LVTFan is a reference to Land Value Taxation, and if there was ever a system of taxation that deserves to have fans, it is this one.

A bit of background. I was an American Studies major in college, and concentrated on Marketing in business school, both many decades ago. If you had told me, even 10 years ago, that I would ever be seriously interested in issues of public finance, I would have told you with great assurance that you had the wrong person. What could be interesting or important about how governments finance their spending? It struck me as a dreary topic, an offshoot of a dismal science.

How could public finance be relevant to the subjects that I care about? How could it make any significant difference in people’s lives? We all know, of course, that taxes are bad for the economy, right? But beyond that, what difference?

I should have known better. I grew up knowing that my grandparents were passionate about a particular kind of tax reform. And despite their gentle and consistent encouragement, I never delved into the ideas they found so persuasive. It wasn’t until after they were gone that I started exploring, starting with their files and their library, which I’d rescued from oblivion for sentimental reason. Slowly, even grudgingly, I came around to something pretty close to their point of view. And more surprising to me, I found it sufficiently compelling that I felt I needed to get actively involved in sharing these ideas.

About 25 years ago, I took some aptitude tests, and one of the recommendations I received at the time was that long term I should either open my own business or take on a grand cause. It never dawned on me that the grand cause would be perhaps the grandest out there – poverty – or that I might be able to make a useful contribution to its elimination.

And had it not been for the opportunities created by the existence of the internet, I would probably not have gotten involved. But I felt that perhaps I could make myself useful by creating a website that would help others find answers to their questions about this particular tax reform and the difference it could make in our society.

The website is http://www.wealthandwant.com/. The URL is from the subtitle to Progress & Poverty, the 1879 book which described the connection between the huge advances in technological progress and the increases in poverty – evident even then. That subtitle is An inquiry into the cause of industrial depressions and of increase of want with increase of wealth … The Remedy.

Hmm. wealth … want … industrial depressions …. very relevant in the 21st century.