World‐ownership, self‐ownership, and equality in Georgist philosophy

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the accounts of self‐ and world‐ownership in the social philosophy of Henry George, and a Georgist social theorist Nicolaus Tideman. Design/methodology/approach - The accounts of George and Tideman are evaluated using the tool of conceptual and logical analysis. Findings - The paper argues that although the institutional proposals of Georgist are important and worth serious consideration, there are fundamental problems with the Georgist accounts of self‐ and world‐ownership. Practical implications - The Georgist institutional recommendation of a land tax is not necessarily rejected by the criticism of the Georgist accounts of self‐ and world‐ownership. Originality/value - The value of this paper derives from its careful analytic evaluation of the most basic concepts of the Georgist tradition. It serves, then, as a philosophical evaluation of that tradition and of those parts of the tradition that Georgism share with libertarianism generally. It also serves as a comparison of the basic commitments of Georgism and liberal egalitarianism.