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L&L will be available on the WWW later this year, as will its complete index of contents since publication commenced. Selected articles and indexes from a recent volume of L&L are already on the site http://www.henrygeorge.org.uk.
The editor and publisher plan the following special features and now invite suggestions for articles from authors who believe they can offer appropriate insights into these topics. Short summaries (up to 150 words) of such ideas should be sent to the editor: metaman@compuserve.com.
Tell your friends. L&L is not just for Georgists - it is for anyone who thinks that the world might have progress without poverty, especially for those who can help achieve that Just Society.
Tony Vickers
Convenor, The Progressive Forum
http://www.progressiveforum.cjb.net
To those persons who have already stepped forward and offered to contribute financially to The Georgist News, we say a big "Thank You!" The Georgist News is a free publication. You do not have to donate. But if you can spare $25 we will be most grateful for your support.
• Second • In our last issue we encouraged people to visit an "economics community" web site to evaluate whether it was worth further attention, but the URL we gave contained a typographical error. The correct address is http://www.ecommunics.com and if you form an opinion on that site, please let us know.
We're not just talking about "relative" poverty - we mean poorer in absolute terms.
While gross domestic product per capita is rising in some regions, that measure fails to take natural resources into account.
Here are the unimpressive changes in GDP per capita for 1965-1996:
Bangladesh +1.0% India +2.3% Nepal +1.0% Pakistan +2.7% China +6.7% Sub-Sahara Africa -0.2%Now, for a more accurate picture, look at changes in "wealth" per capita, 1970-1993:
Bangladesh -2.6% India -0.1% Nepal -3.0% Pakistan -1.9% China +0.8% Sub-Sahara Africa -3.4%where "wealth" according to the article's definition, includes natural resource values.
GN Comments: Does this analysis surprise you? Occasional news reports of this sort show us that one simply cannot ignore natural resources and still draw responsible conclusions. Why aren't Georgist analyses the norm, instead of the exception?
Weekends now often start on Thursdays or end on Tuesdays; many younger, working mothers choose to stay at home on Wednesdays, when French children are traditionally off school.
Middle-range French executives, on a 1,600-hour working year, find that they have an average of two weeks' extra holiday (on top of the six weeks they already had). Leisure and do-it-yourself sales are booming.
But what effect is all this having on the French economy? And French unemployment (which was the whole point of a shorter week in the first place)? An official report published yesterday said that the mandatory 35-hour week, and its voluntary predecessor, had created 285,000 jobs in the past five years. By the time the law applies fully to smaller companies in 2003, it should have created 500,000 jobs, the report by Le Plan, the French state's strategic planning body, said.
This is fewer than the 700,000 new jobs originally forecast by Lionel Jospin's coalition government when it came to power, promising a statutory 35-hour week, four years ago this month. It is, though, by no means the calamity forecast by business leaders and orthodox market economists both French and Anglo-Saxon.
The principle of a state-imposed reduction in the working week from 39 hours to 35, without a reduction in wages would be ruinous to French competitiveness, they said. It would discourage foreign investment. It would increase taxes and social charges because the government would have to compensate employers. It would destroy more jobs than it created. None of that has happened, yet.
French unemployment has fallen from 12.6 per cent in June 1997 to 8.5 per cent this month, the lowest figure for 18 years. Almost one percentage point of this reduction should be attributed directly to jobs created by the reduction of the working week, according to yesterday's report.
Foreign investment in France is booming. Social charges on employers have not been increased so far although this could change.
(a) The Council of Georgist Organizations (CGO) Conference will formally end at approximately 2:30 PM on Labor Day Sunday, September 2. But all are welcome to participate in Pittsburgh's Labor Day Parade on Labor Day Monday, September 3.
(b) If you or your organization wishes to increase its impact at the CGO conference, consider renting an exhibit table or placing an insert in the conference attendee packets. For more information on these services, contact Sue Walton at swalton@interaccess.com
(c) You can register for this conference online if you wish. Just visit the CGO web site at http://www.progress.org/cgo
When you are describing a state of affairs where Georgist reforms are badly needed, and special privilege is enjoying unearned advantages, try calling it a "kleptocracy" and see if you make a connection with your listeners.
So, the Henry George School of Chicago is pleased to announce that if you're in Chicago on Saturday, August 11th, you're invited to attend their 'early bird picnic'. For details telephone Chuck Metalitz at 312-362-9302.
A Nicaraguan Georgist, graduate of the course taught by Paul Martin in Managua, and a reliable individual who gave Paul and me valuable help while I was visiting there this winter, is looking for a host in the States. I can vouch for Osmar Matamoros - smart, honest, hard-working, good sense of humor. He's a professor and for a decade studied and taught in Bulgaria. He's got a wife and baby to whom he'll return after a month in the USA. Can anyone here help? Or, do you know someone who might be able to help?
GN Comments: For more information, please email Jeff Smith at geonomist@juno.com
The new site is owned by the Banneker Center for Economic Justice, which is continuing to collect and assemble Georgist materials on the subject of sprawl. If you know of some related material that is online, or should be, please notify hanno@progress.org
The Sprawl Information Center is at http://www.progress.org/sprawl/