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GROUND RENT A SOCIAL PRODUCT 23 
The inequality of the present system of taxation is 
apparent in the following calculation (based upon the 
above assumption of 2\ per cent depreciation) 
regarding the land and buildings of Boston for 
the last twenty years, bearing in mind, that it is not 
the rent, either of buildings or land, that is under 
consideration, but only the effect of taxes and deprecia 
tion upon the one, and the opposite effects of taxes 
and appreciation upon the other. 
BUILDINGS 
The valuation of Boston’s buildings in 1887 
was ....... 
If time’s annual tax or depreciation of ai per 
cent (besides the city’s tax of I i per cent 
which is paid by the owner only when he is 
also the tenant) has been for twenty years 
5223,000,000 
50 per cent or . 
III ,500,000 
I hen the value of same buildings in 1907 is only 
$111,500,000 
LAND 
The valuation of Boston’s land in 1887 was 
Time’s average net annual appreciation has 
been (after paying city’s tax of ij per cent) 
for each year 5 per cent and for twenty years 
5322,000,000 
more than 100 per cent or .... 
331, 000 ,° 00 
And the value of the same land in 1907 is 
Thus the increase in the valuation of land 
in twenty years is nearly 50 per cent more 
than was the valuation of all the buildings 
twenty years ago. 
5653,000,000 
Five per cent on this twenty years’ increase of 
$331,000,000 would he §16,650,000, which, added to the 
l4>3 0o .ooo assessed upon the land in 1887, would he 
$20,900,000, as compared with Boston’s taxes of 
$21,254,000 in 1907. 
Those who agree with John Stuart Mill that it would 
be sound public policy and no injustice to land owners