3§

THE  A  B  C  OF  TAXATION

provide  at  your  own  expense,  but  for  the  use  of  which
you  can  afford  to  pay  in  proportion  as  you  use  them.
It  is  these  outside  things,  available  by  their  proximity,
for  which  you  are  called  upon  to  pay  I300  a  year.
To  enumerate  some  of  them  specifically,  they  are,  in
a  town  or  city  lot,  right  and  ease  of  access  to  water,
health  inspection,  sewerage,  fire  protection,  police,
schools,  libraries,  museums,  parks,  play-grounds,  steam
and  electric  railway  service,  gas  and  electric  lighting,
telegraph  and  telephone  service,  subways,  ferries,
churches,  public  schools,  private  schools,  colleges,
universities,  public  buildings  —  utilities  which  depend
for  their  efficiency  and  economy  on  the  character  of
the  government;  which  collectively  constitute  the
economic  and  social  advantages  of  the  land;  and
which  are  due  to  the  presence  and  activity  of  population, ­
  and  are  inseparable  therefrom,  including  the
benefit  of  proximity  to  and  command  of  facilities  for
commerce  and  communication  with  the  world  —  an
artificial  value  created  primarily  through  public
expenditure  of  taxes.  In  practice,  the  term  “land”
is  erroneously  made  to  include  destructible  elements
which  require  constant  replenishment;  but  these
form  no  part  of  this  economic  advantage  of  situation
or  site  value.
(c)  In  other  words,  you  are  to  pay  I300  a  year  for  the
value  of  what  the  law  calls  the  “  rights  and  privileges
thereto  pertaining,”  specified  in  every  deed  of  land
conveyance.  This  I300  is  ground  rent,  “what  the
land  is  worth  for  use.”
Proposition  2.—  Assuming  this  piece  0}  land  to  he
free  from  all  charges  and  incumbrances,  and  assuming
the  current  rate  0}  interest  to  be  5  per  cent  per  annum,