George, Henry, 1839–97, American economist, founder of the
single tax movement, b. Philadelphia. Of a poor family, his
formal education was cut short at 14, and in 1857 he emigrated
to California; there he worked at various occupations before
turning to newspaper writing in San Francisco. George's
experience in a number of trades, his desperate poverty while
supporting a family, and the examples of financial rapacity that
came to his attention as wage earner and newspaperman gave
impetus to his reformist tendencies. George believed that an
increase in poverty accompanied and even surpassed the increase
in national wealth. He believed that the answer to this seeming
paradox lay in the fact that the rental of land and the unearned
increase in land values profited a few individuals rather than
the community whose existence made the land valuable. He
believed that a single tax on land would meet all the costs of
government and even leave a surplus, besides unburdening labor
and capital of taxes on their output. H