Financial History Issue 113 (Spring 2015) | Page 15
FEMALE INVENTOR
George’s message had resonated deeply
with many Americans in the late 1800s,
when poverty and squalor were on full
display in the country’s urban centers.
Poor immigrants and natives alike were
packed tightly together in noxious slums,
where they slaved long hours in dirty,
dangerous factories, earning little more
than a pittance. The single-taxers believed
that if all taxes were eradicated except
for the one on property, and the poor
and the working class were able to keep
more of their hard-earned dollars, poverty
levels would quickly diminish. A single
tax would also boost production, as workers would be happier and healthier, and
force business owners to improve working
conditions.
George “is neither a ‘Communist,’ nor
a free-lover, nor even an infidel, so far
as can be seen,” an 1881 New York Times
article stated. “But he recognizes the social
disease that ma