenues, endorsed by classical economists and the Physiocrats. ### Distribution of Wealth The single tax would equalize wealth distribution, raising the poor above abject poverty and cutting down overgrown fortunes. ### Social Justice and Equality George asserts that landowners have no right to the unearned increment from societal progress, and that the community should claim it. ## Character check-ins ### David Ricardo Quoted as stating that a tax on rent falls wholly on landlords and cannot be shifted. ### John Stuart Mill Cited for admitting the expediency and justice of a peculiar tax on rent, and proposing to take the future increase in land value for society. ### François Quesnay Mentioned as head of the French Economists who proposed abolishing all taxes except a tax on land value. ### Thomas Macaulay Quoted on the tendency to argue against any truth that threatens pecuniary interests. ## Key lines > Ricardo says ( Chap. X ), “a tax on rent would fall wholly on landlords, and could not be shifted to any class of consumers,” for it “would leave unaltered the difference between the produce obtained from the least productive land in cultivation and that obtained from land of every other quality.⁠ ⁠… A tax on rent would not discourage the cultivation of fresh land, for such land pays no rent and would be untaxed.” Ricardo argued that a tax on rent cannot be passed on to consumers and does not affect the cultivation of new land. _George uses Ricardo's own reasoning to support the single tax._ > John Stuart Mill not only admits all this, but expressly declares the expediency and justice of a peculiar tax on rent, asking what right the landlords have to the accession of riches that comes to them from the general progress of society without work, risk, or economizing on their part, and although he expressly disapproves of interfering with their claim to the present value of land, he proposes to take the whole future increase as belonging to society by natural right. Mill endorsed a tax on rent, arguing that landlords do not deserve the unearned increase in land value from societal progress, and that future increases should belong to society. _George highlights Mill's support for taxing future land value increments._ > The French Economists of the last century, headed by Quesnay and Turgot, proposed just what I have proposed, that all taxation should be abolished save a tax upon the value of land. The Physiocrats, led by Quesnay and Turgot, advocated for a single tax on land value, exactly as George does. _George aligns himself with the historical precedent of the Physiocrats._ > The only objection to the tax on rent or land values which is to be met with in standard politico-economic works is one which concedes its advantages⁠—for it is, that from the difficulty of separation, we might, in taxing the rent of land, tax something else. The sole objection in economic literature is the practical difficulty of separating land value from improvements, which actually concedes the tax's theoretical merits. _George dismisses the main objection as a practical, not a principled, concern._ ## Links - HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/progress_and_poverty_se/chapters/iv-endorsements-and-objections - Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/progress_and_poverty_se - All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/progress_and_poverty_se/chapters