Betterment 2951101 175160630 2007-12-02T00:18:33Z 67.161.115.214 '''Betterment''', making [[better]], is a general term used particularly in connection with the increased value given to [[real property]] by causes for which a [[tenant]] or the [[public]], but not the owner, is responsible; it is thus of the nature of unearned increment. When, for instance, some public improvement results in raising the value of a piece of private land, and the owner is thereby bettered through no merit of his own, he gains by the betterment, and many [[economics|economists]] and [[politician]]s have sought to arrange, by [[tax]]ation or otherwise, that the increased value shall come into the pocket of the public rather than into the owner's. A betterment tax would be so assessed as to divert from the owner of the property the [[profit]] thus accruing unearned to him. The whole problem is one of the incidence of taxation and the question of land values, and various applications of the principle of betterment have been tried in the [[United States]] and in [[England]], raising considerable controversy from time to time. ==References== *{{1911}} [[Category:Real property law]] [[es:Beneficio económico]]