Harnessing monopoly for the common good

All other things being equal, the owners of the earth have a comparative advantage over those in business or earning a wage. With $21 trillion hidden in global tax havens revealed this year (), and Starbucks, Amazon and Google being grilled in the UK Parliament this week, the need for a fairer tax system is growing.

The clamour for the expansion of the GST is at fever pitch here in Australia. What are the motivations behind this?

Few have noted the spree of government reports advocating for a fairer system via the 'transfer of tax bases' - the move from mobile to fixed tax bases. Such a move would wipe out the ease of using tax havens and tax trickery. This is code for saying 'those who own the land must pay for the governing of the land'.

Ken Henry's Australia's Future Tax System, the NSW Lambert report, the ACT's Quinlan Report, the UK's Mirlees Report and the NZ Tax Working Group have all advocated to some extent the need to move to fixed tax bases.

In effect they are discussing the ability of people like Gina Rinehart to make $2 million an hour whether she gets out of bed or not.

In economic parlance, this is a discussion about economic rents – in broad terms the naturally rising value of the earth (or licensed monopolies). Bureaucrats are trying to awaken the people to the fact that the tax system can be used to harness these powers of monopoly for the common good.

But what have been the policy responses?

With austerity pressures blindsiding the people in mass sackings, the IMF has been busy installing the next layer of inequality. The global land bubble has blown the world economy apart but yet the answer has been to hit the consumer with regressive sales taxes. Someone earning $20,000 pays the same amount as someone on $20 million. Sounds great right?

This is the plan set out by far right think tanks such as the Cato Institute and the Heritage Foundation.

Rising sales taxes have occurred in the UK, France, NZ, and Japan to name a few. American consumers experienced 542 increases across jurisdictions in (2010).

However, this won't stop the property speculation that was the catalyst to these problems.

It is only a matter of time until the same bubble mentality takes hold of the most precious asset – our homes. This is in effect what Bernanke's QE3 is trying to trigger – the next land bubble.