"The objective of economic policy should be collective well-being:
how happy and healthy a population is,
not just how wealthy a population is."
- Nicola Sturgeon, First Minister of Scotland and Leader
of the Scottish National Party (SNP) from 2014 to 2023
Symptoms of economic suffering and injustice have reached 'developed' countries, with wide-spread poverty, health crisis, political unrest, and war. The cause of the economic crisis is also the cause of the energy and ecological crisis which is impacting quality of air, soil, water and food.
Like everything important, it's actually very simple...
United Nations General Assembly
ISSUE IN FOCUS – “Housing is a RIGHT, not a commodity”
– “The vast amount of wealth has left governments accountable to investors rather than their international human rights obligations.”
Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, and on the right to non-discrimination in this context.
See the report overview here
Download the official 2011 report in pdf format here.
"user pays principle" = the principle that all costs associated with the use of a resource should be included in the prices of the goods and services (including government services) that result from the use.
"There are 36 billion acres of land on the earth ...
more than half of which are arable or habitable or both." ...
"The purpose of all the feudal land laws, derived from
the fundamental principle of the feudal system, …
was to prevent the population owning land." – Kevin Cahill, "Who Owns the World" (UK 2006-US 2009) - the first survey of landownership in each of the world’s 197 states or countries and 66 major territories.
(Available on Archive.org)
Reviewed HERE:
Excerpt
- Classical Economists advocate taxing private access to all forms of The Commons, instead of taxing productivity, via a Land Value Tax or a "Single Tax".
Early Proponents included John Locke, William Penn, Benjamin Franklin, Adam Smith, Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, David Ricardo, John Stuart Mill, Herbert Spencer, Leo Tolstoy, Mark Twain, Henry George, William Ogilvie, Clarence Darrow, David Lloyd George, Sun Yat-sen, Sir Winston Churchill, Walter Burley Griffin, to mention a few." - >>>more
When you've paid your rent, you've paid your taxes. If governments would collect their necessary revenue in the form of site rents, resource rents, monopoly rents and licence rents —
all of which, by reason of their origin, accrue preferentially to the rich — they would not find it necessary
to impose 'progressive' taxes on earned income. —Dr Gavin Putland, Land Values Research Group
Though the landlord is in all cases the real contributor,
the tax is commonly advanced by the tenants,
to whom the landlord is obliged
to allow it in payment of the rent.
— Adam Smith Wealth of Nations Book 5, Ch 2
A tax on rent falls wholly on the landlord. There are no means by which he can shift the burden upon anyone else...
A tax on rent, therefore, has no effect other than the obvious one.
It merely takes so much from the landlord
and transfers it to the State. —John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) Principles of Political Economy Book 5, Ch 3, Sect 2
Perfectly understated – A closer look at what has gone on suggests that
a large fraction of the increase in wealth
is an increase in the value of land,
not in the amount of capital goods. — Professor Joseph Stiglitz, Dec. 2014
In 2015, Finland planned to become the first European country to provide to each adult citizen a basic income, replacing its existing welfare, social security, and unemployment payments.
Three Commentaries:
Can Finland's Basic Income experiment work?
1. Cautionary note from American economist Fred Foldvary, PhD: Finland is pioneering a basic income, but unless the source is land rent, the program will fail. Progress, December 6, 2015
Excerpt:
The adoption of basic income would be an economic revolution, but it will fail if the source of funds is even higher market-crushing taxes. A complete and successful revolution towards economic justice and prosperity requires the funding of basic income from a land value tax. The people of Finland have valued their national independence and social justice, and they would find the fulfilment of both values with a land-rent basic income.>>> more
Final results have been published for a two-year basic-income study in Finland.
Participants were found to be happier, but not more likely to get a job.
The study's design has been criticised.
...
Results of the basic income experiment: small employment effects, better perceived economic security and mental wellbeing. >>>more
3. World Economic Forum How would a basic income for everyone work? Dec. 19, 2015
Finland has become the latest country to propose a basic income for all. If put into practice, the scheme would eventually see all Finnish citizens receiving an 800 euro stipend, per month, tax-free.
How it would work
Social benefit systems are complex and more often than not bureaucratic. The Finnish proposal, and others like it, seek to simplify those expenses by doing away with complex benefit systems. >>> more
The Australian Tax Office (ATO)was established in 1910 under laws specifically designed for collection of Economic Rent via a Federal Land Tax.
Income taxes were introduced to fund WWI ...
(Archival document: Land Tax Act 1910 - (pdf). See history of Australia's tax system here
"Is Municipal Rating on Unimproved Land Value an untried principle?
Certainly not. It is in force throughout New South Wales and Queensland, and partly in S. Aust., W. Aust., New Zealand, Canada, and South Africa.”
– E.L. Kiernan M.L.C, 1921
"If, as claimed by vested interests, the land value tax can be passed on, why do not these representatives of special privilege pass the measure and allow their friends to pass it on? The reason is they know that the land values tax cannot be transferred." – E.J. Craigie, former South Australian politician, circa 1958.
Historical Background
- Australia was Federated in 1901:
The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) was launched in 1910 on the Land Tax System; Income taxes were introduced to fund WWI.
(See detailed historical timeline references under Australian Tax System.)
- In May 2007, Australian Taxation Office Land Valuer Bryan Kavanagh published the results of his study on the long-term effects of property bubbles - Unlocking the Riches of Oz: A Case Study of the Social and Economic Costs of Australian Real Estate Bubbles, 1972-2006, (2007). Download the report (pdf).
- Following the August 2007 stock market crash which led to the 2008 GFC, in November 2007, Labor Party leader Kevin Rudd was elected Prime Minister of Australia.
On 3 December 2007, Kevin Rudd was sworn in as the 26th prime minister of Australia: Prime Minister Rudd's first 'directive' to Australian Treasury Secretary, Dr. Ken Henry, led to the tax policy review: Australia's future tax system (2010).
“One reason why fiscal federalism is so important to this review is that, notwithstanding the fact that the well-being of taxpayers is affected by the entire federation's tax-transfer system, past tax reviews tended to focus on improving the taxes only of the government that commissioned the review.” - Dr. Henry's 19 August, 2009 speech, Taxation reform and fiscal federalism - Implications of Australia's Future Tax System Review
"As stated in the Report’s preface, the Review took a long-term perspective and intended the Report to be a guide for reform of the tax and transfer system in Australia to meet the challenges from the economic, social and environmental changes envisaged over the next 40 years. The 138 recommendations made in the report are therefore intended to be viewed in the medium to long-term perspective and not in the short-term context of a three-year Parliament." – Bernard Pulle, 2010, Senior Research Specialist at Parliament of Australia
Australia's Future Tax System, 2010
Excerpt:
The Australian Treasury Department tax review Australia's Future Tax System (2010), aka The Henry Review:
Henry Review Recommendations (Treasury 2010b)
C2 — Land tax and conveyance stamp duty
Recommendation 51: Ideally, there would be no role for any stamp duties, including conveyancing stamp duties, in a modern Australian tax system. Recognising the revenue needs of the States, the removal of stamp duty should be achieved through a switch to more efficient taxes, such as those levied on broad consumption or land bases. Increasing land tax at the same time as reducing stamp duty has the additional benefit of some offsetting impacts on asset prices.
Recommendation 52: Given the efficiency benefits of a broad land tax, it should be levied on as broad a base as possible. In order to tax more valuable land at higher rates, consideration should be given to levying land tax using an increasing marginal rate schedule, with the lowest rate being zero, with thresholds determined by the per-square-metre value.
Recommendation 53: In the long run, the land tax base should be broadened to eventually include all land. If this occurs, low-value land, such as most agricultural land, would not face a land tax liability where its value per square metre is below the lowest rate threshold.
Recommendation 54: There are a number of incremental reforms that could potentially improve the operation of land tax, including: a. ensuring that land tax applies per land holding, not on an entity's total holding, in order to promote investment in land development; b. eliminating stamp duties on commercial and industrial properties in return for a broad land tax on those properties; and c. investigating various transitional arrangements necessary to achieve a broader land tax.
Deputy PM Julia Gillard's Big Opportunity
- a Big Mistake! Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's directive to the Treasury Department provided an historic opportunity to be prepared, but, instead, he lost his 'job' to Deputy PM Julia Gillard. Following massive international Murdoch-led advertising and lobbying by the Minerals Council of Australia, Julia Gillard's "private talks" with key members of the mining industry led to her agreement not to implement the Treasury Dept. recommendations if 'selected' Prime Minister.
The Treasury Department's recommendation was modified and renamed the Mining Resource Rent Tax (MRRT) following the appointment of Julia Gillard as Prime Minister of Australia in late June 2010.
(Detailed timeline references under Australian Tax System, Part 7.)
2013 The Promised Land Former News Ltd executive Rodney E. Lever has a dream —
where Gillard and Rudd can start working together to defeat Murdoch and Abbott, 17 June 2013, Independent Australia
Excerpt:
My dream today is of Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard throwing their jealousies and rivalries out the window and then hurling down the gauntlet to Murdoch and Abbott to start talking about what really is best for Australia.
My dream is for all political parties to forget their petty rivalries and their absurd obsessions with budgets and surpluses and realise that Australia is now richer than it has ever been.>>>more
2019 Land tax in the State of Victoria Debate in Legislative Council 19th November, 1919:
Hansard No. 20 (pdf)
(First reading of Bill on 29th July, 1919)
The Hon. E. L. Kiernan moved the second reading of this Bill:
"This Bill should not require a great deal of discussion. It’s object is to amend the Rating on Unimproved Values Act 1915. That Act contained one section which has prevented municipalities taking advantage of it."
Selected political reports shared here:
Excerpt from an Introduction: China's Land Law History
Summary:
The 1953 completion of China's Land Reform Movement
ended "real estate investment" in land, when the Chinese government granted rights to 'lease' land for residential purposes - on 70-year cycles
- with no need for a bank mortgage to access land on which to build a home;
"Land lease' rules also applied to foreigners who worked or studied in China for at least a year: They, too, could pay the government land tax, and buy or build a home.
2023: Is China self-sufficient?
With less than 10 percent of the planet’s arable land, on an overall territorial expanse of almost 13 million square kilometers, China produces one-fourth of the world’s grain and feeds one-fifth of the world’s population. "Driven by a growing city-dwelling middle class"
According to the Council on Foreign Relations, between 2000 and 2020, China’s food self-sufficiency ratio decreased from 93.6% to 65.8%: To Increase Food Security, China Expands Farmland
Xi Jinping has returned to emphasizing the importance of food production with a new government policy that offers subsidized land reclaimed from manufacturing sites to farmers, many of whom have migrated to large cities to improve their prospects.
. . . he told the Central Rural Work Conference, “The rice bowls of the Chinese people must be firmly in our own hands. Our rice bowls should be filled mainly by Chinese crops.” The snag in the new policy appears to be the reluctance of people to embrace farming. - Lin Ganfeng, Aug. 23, 2023, China News
21 Century "Real Estate" Law
For the first time, 'multi-national' Chinese citizens have joined 'the West' in following "Boom-bust cycles" - banking, crypto currency, stock market, and with mega-speculation in housing real estate (which does not include sale of land in China). More details under Part 12,
LAND ownership in China today.
Democratic governance upholds individual sovereignty, which encourages citizen participation in defining rules of law, transparency, and accountability:
The Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), (founded in 1927), has gradually transformed from a revolutionary organ to a peaceful government body responsible for nearly 3000 members of the National People's Congress (NPC), founded in 1954, and its Standing Committee (NPCSC) of over 200 Members, elected every five years, and convening at least once a year. NPC Observer:"The NPCSC uses five-year legislative plans as a blueprint for its legislative agenda during each term, a practice that dates back to the 1990s."
The CCP has the power to elect the General Secretary and the members of the Politburo, its Standing Committee, and the Central Military Commission, and can be called upon to make far-reaching decisions and to determine its dates, delegate selection, agenda for the National People's Congress.
The 2009 film, The Founding of a Republic marked the 60th anniversary of
The People's Republic of China
IMDB
Summary: Inspired by true events,The Founding of a Republic weaves a rousing tale of one man who fought against the tyranny of a ruler and led his people in battle in the ultimate sacrifice for his country.
Note:
While China's One-child policy sterilizations (1980-2015) were shocking.
We can be glad that China’s 1.4 billion population (2020 census) began shrinking again in 2022, and that extreme poverty in China is nearly eliminated:
"...the latest United Nations report indicates that it could slip to 1.3 billion in 2050 and then plummet to only 770 million in 2100..."
- China’s Population Could Shrink to Half by 2100
Hindsight: Confucius of Europe In recent times, I've turned my attention to the surprising degree of influence Confucian philosophy brought to the advancement of 18th-century European economic theory leading to the Age of Enlightenment in overcoming western feudalism, beginning with the French Physiocrats:
French
Royal physician and economist Francois Quesnay (1694-1774) became known as “the Confucius of Europe” during his lifetime.
In 1758, Dr. Quesnay wrote "Tableau Oeconomique" documenting the Physiocrats' precept: "that the wealth of nations was derived solely from the value of land agriculture or land development."
Scottish social philosopher and political economist, Glasgow University Philosopher Adam Smith (1723-1790), the reputed founder of Classical Political Economic Theorem, visited the Physiocrats in France while touring across Europe (1764-1766) as tutor to the young Scottish nobleman Henry Scott, 3rd Duke of Buccleuch, who then endowed Professor Smith with a life-time 'pension'.
"The influence of the Chinese upon the physiocrats was probably more extensive and more significant than has generally been appreciated. If one will but look into the matter, he can readily discern similarities in thought on the part of Chinese sages and French économistes…
This similarity is more than mere coincidence; it is due to an actual borrowing on the part of the physiocrats."
- Zhang, 2000, p. 195
“The basic ideas of Henry George have been implemented, in effect ... and interestingly constitute the core of economic and social policy for Singapore.” - Phang Sock Yong, Professor of Economics, Singapore Management University’ (Biography)
Sir Stamford Raffles (1781-1826) was a British colonial official who served as the 2nd British Governor General of the Dutch East Indies between 1811 and 1816. Raffles also played a role in further establishing the British Empire's reach in East and Southeast Asia. He took control of Singapore in 1819 in order to secure British access along the Strait of Singapore, the Indian Ocean, and the South China Sea. "he was an imperialist who projected colonialism onto the population of Singapore" according to 3rd-century Chinese records predating Raffles arrival - Wikipedia See also Early History of Singapore - Wikipedia
Lee Kuan Yew (1923-2015) was a Singaporean statesman and lawyer, who served as Secretary-General of the People's Action Party (PAP) from 1954 to 1992, and as the first Prime Minister of Singapore from 1959 to 1990.
Political and religious tensions between Malayan Muslims and Singapore Chinese communities,
under the rule of Tunku Abdul Rahman, are well detailed on Wikipedia.
Singapore- selected reports
2015 Singapore: 50 constitutional moments that define a nation
Tan, Kevin, 2015, National Library Board (NLB) of Singapore.
Singapore inherited a Westminster-style constitution from the British who ruled the island for 140 years. Since Singapore's independence in 1965, this constitution has been amended and augmented many times wherein unique institutions - such as the Elected Presidency and Group Representation Constitutions - were created. All these changes occurred against the backdrop of Singapore's special geographical local, multi-ethnic population and vulnerability to externalities. This book features a collection of short essays describing and explaining 50 Constitutional Moments - major inflexion points in the trajectory of Singapore's constitutional development. The authors have selected each of these 'moments' on the basis of their impact in the forging of the modern constitutional order. Starting in 1965, the book begins chronologically, from the 'moment' of Singapore's expulsion from the Federation of Malaysia through the establishment of the Wee Chong Jin... >>>more
"How Singapore Recaptured Land Value"
2022
Singapore: Economic Prosperity through Innovative Land Policy
A Georgist Success Story By Stephen Hoskins, April 18, 2022, Progress and Poverty
Excerpt:
Singapore’s founding mythology goes as follows. After the departure of the British Empire from Singapore and its expulsion from the Federation of Malaysia in 1965, the island nation faced a litany of challenges: a population with low literacy rates, living in kampong-style informal dwellings or crowded shophouses, with wide divisions across ethnic and political lines, under constant threat of military confrontation by large neighbouring state. Enter Lee Kuan Yew (LKY), Singapore’s first Prime Minister, whose bold statesmanship would rapidly propel the ‘little red dot’ to become a unified, multicultural, prosperous nation. At least, that’s the story the nation tells itself. For the most part, this narrative is correct: Singapore today is world-renowned for its competitive business environment, sustained by the culinary delights of hawker centers, clean streets and lush greenery, all knit together by an efficient transportation network.
Less agreed-upon is the question of how exactly this was achieved. Libertarians like to associate Singapore’s success with laissez-faire capitalism; those on the left argue that this perspective ignores Singapore’s bold history of industrial policy. As a matter of fact, both of these narratives-of-convenience overlook the vital core of Singapore’s economic policy. In this article, I’ll demonstrate that the key factor behind Singapore’s success is a set of policies firmly guided by the Georgist mindset of capturing and sharing land value. We will look at the way in which Singapore’s land was restored into public hands, deployed to build wealth, and redistributed through a near-universal program of subsidised housing.
“The basic ideas of Henry George have been implemented, in effect ...
and interestingly constitute the core of economic and social policy for Singapore.” - Phang Sock Yong, Professor of Economics, Singapore Management University’ (Biography)
How Singapore Recaptured Land Value To many Georgists, 1965 Singapore may have appeared poised to repeat the mistakes of many states gone before. Fewer than 10% of the population owned property; this small group was likely excited to extract rents from kampong-dwellers and enjoy speculative growth in the value of their land as Singapore developed. But that was not to be Singapore’s path.
Instead, in 1966, the government passed the Land Acquisition Act, granting broad powers to acquire land “for any public purpose”.... >>>more
The Big Shift: Rethinking Money, Tax, Welfare and Governance for the Next Economic System
by Deirdre Kent (2017) SUMMARY
Abailable on Amazon
About
This important little book is a very dense read. The current growth-dependent economic system is not only broken
must be completely replaced with a new paradigm.
The book gives a glimpse of a potential future economy going so well that many have a great deal of leisure time and the arts and sciences flourish. The children so well nurtured and the adolescents so hopeful that the state no longer has so much need for huge mental health budgets. Environmental groups, so used to fighting the system, find they can ease up, as the soil and water are being restored because the tax system is helping not hindering.
Based on the discussions of the New Economics Party of 2011-2015 to develop policy, the author argues that neither monetary reform nor tax reform are possible at central government level as the banks are too powerful these days. A change from an intrusive welfare system to a basic income should come from sharing the rents from land, natural resources and natural monopolies like airports, ports, railways.
To design an economic system to serve the planet in a post fossil fuel age requires new thinking on money design, land tenure and governance. Examples from history are used as evidence of stable and prosperous societies using these principles.
This leads to the conclusion that the most localised government should assume powers of money creation, land purchase and rule-making about taxes for trades in the new currency.
Selected REVIEWS
1.
Bryan Kavanagh, Property Valuer, ex Australian Tax Office “Brilliant! Well written and mind-bogglingly researched. Deirdre Kent certainly covers all bases and has a light easy style for such an intensive topic. Although there may be other solutions for land and money reform, I can’t fault her approach.”
2.
Juliet Adams at LIFT Library in Lyttelton It’s a very short book, 93 pages, and can easily be read in one morning if you don’t follow up on the many footnotes indicating useful backup information in books (some in LIFT) and online links.
Most of it will be easily understood by the common reader with no background in economics, because it is full of real examples of failures and successes of various methods of managing economic systems.
Unlike most books on the topic, the author presents on p.5 a summary of the book’s proposed new system, so you don’t have to plough through the background to reach the conclusions. Then you get the detailed proposals, with examples of past and present failures that cause the need for change, and successes proving the value of the suggestions. Climate change is one of the big risks the world faces, especially with the fossil fuel issue, bringing the need for action now in the economic world, if we want to successfully adapt to the next economic collapse. Buckminster Fuller is quoted: “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” This book’s new model will include a money system, a tax-and-dividend system and a partnership model of governance. “
1. From bank-created money to a consciously designed and publicly created and controlled currency.
2. From ‘ownership’ of land and resources to sharing the values of the commons.
3. From domination to partnership.”
Why should a reader who is not an economist read this book?
“Though banks and oil giants have size going for them and ‘corporations rule the world’, their size is also their weakness……Smaller groups can be more nimble.” Think of the effectiveness in NZ of the waves of small-group action in the anti-smoking movement, and the Nuclear-Free groups. “If small communities reassert their right to govern and reclaim some major functions, the corporations won’t know who to sue first.”
And here in Lyttelton and greater Christchurch we already are stepping along the way of transition, for example with worker cooperatives, social enterprises, savings pools (and hopefully Christchurch dollars); in other parts of New Zealand other initiatives have been set up – land value rating (local tax) systems in Wellington and Napier, and a community land trust for Kotare village; and public banks rather than private have been hugely successful in the BRIC countries.
The book concludes with 20 brief statements of the positive results of this “BIG SHIFT”. My favourite is “No.2 – New life in industry, and a sea change in horticultural and agriculture methods.”
But I applaud all of them!
"Yes, regulation was important, but it wasn't sufficient reason. If you look in other EU countries where they had broadly the same regulatory system, they didn't get the same kind of 'boom and bust'. So, what else did they have is the question. What was the real cause? I have to talk about home ownership incentives."
>>> more
Avoid Ireland's mistake See synopsis of Chapter 8, Ireland: Serfs not citizens from the book Who owns the world? (2009) by Kevin Cahill – the first-ever landownership survey of all 197 states and 66 territories of the world.
Excerpt: Quia Emptores Act, 1290 AD
...The law that denied land ownership to the Irish, the Quia Emptores Act of 1290 AD, is still on the Irish statute book. It is this basic feudal law, restated, which placed the actual ownership of all physical land in the hands of the Crown. Subsequently this law was placed in the hands of the Irish Free State, thus making all ‘land owners’ in Ireland tenants of the State, having to pay rent in contradiction of their alleged status as ‘freeholders’. The underlying principle in Quia Emptores also underlaid the Acts of Settlement which evicted the native Irish ‘landowners’ and substituted English and Scottish settler landowners in the 17th and 18th Century. The basic argument in law was that the Irish ‘landowners’ were mere tenants of the Crown, and the Crown could dismiss and evict its tenants, legally, as indeed it could, under Quia Emptores and associated laws..... To be a citizen is to have the innate right to obtain and own land. There is a direct connection between the first human right, the right to life, and the right to land, which is seldom raised, especially by lawyers. >>> more
Michael Davitt (1846-1906),
"Father of the Irish National Land League"
One of the most influential leaders of Ireland’s independence movement,
Michael Davitt was an advocate of Land Tax:
"I would abolish land monopoly by simply taxing all land, exclusive of improvements, up to its full value... In other words, I would recognize private property in the results of labour, and not in land."
(Source: Some Suggestions for the Final Settlement of the Land Question, by Michael Davitt, 1902)
Michael Davitt read "Progress and Poverty" (1879) four times before personally seeking George out in the US. He is reported to have said, in 1882, "If a copy of that book can be put in every workman's club and Land League and library in the three kingdoms the revolution will be made..." Davitt invited Henry George to return to Ireland with him
- on a year-long tour of Ireland, 1881/82, as a reporter funded by Patrick Ford (1837-1913), editor of the popular New York paper, The Irish World, who published Henry George's reports during his tour of Ireland.
Page 29 (PDF p.1)
Neoclassical economics is the idiom of most economic discourse today. It is the paradigm that bends the twigs of young minds. Then it confines the florescence of older ones, like chicken-wire shaping a topiary. It took form about a hundred years ago, when Henry George and his reform proposals were a clear and present political danger and challenge to the landed and intellectual establishments of the world. Few people realize to what degree the founders ofNeo-classical economics changed the discipline for the express purpose of deflecting George and frustrating future students seeking to follow his arguments. The strategem was semantic: to destroy the very words in which he expressed himself
Page 105 (PDF p.77)
Henry George had risen from obscurity by attacking absentee landlords generically, and Irish landlords specifically (Douglas, 1976: 15-59; Barker, 1955: 335-72). His 1881 tract on The Irish land Question (later retitled The Land Question) is what had sparked initial interest in the more heavyweight Progress and Poverty.
He was intimately involved in Irish politics, after travelling as a journalist to Ireland to report for The Irish World of NewYork, serving a New York clientele of Irish émigrés. These were people who remembered that the Edgeworths and their kind had evicted them from their ancestral land. His wife was Irish; his fellow California landreformer and employer, James McClatchy of the Sacramento Bee, was Irish. These Irish did not take kindly to economists who told them the usurpers had really created The Emerald Isle. In the NCE cant, this land had been produced by landlords, who were just "supplying" their native land to the Irish renters, and sparing them from having to bear the financial burdens of ownership.
That was a hard story to sell in Ireland, or the slums of NewYork City, in the 1880s. As newcomers, outsiders, common laborers, and the poorest voting whites of 19th Century America, the Irish were George's natural ethnic constituency. They also supported the revolutionary Fenian movement, as it was then called. They sent their contributions back to Ireland to help roust landlords like the Edgeworths, an irritating skill the Irish developed to a high art.
In Ireland, George the reporter also made news, supporting the radical activist Michael Davitt against the temporizing Charles Stewart Parnell (Barker, 1955: 341-56). In propertied England then that was something like preaching abolition in ante-bellum Alabama.
Into this powderkeg, George dropped an incendiary note: "It is hard not to feel some contempt for a people so oppressed (as the Irish) who have only occasionally murdered a landlord". ...
Scotland is leading the way by prioritizing:
- The happiness of children
- Access to green spaces
- Access to housing
"The objective of economic policy should be collective well-being: how happy and healthy a population is, not just how wealthy a population is." - Nicola Sturgeon (b. 1970-), law graduate, First Minister of Scotland and Leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) from 2014 to 2023.
"We want to pay for public services out of land rents instead of taxes so that Scotland can move from perpetual deficits to an annual £12 billion surplus. ... What is the link to Scotland's rampant inequality? We depend upon the sums to be removed from the public purse — after which public services can no longer be afforded. Thus, our addiction as home-owners leads directly to the growing use of the coping mechanisms of hopelessness in our communities. The spiralling sums we like to keep are socially-generated Economic Rent which we all produce together. If we allow its collection in place of current damaging taxes on incomes and trade, all areas of Scottish life will be positively transformed. For example, our children will be able to afford to rent or buy homes." There is no shortage of roofing tiles.
There is no shortage of cement.
There is no shortage of window glass.
There is no shortage of house bricks.
There is no shortage of doors.
There is no shortage of insulation.
The only crisis is one of land. A crisis created by the cynical interference of Government — all on its own.
Free-capital-gains-for-site-owners is the single flawed Government policy choice responsible for rendering land under houses unaffordable.
Choosing AGR/LVT will make quality homes plentiful and affordable for us and our children – to either buy or rent – by cancelling speculation in land.
We can choose to end the housing crisis NOW. And at the same time cancel damaging taxes on incomes and trade.
"No. 1 Happiest Nation"
Revolution Danish Style In this short 2014 film, English economist Fred Harrison
explains how Denmark became the "No 1 happiest nation"
Excerpt: The Danes are the best housed people on the Continent,
enjoying the highest incomes and lowest levels of corruption. …
What happened to turn a country that was poor in natural resources into one of the most productive in the world?
It's the untold story of a revolution Danish Style.
A legacy that helped to foster social solidarity that's unique in Europe.
The world needs to understand that history.
Denmark A short history of Denmark’s transition to 'Economic Rent'
by Dr. Katherine Phelps, 1995
Excerpt: The Danes, by old tradition, have been accustomed to the concept that the land belongs to the people. The rapid industrialisation and land enclosures of the 18th and 19th centuries, begun in England, saw this tradition come under sustained attack; attacks which grew more intense as industrialisation grew. . . . A comparison between the three periods, before, during and after the so-called "Ground Rent Government," gives a clear picture of the importance of eliminating land speculation.
>>> more
Tax-funded benefits and services in Denmark
- Paid parental leave and child benefits
- Subsidized daycare centers
- Primary school, high school, vocational high school, business school as well as further- and higher education
- Student grants during youth-, further- and higher education
- Healthcare - general practitioners, hospitals and specialty care
- Psychological care for youth age 18-24
- Unemployment-, disability- and sickness benefits
- Housing allowance (rented housing)
- Early retirement for persons with disabilities
- State retirement pension (67+)
- Elderly care
- Public libraries
- Subsidised public transportation
- Subsidised cultural activities and sports/social clubs
- Roads and highways without tolls
- Police, courts and national defense
Happy tax-payers and broad public support
It is common to hear Danes - and foreigners alike - say that education and health care in Denmark is 'free'. However, this is a truth with some modification.
The Danish welfare system might be 'free of user charge' for e.g. public schools and doctors appointments meaning that free access is provided at the point of entry, but the welfare system in its totality is financed by way of progressiv taxation. . . .
Elements significant to the Danish welfare state
- Subsidized childcare from a very early age facilitating equal integration of women and men into the labour force.
- Broad-based and union driven work negotiations leveling salaries.
-Flexicurity labour market model: Easy to hire/fire, state funded unemployment benefits and active labour market policies.
-Stated funded training and skills upgrading of unemployed and people at the margin of the labour market.
Excerpt:
While the White House and lawmakers haggle over the terms of an emergency economic-stabilization package, Denmark has gone big—very, very big—to defeat the unprecedented challenge of the coronavirus.
This week, the Danish government told private companies hit by the effects of the pandemic that it would pay 75 percent of their employees’ salaries to avoid mass layoffs. The plan could require the government to spend as much as 13 percent of the national economy in three months. That is roughly the equivalent of a $2.5 trillion stimulus in the United States spread out over just 13 weeks. Like I said: very, very big.
The Swiss have retained THE most ancient Celtic governance system:
In essence, it's anti-totalitarian - a bottom-up multi-level governance system where the regions rule themselves and the 'centre' facilitates.
Swiss UBI experiment proposal
A Swiss campaign in 2013 advocated for a Universal Basic Income which could net each citizen an amount equivalent to $34,000.
By January 2014, over 285,000 people had signed the European Citizens Initiative for an Unconditional Basic Income.
2018 Swiss Sovereign-money Initiative
10 June 2018 Swiss Monetary Referendum - aka Vollgeld ("full money") Initiative
Wikipedia overview
Excerpt
...
According to the initiative's supporters, money is created as debt, and comes into existence by debt creation when commercial banks borrow from central banks, and when governments, producers, or consumers borrow from commercial banks. Proponents do not want money creation to be under private control as this constitutes a "subsidy" to the banking sector. They consider money created by the banks to create significantly adverse effects, such as inflation (since "the more money [the banks] issue, the higher their profits"), and amplification of crises (since borrowing occurs pro-cyclically). Furthermore, they claim that bank deposits are not inherently safe. The proposal for the referendum was initiated in 2014 by the Monetary Modernisation Association, a Swiss non-governmental organization founded in 2011. ...
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1. 'Vollgeld' referendum in Switzerland: what can we learn?
YouTube - July 16, 2018
While only 25% of the Swiss population approved the "sovereign money" proposal, the referendum has sparked an unprecedented debate on central banking and monetary policy. What can we learn from the debate around the campaign in Switzerland? Should similar reforms be considered in the Eurozone?
2. The Swiss Solution to the Euro Crisis
June 7, 2018
The monetary reform being proposed to a referendum in Switzerland could be even more urgently needed in the Eurozone, writes Daniel Stelter.
Excerpt:
On Sunday June 10 2018, the Swiss vote for a radical reform of the money system. Switzerland doesn’t really need this revolution. However, it could be the last resort for the Eurozone.
. . .
Switzerland can be considered as a happy country. Its direct democracy with plebiscites and citizens votes might create some results that the political establishment does not favor but the majority of the citizens do. However, topics that would never come to the political agenda in most of the countries without this instrument, get a chance to be discussed – especially when they are worth to be discussed.
This is also true for the upcoming referendum this Sunday. The Swiss citizens are asked to decide whether the current money system – prevalent in all capitalistic systems – should be changed fundamentally. Nothing less than the ending of the privilege of commercial banks to create money is at stake.
If the Swiss vote in favor of the initiative, the revolution that Henry Ford foresaw more than 100 years ago would become reality: "It is perhaps well enough that the people of the nation do not know or understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning." - [Did henry Ford say this?] >>>more
3. Swiss vote on radical sovereign money plan to upend banking system
By John Revill
May 24, 2018, Reuters
ZURICH (Reuters) - Jean-Marc Decressonniere is probably the only banker in finance-friendly Switzerland who supports a vote next month that could transform how lenders operate. ...
The United States of America is the only country in the world where land title is not exclusively 'owned' by the government, harking back, for example, to the mid-17th century "Reformation Restoration colonies" when, in 1660, large-scale British colonial plantations were granted land ownership in direct compensation for restoration of the English monarchy under Charles II. "The politics of the people from top to bottom had been formed in the crucible of 'Oliver’s Days' – overturning the egalitarian values of the English Revolution." –Noeleen McIlvenna, 2009, A Very Mutinous People: The Struggle for North Carolina, 1660-1713, University of North Carolina Press. (See excerpts from Professor McIlvenna's research findings here.)
“A long Habit of not thinking a Thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defence of Custom. But the Tumult soon subsides. Time makes more Converts than Reason.” - Thomas Paine, Common Sense (1776)
Thomas Paine's Agrarian Justice, (1797), one of the earliest proposals for a social security system in the United States, included, for the first time, the provision of an equal cash endowment to all young adults.
Paine stated,
"Men did not make the earth… It is the value of the improvements only, and not the earth itself, that is individual property…
Every proprietor owes to the community a ground rent for the land which he holds.... “Cultivation is at least one of the greatest natural improvements ever made by human invention. It has given to created earth a tenfold value. But the landed monopoly that began with it has produced the greatest evil. It has dispossessed more than half the inhabitants of every nation of their natural inheritance, without providing for them, as ought to have been done, an indemnification for that loss, and has thereby created a species of poverty and wretchedness that did not exist before.
In advocating the case of the persons thus dispossessed, it is a right, and not a charity, that I am pleading for. But it is that kind of right which, being neglected at first, could not be brought forward afterwards till heaven had opened the way by a revolution in the system of government. Let us then do honor to revolutions by justice, and give currency to their principles by blessings.
Having thus in a few words, opened the merits of the case, I shall now proceed to the plan I have to propose, which is,
To create a national fund, out of which there shall be paid to every person, when arrived at the age of twenty-one years, the sum of fifteen pounds sterling, as a compensation in part, for the loss of his or her natural inheritance, by the introduction of the system of landed property: And also, the sum of ten pounds per annum, during life, to every person now living, of the age of fifty years, and to all others as they shall arrive at that age.”
"Henry George theorem"
Professor of Economics, Joseph E. Stiglitz (b. 1943-) made early contributions to a theory of public finance stating that an optimal supply of local public goods can be funded entirely through capture of the landrents generated by those goods (when population distributions are optimal). Stiglitz dubbed this the 'Henry George theorem' in reference to the American classical political economist and journalist Henry George (1839-1897) who advocated for land value tax.
A CATEGORICAL ERROR –
Defining 'land' as 'capital'
American economic history is best reported by Professor Mason Gaffney (1923-2020). His BLOG is retained)
Read an excerpt from his contribution to the best-selling book on The Corruption of Economics, explaining the mystery of persistent economic failure. The authors accuse the founders of neoclassical economics of distorting the science to protect vested interests and of preventing governments from adopting policies that would yield prosperity for everyone.
ATCOR: All Taxes Come Out of Rent –
Prof. Gaffney's acronym for John Locke's 1691 thesis "All taxes ultimately come out of economic rents, anyway, so if there is enough tax there must also be sufficient economic rent." The meaning and relevance of ATCOR is that when we lower other taxes, the revenue base is not lost, but shifted to land rents and values, which can then yield more taxes. – Professor Mason Gaffney >>> more
See detailed analysis of ATCOR here.
"Citizen Dividend"
Thomas Pogge is Leitner Professor of Philosophy and International Affairs and founding Director of the Global Justice Program at Yale, and a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science as well as co-founder of Academics Stand Against Poverty (ASAP), an international network aiming to enhance the impact of scholars, teachers and students on global poverty, and of Incentives for Global Health: In Eradicating Systemic Poverty: brief for a global resources dividend, 2001, Thomas Pogge argues that a citizens dividend based on resources is due to every citizen because everyone owns an inalienable stake in all limited natural resources.
In World Poverty and Human Rights (2002), Pogge argues that at the cost of two thirds of the US military's expenditures, wealthy states could largely eradicate poverty.
Wikipedia Excerpt: The term "Citizen Dividend" represents an equal share of annual consolidated revenue surplus - aka Universal Basic Income (UBI).
... a proposed policy based upon the Georgist principle that the natural world is the common property of all people. It is proposed that all citizens receive regular payments (dividends) from revenue raised by leasing or taxing the monopoly of valuable land and other natural resources.
History
A concept akin to a citizen's dividend was known in Classical Athens. In 483 BC, a massive new seam of silver was found in the Athenian silver mines at Laurium.[1] The dispersal of this provoked great debate. The statesman Aristides proposed the profit from this should be distributed among the Athenian citizens.[2] However he was opposed by Themistocles, who proposed the money be spent building warships for the Athenian navy. In the end, Themistocles' policy was the one adopted.[2]
In the United Kingdom and United States, the idea can be traced back to Thomas Paine's essay, Agrarian Justice, which is also considered one of the earliest proposals for a social security system. Thomas Paine summarized his view by stating that "Men did not make the earth. It is the value of the improvements only, and not the earth itself, that is individual property. Every proprietor owes to the community a ground rent for the land which he holds."
Paine saw inheritance as being partly a common fund and wanted to supplement the citizen's dividend in a tax on inheritance transfers, but Georgist supporters now focus on natural resources.
ALASKA
Permanent Fund Dividend implementation in Alaska
The U.S. state of Alaska dispenses a form of citizen's dividend in its Permanent Fund dividend, which holds investments initially seeded by the state's revenue from mineral resources, particularly petroleum. In 2005, every eligible Alaskan resident (including children) received a check for $845.76. Over the 24-year history of the fund, it has paid out a total of $24,775.45 to every resident. . . . Maryland proposal
John Moser, a 2018 congressional candidate in Maryland, ran chiefly on the proposal that a citizen's dividend based around a portion of all income would eliminate homelessness and hunger, and would act as a collective risk share as used in Nordic model nations.
>>>more
When the land rent is distributed equally among the people, and when there is no legal restriction or imposed cost on peaceful and honest enterprise, nor on the consumption of goods, then a basic income from rent, plus the easy ability to become self-employed, prevents firm owners from exploiting workers, and prevents landlords from becoming housing tyrants. The case for landlord and company tyranny by billionaires collapses when closely examined. But the critics cannot do such analysis, as they keep confusing capitalism as a free market with capitalism as today’s mixed economies. And when they do use the term “free,” they don’t delve into the natural-law ethic that gives freedom and liberty their meaning. The welfare-statist critique of markets is a failure to think things through.
— Dr. Fred Foldvary (1946-2012), Economist, San Jose State University & Santa Clara University
Collecting Economic Rent via Land Value Tax It's a tax, just like property tax, except that the improvement values are exempt [e.g. buildings]. Those who refuse to pay risk losing the land, just as with property tax. As all taxes depress land values, the question is not how much a land value tax can replace other taxes, but how quickly. It is important to allow the market to adjust, and also to minimize disruption for those who have built businesses based on other expectations. - Dan Sullivan, SavingCommunities.org
"I think the banks just want to speculate and feel thwarted.
They need to start looking at home loans like car loans. Do they speculate on the cost of roads? No, because it doesn't effect the value of the car, and is none of their business. It ought to be the same for land. If they can't stand that, maybe they should get into something more predictable, like becoming a professional gambler."- Scott Baker, journalist and psychologist
Abomination of Public Finance By Nate Blair, January 10, 2014.
There are three sources of public revenue: fees, fines, and taxes. Fines are pretty well understood, but the Georgist example would be a Pigovian "tax" on environmental damage. A fee is when the state charges $10 for a licence; charging $100 for the licence would be mostly a tax. Land value "tax" (LVT) is actually a user-fee, not a tax. LVT is the price landowners should pay for the privilege to exclude others from the value of locations in nature that the community is creating.
Currently, society donates the value of locational privilege to landowners mostly free of charge---in fact, we even pay them with *negative* LVT for agricultural land and with public investment projects that enhance land value. Government donates all that to landowners, mostly the wealthy, and pays for it with real tax on our labor and productive enterprise. Then, even though it sounds like the system could not get any worse, we are taxed again, this time by the very landowners we just donated to! When land/ground-rents are captured by private location monopolists, that is technically a private tax/toll. We are obliged to pay that private toll to access the very same benefits our hard work and taxes just created.
LVT simply reclaims our donations by charging owners of location for the annual market value of the privilege they are renting from the community.
We would use that revenue to remove taxes on good things like labor and to provide more of the social services that enhance locational value.
This is exactly the same method a mall uses to finance restrooms and security. Malls do not tax vendors a percentage of sales or for each employee hired---but what if they did? Imagine that the malls also allowed speculators to hoard perpetual, rent/fee-free titles to vendor-locations, preventing actual businesses from using the locations... making the mall look and work like shit, with location monopolists capturing the value of improvements for themselves, so that each time businesses worked harder, the economy improved, or the mall enhanced its services, the rent-seekers would increase the private tax to access mall locations.
THAT WOULD BE CRAZY!
The tragic truth is that what we are doing is much crazier. This has *deadly* consequences. Every time you read about the need for austerity or that there is not enough money for nice things, it is a lie: nice things increase land value in proportion to their niceness. What we are actually saying is that the power of parking lot owners is so great that we willingly condemn vast numbers of people to poverty, death of the mind, body, and spirit.
We can [save our communities], but not like this.
Ricardo's "Law of Rent" makes that impossible in the long-run. >>> Source
Is the parasitical 0.1% deliberately engineering this depression–its so-called form of “creative destruction”–because it no longer has the ability to repay its debts?
Was Alan Greenspan correct: “Household debt has created wage stability.”
Is this why average real wages declined over the last 40 years and we still haven’t realised it? Many people believe average real wages HAVE risen. [Check out the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, because you can’t even get this data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics!]
Have we morphed from constructive industrial capitalism into a fatal form of finance capitalism?
Is the parasites’ claim correct that further reducing wages is the ANSWER? [They know it’s NOT!]
Will people allow the parasites to continue sucking them dry?
[Apparently so!]
>>>full transcript
Summary Many of us already sense on one level or another that capitalism creates inequality and also engenders the ecological destruction of our planet. What we don’t seem to understand is why: For example, why does the economic system we call capitalism lead to financial insecurity for many, even for those who, by all accounts, shouldn’t have to worry about money? And why exactly are we destroying our planet in our frantic conversion of nature into digits and little bits of paper we call money?
One of the main reasons our current form of capitalism is no longer working is because the commons—the gifts of nature—have been privatized. This privatization of nature is one of the root causes of economic recessions, ecological destruction, as well as social and cultural decline.
All of nature is community wealth, including—and especially—land. People give value to land through the goods and services they provide to their communities.
For example, because people offer more goods and services in the city than in the countryside, urban land tends to be much more expensive than rural land. As communities become more attractive to live in, some property owners—mostly the financial institutions that finance them —then extract this value by making money from real estate (buildings, like cars, decrease in value, but land increases in value the more valuable a community becomes), and this extraction is one of the root causes of wealth inequality, ecological destruction, and even economic recessions.
Land—even undeveloped land—costs a lot of money in our society. Why is that? It’s because land has an intrinsic value to human beings: We all need land. And because we all need land, those that own land can make money by buying and selling land at the expense of other people who have to pay money to live on it. Under our current land ownership model, property owners only pay other property owners for land as well as the banks that finance property ownership.
While land can certainly be privately used, its value is created by the community and therefore belongs to the community. Land has to be owned in common, and whenever people use land, they need to reimburse their local communities for their exclusive use of it.
They can do this by making community land contributions for the land they use. A land contribution approximates the market rental value of land, and the rental value of land is a measuring stick that reveals the financial value of the benefits that land users receive from their exclusive use of land. In most nations around the world, land has already been privatized: If communities were to suddenly impose land contributions upon existing property owners, property owners would end up having to pay twice for their ownership of land—first to the previous landowner (from whom they bought land), and a second time to their local communities.
In order to transition from a land ownership model to a land stewardship model local governments and community land trusts would either have to financially compensate existing property owners for the land value portion of the properties in question or cancel their existing mortgage debts. Land users would then be required to share the value of land with all members of their community through community land contributions. And finally, these contributions would then have to be redistributed to all community members in the form of a Universal Basic Income to prevent gentrification, reduce wealth inequality, and create a truly fair economy for all participants. >>> more
Excerpt:
Canada faces a housing crisis, with median home prices in Canadian metropolitan areas reaching $788,000 and soaring to $1.17 million in Toronto. This has made the dream of owning a home unattainable for most, while many renters struggle to afford their housing payments. With a shortfall of 3.5 million housing units needed to restore affordability, the need for a solution has never been more urgent. Single family homes that sprawl into the suburbs and exurbs are not an affordable or sustainable solution because commuting to the city via car comes with significant financial and environmental costs. Canada needs more housing in the places where people need to work and want to live, and implementing a land value tax will incentivize such development.
The only solution: Build more housing
Increasing the supply of homes is the only way to sustainably lower housing costs for homebuyers and renters. Programs that assist homebuyers or renters subsidize demand, which drives home values higher by increasing the prices buyers and renters are willing to pay. For example, Canada recently announced that first-time home buyers who can’t afford the usual 20 per cent down payment will be able to get 30-year mortgages. This change boosts their buying power by more than $50,000. However, because the loan is stretched over an extra five years, homeowners will end up paying much more in interest in the long run. Cash strapped buyers who are competing against the wealthy for homes will take on this debt because they don’t have viable alternatives.
To solve the housing crisis, we must build more housing units where they are needed most ... more
Teacher, author and international speaker, Frank de Jong, Leader of the Green Party of Ontario, Canada from 1993 to 2009, teaches the value of financing government throughResource rents, Infrastructure rents, Pigouvian taxes, aka "Economic Rent capture"
-
in lieu of taxes on business, incomes and sales.
In addition:
An interview with Frank de Jong, June 2011 "Economic Rent Best Way to Finance Government"
YouTube - ThatChannel.com
and Green Tax Shift 2008
Panel discussion with John Fisher, Frank DeJong, and John Ikerd
Transcribed HERE
Economic Policy Resolution by Frank de Jong Presented to the Green Party of Canada Economic Forum, March 2010
Whereas a) Whereas resources such as land, minerals, fossil fuels, clean air and water are free gifts of Nature to people (and other species), and whereas people have an equitable right to this common wealth; . . . more
The case for a new form of democracy
based on human rights to the earth as a birthright.
Public Finance Based On Early Christian Teachings
by Alanna Hartzok, Co-Director, Earth Rights Institute and UN NGO Representative, Christianity and Human Rights Conference
Samford University, Birmingham, Alabama
November 2004
This paper makes a case for a new form of democracy based on human rights to the earth as a birthright, linking this to the Judeo-Christian Jubilee Justice tradition and Old and New Testament teachings. It presents a tax fairness practical policy approach based on the ethical stance of these teachings.
The United Nations Millennium Declaration was adopted by the world's leaders at the Millennium Summit of the United Nations in 2000. Secretary General Kofi Annan has said that the Declaration "captured the aspirations of the international community for the new century" and spoke of a "world united by common values and striving with renewed determination to achieve peace and decent standards of living for every man, woman and child." >>>more
Science explains and understands the world of matter;
philosophy explains and understands the world of spirit.
Economics is the meeting place of these two worlds.
Whilst the immediate concern of economics is policy in the “world of matter”, the key participant in economic life is the human being, whose ultimate purpose of participation is to do with the “world of spirit”. Hence economics meets these two realms, stands at their interface. Its task is to ensure the rule of justice. —Dr John Tippett, A Philosophers Take on Economics (2012)
Political Economy has been called the dismal science, and as currently taught, is hopeless and despairing. But this, as we have seen, is solely because she has been degraded and shackled; her truths dislocated; her harmonies ignored; the word she would utter gagged in her mouth, and her protest against wrong turned into indorsement of injustice. Freed, as I have tried to free her-in her own proper symmetry, Political Economy is radiant with hope. —Henry George, Progress and Poverty (1879)
1. Who's in Charge of Outer Space?
All extraterrestrial activity today is governed by a 50-year-old, Cold War-era treaty. Will governments agree on an update before the final frontier becomes the Wild West?
By Adam Mann
May 19, 2017 Excerpt: … In March, Goldman Sachs announced to investors that a single asteroid containing $25 billion to $50 billion of platinum could be mined by a spacecraft costing only $2.6 billion—less than a third of what has been invested in Uber.
“While the psychological barrier to mining asteroids is high,” the Goldman report concludes, “the actual financial and technological barriers are far lower.” In April, NASA selected Trans Astronautica Corp., an aerospace company based in Lake View Terrace, Calif., for $3.25 million in technology study grants. Among TransAstra’s NASA-approved projects: an asteroid-hunting telescope whose stated mission is “to start a gold rush in space.”
The final frontier is starting to look a lot like the Wild West. As more companies announce ambitious plans to do business beyond Earth, serious questions are emerging about the legality of off-planet activity.
Everything that happens in space falls under the purview of the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies. This international agreement, also known as the Outer Space Treaty, turned 50 years old in January. More than 100 countries, including the U.S., Russia and China, are parties to the treaty. “It’s the Constitution and the Magna Carta of space law,” says Sagi Kfir, general counsel for Deep Space Industries, an asteroid-mining company based in Mountain View, Calif. “It’s so fundamental that its principles have become customary international law even for those countries that aren’t signatories.” ...
The treaty declares the moon and other celestial bodies to be res communis, meaning they exist for the common good and belong to no one. Michael J. Listner, an East Rochester, N.H., lawyer with a specialty in space policy, says the res communis designation means resources found in outer space aren’t for the taking. “Everybody can use the resource of a local park,” Listner says, “but they can’t just chop down a tree and walk away with it to build their house.”>>> more
Excerpt Taxing the riches of nature: sharing in the prosperity from national resources
Good evening, everyone!
It is an honor for me to speak to you today, about Norway's experience with taxing the riches of nature and sharing the prosperity from national resources.
We humans have always depended on harvesting the resources given to us by nature.
Natural resources have generated massive wealth in many countries, countries which are lucky with what nature has provided to them.
And in my remarks today, I will talk about the Norwegian experience, which I think is relevant across borders.
Thanks to important political decisions in history, Norway has managed to make sure that this wealth does not go directly to a small group of powerful people, but rather to the wider population.
Through many Norwegian generations, we have asked: Who should benefit from these values that come from nature around us, in our country?
A few people?
Or everyone living in Norway?
. . . It was our experience with hydropower, inspired by the thinking of Henry George, which formed Norway's approach to managing the newly discovered oil riches.
. . .
So, the blueprint for how we manage valuable resources in Norway goes back more than 100 years.
. . . Closing paragraphs: "Your data: whose profit?"
. . .
Data is different. While physical natural resources can be taxed nationally by individual countries, the digital world is global.
It needs global cooperation.
I want to ask: Is it fair, for a small number of people or businesses to become superrich from taking all the wealth generated by a natural resource – in this case data, from human thoughts and values?
I don’t think it is.
All of you have a mobile phone. In your bag, your hand or pocket right now.
Next time we look at our phones, let us all remember the value of our data.
And that we are a valuable resource.
We must find a fair way to distribute the financial gain from using our data, to the benefit of those who actually generate the resource. The true owners.
Humankind.
Friends, the Governor of the Central Bank of Norway, Ida Wolden Bache, will tell us more about having the whole population as shareholders - and how we manage the wealth that we have gained from taxing our natural resources.
But, just before you give her a warm welcome:
Remember always,
when your phone is active, someone earns money on that.
And it’s not you. Not yet.
Many thanks for your attention!
SHARE The EARTH (Aonymous)
On the central role 'space' plays in our economy. Our economic system doesn't recognise the central role 'space' plays in our economy. Adam Smith understood it…
David Ricardo understood it…
More than anyone else, Henry George understood it...
So we can use all the energy we want - but we can only use the space we have. There is no way to get around it.
The central component of our economy is... LAND So if you want to make the world a better place, or a better "space" you'd better get your head around that. Take famines for example.
We all know that some people starve to death.
Right now, at this very second, a child is dying from malnutrition.
Is it a problem of food resources?
No. It's a problem of distribution.
What do we use to distribute resources? ECONOMICS So, until we get the land question right, the world will never make sense. People will die of hunger, eco-systems will be destroyed in the name of progress. Entire species will be wiped out and one day that species will be us.
But we already have the solution. It's actually very simple! SHARE THE EARTH
