The Land Trap by Mike Bird review ground down

"It was 1909, and a liberal politician was launching an assault on a class of people who in the eyes of many contributed nothing to Britain's advances in industry while living off its gains. A little over a century after David Lloyd George's Limehouse speech, and it feels as though the issue of land has returned to politics: an analysis of MPs' financial interests revealed that a quarter of all Tory MPs earned more than 10,000 from renting out property, while 44 Labour MPs 11% did the same."

"Henry George, the journalist and economic thinker who called for a single tax on land was widely read in the 19th century but is now largely forgotten. George saw monopolies of land ownership as the source of economic inefficiency and the root of inequality, since the gains from land increasing in value went to landlords and speculators rather than productive businesses. But since the early 20th century, politics on the left has been organised around class, and on the right around questions of identity and personal liberty."

Concentrated land ownership channels rising land values and rent income to landlords and speculators rather than productive activity, producing inequality and economic inefficiency. Political attention to land has resurged amid evidence of MPs earning significant rental income and highly visible campaigns centring on rent controls. Economic roles shifted after the Industrial Revolution as cities and new industries altered sources of wealth, but land retained social and financial importance. Historical proposals such as a single tax on land aimed to capture unearned gains. Contemporary politics shows both leftward demands to curb landlord power and rightward resistance to property taxation.

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