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I really think that, if you want to get a really complete framing for why Georgism is still relevant and will become ever more relevant, you need to also read Hotelling. Spatial competition really completes the picture on location in a way that is so clear in the real world.
It builds a good foundation, after establishing the importance of location in terms of competing for consumers, for understanding how location rent works and how it can be captured either in firm pricing or in market valuations of land.
If you have no competitors who can offer similar terms to geographically clutstered consumers in a location in terms of both sales price and transportation costs to reach your goods, youâll capture rent that is solely due to your exclusive access to a locationâs market.
This is why you see location rent embedded not just in the urban land values that are skyrocketing, but also in the costs of hospital care- which is an intimately location-driven good and typically a lack of competition, especially with consolidation in the US.
Power, local mass transit, airports, telecomm and broadcast media, are other examples of such industries. This connect back to Georgeâs discussion of natural monopolies in Book VIII of P&P, but shows how location is so intimately connected with the nature of the monopoly.
