토지는 공유되어야 하는가? - 『진보와 빈곤』에 나타난 헨리 조지의 토지사상 평가 -

Should the private ownership of the land be outlawed?

Recently, Korean society has witnessed overheated public and private debates on various real estate related issues. Most of the talks are featured by resentful expressions and doctrinal obstinacy rather than logical analyses and constructive discussions. Henry George's idea has contributed considerably to this trend in the real estate related debates for the last couple of decades. This study was motivated to provide a critical reevaluation of Henry George's arguments to the Korean public so that they can understand the implied consequences of the Georgist reform ideas more correctly. In the first part of the study, the major land related ideas of Henry George expressed in his famous book, Progress and Poverty, were summarized. In the following chapter, his arguments that the private ownership of any land is unjust were critically reviewed. In the following chapters, his theory on the ever worsening poverty of the labor and inevitable and frequent industrial depression under private land ownership system were criticized and empirical counter evidences were provided. Finally, we discussed the injustice, impracticality and distorting consequences of the land value tax (the single tax on land) he suggested as a means of enforcing public ownership of all land.