Seeing the Cat —
Reclaiming the Global Commons
When nobody looses, everybody gains!

Since the 1930s, the metaphor “Seeing the Cat” has referred to regaining economic ‘insight’:
To see the cat in this visual puzzle, point the cursor over this image

RECOGNIZING A WORKABLE ALTERNATIVE

Seeing the Cat
From Louis F. Post's book, The Prophet of San Francisco: Personal Memories & Interpretations of Henry George (New York: Vanguard, 1930, pp. 12-14).

It seems that the expression "seeing the cat" originated in a speech by Judge James G. Maguire in support of land value taxation in the late 1880s. In his speech, Judge Maguire said:

"I was one day walking along Kearney Street in San Francisco when I noticed a crowd in front of the show window of a store. They were looking at something inside. I took a glance myself, but saw only a poor picture of an uninteresting landscape. As I was turning away my eye caught these words underneath the picture: "Do you see the cat?" I looked again and more closely, but I saw no cat. Then I spoke to the crowd. "Gentlemen," I said, "I do not see a cat in that picture; is there a cat there?" Some one in the crowd replied: "Naw, there ain't no cat there. Here's a crank who says he sees a cat in it, but none of the rest of us can." Then the crank spoke up. "I tell you," he said, "there is a cat there. The picture is all cat. What you fellows take for a landscape is nothing more than a cat's outlines. And you needn't call a man a crank either because he can see more with his eyes than you can with yours."

Well, I looked again very closely at the picture, and then I said to the man they were calling a crank, "Really, sir, I cannot make out a cat in that picture. I can see nothing but a poor drawing of a commonplace landscape." "Why, Judge," the crank exclaimed, "just you look at that bird in the air. That's the cat's ear." I looked but was obliged to say: "I am sorry to be so stupid but I really cannot make a cat's ear of that bird. It's a poor bird, but not a cat's ear." "Well, then," the crank persisted, "look at that twig twirled around in a circle; that's the cat's eye." But I couldn't make out an eye. "Oh, well," returned the crank a bit impatiently, "look at those sprouts at the foot of the tree, and the grass; they make the cat's claws." After a rather deliberate examination, I reported that they did look a little like claws, but I couldn't connect them with a cat. Once more the crank came back at me as cranks will. "Don't you see that limb off there? and that other limb just under it? and that white space between?" he asked. "Well, that white space is the cat's tail." I looked again and was just on the point of replying that there was no cat's tail there that I could see, when suddenly the whole cat stood out before me.
There it was, sure enough, just as the crank had said; and the only reason the rest of us couldn't see it was that we hadn't got the right angle of view. but now that I saw the cat, I could see nothing else in the picture. The poor landscape had disappeared and a fine looking cat had taken its place. And do you know, I was never afterwards able, upon looking at that picture, to see anything in it *but* the cat. In my view, "the cat" is the possibility of a world without privilege. (Post, 1930, pp. 12-14)

Once you have ‘seen the cat’, as in this puzzle, you will always be able to see the cat in the puzzle. In other words, over the past century this has come to mean that once you understand the difference between classical economic theory and our current neo-classical economic system, it will be easy to recognize how the problems of the world today are actually symptoms of a fundamentally faulty approach to economics.

The great news is that it would be easier than most people think to change direction, to implement changes that would lead to positive outcomes for everyone – even the wealthiest powerful elites would have less to worry about. Ultimately, this is what the unifying capacity of social networking is capable of achieving.

Embracing our Heritage of Joy:

“To come together in every experience, to know the power and the glow of at-one-ment, that is our goal: to be united in the center of our being in love.” M. Sullivan

Ongoing learnings amplify the value of our interconnectivity and our relationship with nature. All life is created by the spark of joy – the rush of joyous life that energizes, binds, and unites the elements in physical form. Human nature flows from this desire to unite.

Our heritage of joy is the source of our nourishment, from the roots of the dark earth, the womb of primordial life on earth.

And, the power of Joy has evolved into an ever-expanding universe of love.

We are meant to ‘comprehend’ the miracle of life — to celebrate our lives in meaningful relationships. Yet, we have long been detached from the realization of who we really are as spiritual beings. We behave as if we are lost in an unsupportive universe, that there is no access to creative energies and resources other than those we can grasp for ourselves from a limited supply.

Myriads of conflicts across the globe, widespread economic suffering, corruption and greed, destruction of habitat and health, and ensuing emotional anxieties have touched the lives of everyone on the planet, making everyone less free.

It has become widely obvious that the current speculation-based economic system is the cause. Alarm bells have gone off all over the world. We’ve entered a danger zone. We must change our ways if we are to sustain humanity, or the earth will go on without us.

We are at a new turning point in human history: the choices each individual makes will matter more than ever before. The agendas and intentions we set for ourselves, our choices, are reflected in the quality of our lives.

It is time to answer for ourselves this question: What mechanisms can we put in place to help us bring peace and good health to our families, communities, countries, and to the world?

And the answer is: First, we need to understand that we can reclaim the Global Commons.

What is the Global Commons?

The earth belongs to everyone in common. It is our common wealth – hence the term ‘global commons’: The fruits of the earth are gifts to over eight million species. However, instead of sharing, we’ve created an unsustainable economic system based on the motto: there is no such thing as a free lunch.

We have ‘learned’ to define wealth only in economic terms: endless growth and consumption, affluence and assets in a few hands. We are capable of much more: developing abundance, inspiring creative expression, perfecting health, peace, freedom, justice, prosperity, and plenty for everyone.

‘Be healthy. Be kind. Respect the environment.’
- Joseph R. Simonetta, Seven Words That Can Change The World (2001)

When nobody looses everybody gains!
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We’re already capable of implementing a highly developed alternative approach to economics that will allow us to share equally in the bounty of the earth (the global commons), eliminating poverty and all the ill-consequences of an economic system driven by growth at any cost:

The bottom-line reflects low executive and emotional intelligence.

While we may think it impossible to change the economic push toward globalization of a system that ‘increases want with increase of wealth’ the knowledge that it is possible to change our methods is revitalizing, uplifting, healing. We should all be celebrating our potential!

ECONOMIC CHOICES

According to the Australian Treasury Department Director Ken Henry’s 2010 Review of Australia’s future tax system; Resource Rent is the economic solution of choice.

ECONOMICS HISTORY

Economic history was dropped from economics curriculum in 1980, when economic policymaking moved to “the right” under Masayoshi Ohira in Japan, Margaret Thatcher in the United Kingdom, Ronald Reagan in the United States, and Helmut Kohl in Germany. (James M. Boughton, 2001, IMF)
https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2002/03/bought.htm

No wonder most people don't understand the source of economic impacts on current affairs!

Economic History studies began with Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations in 1776. Over the last 200 years, leading philosophers and economists contributed to the development of a sophisticated economic theory: They are the Classical Political Economists and, today, their theorem has many names: Resource Rent, The Law of Rent, Classical Economics, Economic Rent, Land Value Tax, Single Tax, Ricardo's Law, Georgism, and more. It is a philosophy and economic theory that follows from the belief that although everyone owns what they create.

Classical economists treated land as distinct from capital: "land, labor and capital" were the three basic "factors of production”. They were considered mutually exclusive, until neo-classical economic theorists took over: In 1926, Columbia University launched the first Chair of Economics with funding from speculators, and John Bates Clark (1847-1938) was appointed the first Professor of Economics. Since 1947, the prestigious John Bates Clark award is given every other year to an economist under age 40. Professor Clark believed: “If nothing suppresses competition, progress will continue forever.” Under him, the word ‘land’ was put in quotes in economics textbooks: “land” –even though it was central to economic thought, going back to the 18 century French Physiocrats, preceding the first modern school, classical political economics.
Early proponents of classical political economic theory included John Locke, William Penn, Benjamin Franklin, Adam Smith, Thomas Paine, William Ogilvie, Thomas Jefferson, David Ricardo, John Stuart Mill, Herbert Spencer, Leo Tolstoy, Mark Twain, Clarence Darrow, David Lloyd George, Sun Yat-sen, Sir Winston Churchill, Walter Burley Griffin. American economics journalist Henry George brought it to wide public notice with the 1879 publication of his international best seller, Progress and Poverty

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“When people devote themselves to benefitting all beings through harmony, they create awareness and develop a better world.” Buddhist teaching.

“The implications for humanity are greater freedom, more time for relaxation, for family, more time for the arts, and far less government control of our lives.”
- Bryan Kavanagh, Land Valuer (Ret.) Australian Taxation Office.

Classical Political Economic theorem was designed to prevent individuals from stealing the common wealth. Properly instituted, it is capable of maximizing positive results in support, comfort, and good health for everyone, including good housekeeping for our only habitat – our global commons.

Imagine:

- Ample public funding for infrastructure and public services, including a ‘social-wage’ Citizen Dividend.
- No tax on productivity, including income, sales, pay-roll, - no business taxes.
- No need to worry about 'investing' for retirement, because a Citizen Dividend would be much higher than current pensions.
- Affordable housing: Access to land by paying the Resource Rent (without incurring bank interest) on the value of the land, and either building your own home or taking a mortgage only on the value of the house you wish to purchase.
- A healthier lifestyle, without anxiety, myriad inflammatory symptoms, suicides.
- An end to all territorial conquests and resource wars as ‘users pay’ the Resource Rent for access to lands and resources.

The following is an excerpt from my unpublished 18 April 2008 filmed interview with
Bryan Kavanagh, former Land Valuer at the Australian Taxation Office and research associate at the Land Values Research Group, who spoke to the value of collecting Economic Rent / Resource Rent - "The Law of Rent Theorem" - instead of income and business taxes.

"When it comes to economics, the reintegration of the theory of [land] valuation is essential. It’s the new frontier. Just as we sent Voyager out to explore space, we're at a turning point where the economy is not working for us. There is a big discovery to be made, and this lies in this epochal change - the rediscovery of Resource Rent.
Shifting - transferring taxes to Resource Rent is going to open the way for a whole new development for humanity. The implications for humanity are greater freedom, more time for relaxation, for family, more time for the arts, and far less government control of our lives. These ideas might sound mystical, but they are the sorts of solutions that could be delivered to us, once we pass through this new frontier.
Its not just land [economic] rents we want to capture. We want to capture licenses for the electromagnetic spectrum, aircraft slots, all forms of forestry and mineral licenses, all resources. These would supplement our charges on land values, and add to the enormous Resource Rent pot, that is now 285 billion [2009 Australia]
- more than our current level of tax revenue.
We’ve witnessed the progressive loss of a sense of community, and land rents represent community. If we collected Resource Rent, we'd get rid of poverty. We have a widening gap between wealthy and poor because the wealthy are capturing Resource Rent. We've got to rediscover the Land Tax system. This would open up enormous benefits. It would fund infrastructure, education, health, all of these areas that are crying out for funds, and this fund is sitting there, being grossly capitalized by individuals and causing us to ratchet up taxes to fund them. But if we decrease taxes, and capture more of the Resource Rent, we would be doing as nature intends us to do, using growing Resource Rent funds for public purposes."

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