THE GEORGIST NEWS

As I type this sentence, it's Halloween night and the last trick-or-treaters are walking homeward. In the U.S., we give candy to children on Halloween. We delight in seeing their costumes and their happy faces. But in a day or two, everything will be back to normal and the candy will be gone.

Someday we hope to give these children a gift that lasts much longer than a piece of candy - something more wholesome and more meaningful - a world with economic justice. The gift of economic justice, however, cannot be baked or bought by an individual. We can only obtain it, or even a glimmer of it, by working together. Join with like-minded people and pursue a goal together!

The deadline for our December 2005 issue is November 25.

You can always reach the Georgist News at gn@progress.org

CONTENTS: (to return here just click the headline)

  1. A Query from South Korea
  2. A Geo-Presentation
  3. CGO Conference Theme for 2006 Selected
  4. "Housing Crisis: Beyond 'Predict and Provide'"
  5. Climate Change Conference in London
  6. You Could Win $100,000
  7. A Georgist Candidate in Australia
  8. Another Geo-Candidate
  9. Monetary Reform Conference Wrap-Up
10. Harbingers of Henry George
11. California, Transportation, Energy
12. Mass Lobby for Trade Justice
13. French Novel about the Henry George Movement
14. AT THE MARGIN: Quips and Quotes
15. About The Georgist News

1. A Query from South Korea

Dear Georgists of the world,

A Georgist team in S. Korea, including me, is preparing a plan for reform of North Korean land.

If you are familiar with the success/failure of land reform in transitional socialist countries, please let me know relevant examples, sources, and statistics.

Professor Yoon-sang Kim
Dept. of Public Administration
Kyungpook National University
Daegu, 702-701 S. Korea

GN Comments: You can send email to Dr. Kim at yskim16@email.com

2. A Georgist Presentation

His talk is titled, "Every 18 Years: Truth, Justice and the American Way."

The presentation will demonstrate how the real estate cycle (in reality, a land price cycle) is limiting America's ability to find justice and real freedom for its people. The speaker will do this with the help of an examination of 300 years of American history, ending with some forecasts for the American economy for the next five years, and a brief discussion on how to get a very good idea of how the US economy will unfold over the next five years, by using the study of history.

Along the way, the talk will explore the structure of banking, of government-granted licenses and privileges, and of land value.

The talk is especially suitable for anyone interested in liberty, justice, and freedom, and for economists and market investors interested in learning a little about economic forecasting.

Location: the Mission Room (formerly called the "Brass Rail") at Santa Clara University, 5:30 PM to 7:00 PM. Any Georgists/geoists who attend are cordially invited to dinner afterwards as a guest of Fred Foldvary. Those interested are welcome to contact him (office telephone: 408-554-6968, Monday, Wednesday, Friday) for travel directions.

For further details, visit www.scu.edu/civilsocietyinstitute/events/index.cfm

3. CGO Conference Theme for 2006 Selected

"THE SELF SUPPORTING CITY"

More information on speakers will follow.

GN Comments: Send your questions and input to Sue Walton at 1111 Church St., #405, Evanston, IL 60201 USA.; telephone: 847-475-0391; fax: 775-248-8630; email: swalton@surfbest.net

4. Upcoming Event: "Housing Crisis: Beyond 'Predict and Provide'"

Among this event's endorsers are the Labour Land Campaign and the Henry George Foundation of Great Britain.

For more information, visit: thewaterfront.co.uk/conferences/conf_calendarHousingCrisis.php

5. Climate Change Conference in London

Jean Lambert and Caroline Lucas invite you to attend the Greens-EFA group conference on Climate Change in London (UK) on November 9-10, 2005.

The two-day conference will mark the Greens' response to the UK's Presidency of the EU, and focus attention on Climate Change.

Keynote speakers are Charles Secrett and Roger Levett, and a roundtable session on the financial costs of climate change will be chaired by the Guardian's Larry Elliott.

Conference speakers include Green MEPs and other elected politicians from across the EU, journalists, trade unionists, academics and non-governmental organisations. Simultaneous English/German/French translation will be available.

Conference sessions also include energy/nuclear policy, "transport and urban planning," and "sustainability, jobs and training."

The event is taking place at Baden Powell House, 65 Queens Gate, Kensington, London SW7 5JS.

To reserve a place, visit: jeanlambertmep.org.uk/london/conference/map&booking_form.pdf

For further information and the full program, visit: jeanlambertmep.org.uk/london/conference/0510EPLondon_conf.htm

6. You Could Win $100,000

The Service Employees International Union is sponsoring an essay contest with a $100,000 prize. Write a 175-word essay with a commonsense economic idea.

For details, see: www.sinceslicedbread.com

Casey writes, "Georgist entries will be read by a panel of judges and the top 21 essays will be posted on the Internet for a public vote. This may be a way to reach a wide audience. Give it a shot!"

7. A Georgist Candidate in Australia

Visit his website at: www.justicetheaim.net/

You may get some ideas for helping Foley's campaign. You will also find far more at this website than campaign notices: Foley presents substantial articles and arguments as a basis for his positions. It's practically a Georgist library.

Here is a portion of a recent newspaper article:

Leo says, "We can be whatever we want, and have what we desire, as long as we capture community generated wealth to fund projects into the future." He cites Sullivans Cove as an example: millions of dollars will be spent there, creating a wonderful precinct, but the value created by that public investment will find its way into private pockets, in the form of increased land values for local landowners. Income taxes and GST of working people will fund the developments, but the beneficiaries will be the already rich. "If we capture the value of increases in the land value, everybody will benefit, and Hobart can look forward to its next great development," Leo says. "What the community produces belongs to the community."

"All infrastructure projects," notes Foley, "generate increases in land value." Leo promotes better transit systems to overcome Hobart's increasing traffic problems. He says, "More buses won't help much, because they are slow and inconvenient. We should shoot for the stars, and build high-speed monorail systems to Kingborough, Sorell, and Brighton - 10 minutes to the city, with no fares. Increased land values and commercial hubs at terminals could pay for it in 25 years."

"Capturing increased land values for community benefit removes the expectation of capital gains from land, making it affordable for the next generation." Leo is the Public Officer for "Shelter Tasmania," and passionately promotes affordable housing throughout Hobart, now and into the future. He promotes site rents on land as the means to achieve that. "Land is our common inheritance and site rents are our common wealth," he says.

8. Another Geo-Candidate

One of the new candidates is Kenneth Berlin, 56, computer technician at the National Trust for Historic Preservation. According to a local newspaper, Berlin "said he would reduce taxpayers' burden by introducing a land-value tax that would, he argued, reduce speculation and assess a financial burden based on the value of the land, not the buildings on it."

For more information, visit Berlin's campaign website: www.kbalderman.com/

9. Monetary Reform Conference Wrap-Up

Here are a few quotes from that report:

"AMI's vision of the needed reforms:
• To move away from privately controlled money systems toward governmental ones;

• To end the privilege of private banks to create purchasing media as interest bearing loans;

• To spend money into circulation interest free for infrastructure repair and development that promotes the general welfare.

  "Each of these themes was described by several speakers in terms of why they were necessary and how they would work. Our specific reform proposal was placed into its wider historical context as truly a part of our American tradition, originating in proposals put forward by some of the best economic minds in American history. For example, our program's similarities with the Chicago Plan, which came out of the Great Depression, were described in detail. The proposed American Monetary Act is a comprehensive program that gets to the root of the problem.

  "Some speakers' presentations were on how to get the reforms enacted. Some gave detailed descriptions of the kinds of trouble our money system has caused, including the horrendous debt buildup in our society, with its related obscene concentrations of wealth into just a small part of the population; and the neglect of infrastructure which now amounts to a $1.6 trillion dollar requirement just to get the system to a decent grade. Some speakers gave previews of the kinds of progress toward a much better future - even a paradise - that can start to be created on our planet Earth, with properly run money systems. A money power under societal control instead of the privately controlled system that has been leading us into a man-made hell."

10. Harbingers of Henry George

Back in 1968, a California Georgist named Clyde Silvernale provided an excerpt in the Henry George News (January) from Volume I of the Documentary History of New York, a book published in 1948. The Surveyor General, Cadwallader Colden, in 1732, commented on a proposal to "abolish all the present rents by an act of the legislature, and in lieu of them to establish the Quitrents of all passed grants at [a specified value] per hundred acres..." Colden was confident that, "The Quitrents would in this case be sufficient to support the government, ... as equal a taxation as could be contrived and the taxes would not, as they do now, fall upon the improvements and the industry of the people."

11. California, Transportation, Energy

The event's sponsors claim to offer the premier forum for discussing why California should, and how it can, meet its "2020" transportation energy goals of reducing petroleum use in vehicles by 15 percent, and increasing to 20 percent its use of alternative fuels in vehicles. These goals stem from a joint report by the California Energy Commission and the Air Resources Board. Over the past year, there have been numerous geopolitical, economic, and environmental developments pertaining to the state's (and the country's) dependence on oil that affect California's drive to meet the "2020" goals.

Panelists will discuss recent California transportation energy trends, ways of collaborating for change in California, successes at the state level, and how California can become a model state for transportation energy use. Hundreds of policy makers, politicians, advocates, academics, industry representatives, and others are expected to attend.

Visit www.California2020.com or contact Monica Alcaraz by telephone at 626-744-5655 for more information.

12. Mass Lobby for Trade Justice

The demands are: stop pushing poor countries to open up their economies through world trade talks, and respect poor countries' rights to decide on trade policies to help end poverty and protect their environments.

For more information, and to find out what the Trade Justice Movement is all about, visit: www.tjm.org.uk/

13. Long-Forgotten French novel about the Henry George Movement

Back in 1959, the (Georgist) editor of Terre et Liberté, A. Daude-Bancel, announced a competition to award a cash prize for the best novel incorporating Henry George's principles. The winner was novelist and journalist Pierre Valentin Berthier, for the book "On a tué M. Système" (Mr. System Has Been Killed).

The theme of the book involved life in a French provincial town in the 1950s prior to the rise of the government under de Gaulle, conveying to readers the discontent of the middle classes and anger over heavy taxes.

The book quoted passages from Henry George's writings and refers to the Henry George School. A central character was described as a graduate of the school's correspondence course.

A review of the book appeared in the August, 1950, Henry George News, written by Edgar Trier.

Perhaps there are a few folks around who bought and read the book forty-six years ago. The school had copies of the French language book for sale for only $1 back then.

14. AT THE MARGIN: Quips and Quotes

Heads are wisest when they are cool, and hearts are strongest when they beat in response to noble ideals.
- Ralph Bunche

A problem is a chance for you to do your best.
- Duke Ellington

15. About The Georgist News

gn@progress.org

The Georgist News on the WWW - http://www.georgist.com/

Contributing to this issue:

Phil Anderson, Joe Casey, Ed Dodson, Leo Foley, Yoon-sang Kim, Jean Lambert, Chuck Metalitz, Sue Walton, Stephen Zarlenga