Welcome to the May issue of The Georgist News.
Welcome aboard to new subscriber Sylvie of Arkansas, Tom Sherrard of
San Diego, and Jason Twill, Senior Project Manager | Design &
Construction for Vulcan Inc. of Seattle. If any of you dear readers
know others who might like to subscribe, please forward. Below you'll
learn that:
China recovers some site rent and an American banker pours millions
into promoting a land value tax. Other articles publicize the tax
shift -- total and partial -- and decry subsidies, while promoting a
rent dividend. More data suggest that the housing cycle has peaked.
Our grassroots activists catch the ear of the public and elected
officials. In this issue, you'll find links to photos and more
movement action and ways to get involved right now -- wrapping up with
some light lines. Enjoy!
CONTENTS:
1. Movement Business: 2007 conference registration now open
2. Good News: China ups land rate; Banker pushes land tax; oil
subsidies targeted
3. Good Press in Bangladesh, Philippines, Boston Review,
West Virginia, on NPR, from Al Gore
4. News: income gap wider; lenders going bankrupt
5. Numbers for March & Q1: Incomes vs outgoes, foreclosures,
sales, prices, GDP, cycle peak
6. Movement progress: Seminar in Harrisburg; New group in AR
7. Letters to editor: Subsidies a geoist issue? South Africa data
8. Obituaries: Soler Corrales and Gross
9. Likable links to photos, SCI, IHG, Geonomist, Guardian,
Ask Henry, AMI
10. What You Can Do: Name thate-zine, Get tax cap data; Vote for
Working Assets list; Join PR
11. At the Margin: Quips and Quotes
12. Publication affairs: Contributors, About the Georgist News
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1. Movement Business: 2007 conference registration now open
By Sue Walton, sns at swwalton.com, April 16, 2007
Thanks to Dan Sullivan for doing another superb job on our 2007 CGO
conference brochure. And to our long time webmaster, Hanno Beck, for
putting this up on the web for us. Also, thanks in advance to Herb
Barry and friends for holding a mailing party.
The brochure was mailed on April 18th. If you did not receive a
brochure and would like one, please contact Sue or Scott Walton at sns
at swwalton.com or you can view the brochure on line and register at
www.progress.org/cgo. There are links from there to the two PDF's and
a travel advice page. The Scranton Wilkes Barre Airport (AVCO) is the
preferred airport for the 2007 CGO Conference.
Flying into Scranton rather than Newark will save time and will lessen
the probability of missed connections. It saves the 2+ hour bus ride
from New York's Port Authority. Scranton has direct flights from
several cities, including Cleveland, Chicago, Philadelphia and
Pittsburgh. Call me for advice before you book your cross-country
flight. Our hotel has a free shuttle to the airport, a 15-min. ride.
The airport is served by Delta, Northwest Airlines, United,
Continental and US Airways. The early bird deadline is May 31st.
-------------------------------------
2a. Good News: China raises one of its rates on some land
China Information Daily, 2007 (via Ted Gwartney)
The rate for annual land-use taxes was increased to triple the
previous rate, which varied depending on the city size and type of
land use. The reason for the increase, according to government
sources, was an attempt at "bringing better control and better
planning to the development and redevelopment of land." Property
prices have skyrocketed because of run-away land investment, and
these, as well as other measures, are the government's attempt to cool
investment and thereby avoid a potential market crash.
-------------------------------------
2b. Good News: Banker pushes land tax
By Jo Mannies, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 15, 2007
(via Joe Casey)
Retired investment banker, Rex Sinquefield, plans to invest millions
in upcoming years in an effort to shape Missouri's future. He also
helped to establish the Show-Me Institute, a free-market think tank
based in Clayton. He believes that state income taxes, as well as
earnings taxes in St. Louis and Kansas City, hurt job growth and
economic prosperity. He proposes replacing St. Louis' earnings tax
with a land tax that would be separate from a property tax.
-------------------------------------
2c. Good News: Exxon up but Congress could cut subsidies;
a presidential candidate would pay an oil dividend
AP, April 26, 2007
Exxon Mobil kicked off 2007 with a 10% rise in profits, its
best-ever first quarter. The world's largest publicly traded oil
company earned $9.3 billion in the January-March period, beating
Wall Street expectations. The market price for crude oil was down
more than $5 a barrel in the first quarter versus a year ago. The
comparable price for natural gas also was lower. Sen. Bob Casey,
D-Pa., introduced legislation to curtail rising gas prices; it would
impose a windfall profits tax and close certain tax loopholes for
big oil companies.
The Progress Report
The World Bank Group reports in 2005, public institutions such as
the World Bank and U.S. agencies such as the Export-Import Bank
provided more than $3 billion to the international oil and gas
industry; over the past year, lending for oil projects increased
more than 75%. Instead of alleviating poverty, most oil and gas
projects have exacerbated corruption, worsened economic inequality,
increased local conflict, and intensified global climate change.
Hence Congressman Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) on April 17, 2007
introduced a bill to help end international subsidies to Big Oil.
ABC's "This Week", April 1, 2007 (no fooling)
Republican presidential candidate, former Health and Human Services
Secretary, and former four-term governor of Wisconsin, Tommy
Thompson, a senior partner in a law firm, said he is the reliable
conservative and Iraqi oil revenues should be dealt with like the
state of Alaska: one-third should go to the federal government,
one-third to the territorial governments, and the remaining third
split "to every man, woman and child.
-------------------------------------
3a. Good Press: Bangladesh business news on land tax
By F.H.M. Masoom, Financial Express, March 20, 2007
The owners of the properties whose value increase year to year enjoy
the unearned increment without contributing anything towards the
development of the country. To tax them is most justified and not to
tax them is unethical.
-------------------------------------
3b. Good Press: Philippines business news on land tax
By Antonio V. Osmeña, Sun Star, April 11, 2007
In many urban areas, particularly those of high population
concentration, vacant land or lots with blighted structures should be
assessed and taxed in excess of their contribution to overall real
estate market value, in order to stimulate its use, to discourage the
holding of vacant urban land for speculative purposes, and to
encourage improvement of blighted structures.
-------------------------------------
3c. Good Press: Game site retells Monopoly story
By Ian Bogost, Gamasutra, April 3, 2007
"In 1903, thirty years before the initial release of Monopoly as we
know it, Elizabeth Magie Phillips designed The Landlord's Game, a
board game that aimed to teach and promote Georgism, an economic
philosophy that claims land cannot be owned, but belongs to everyone
equally. Henry George, after whom the philosophy is named, was a 19th
century political economist who argued that industrial and real estate
monopolists profit unjustly from both land appreciation and rising
rents. To remedy this problem, he proposed a 'single tax' on
landowners."
-------------------------------------
3d. Good Press: Author sees the role of land in creating equity and
prosperity By Nancy Birdsall, founding president of the Center
for Global Development, formerly in senior positions at the
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the Inter-American
Development Bank, and formerly executive VP at the Inter-American
Development Bank; The Boston Review, March/April 2007
"One key to East Asia's success seemed to be its low initial levels of
inequality, which were associated with the legacy of postwar
redistribution of farm land in the northern economies and with
subsequent high public investments in education, agricultural
extension, and other programs in rural areas... Land inequality (and
unequal access to education) when combined with poor markets for land
and credit may also be destructive for growth itself, and especially
for growth that benefits the poor. Some evidence suggests that large
landowners captured most of the benefits of agricultural growth in
Latin America in the 1970s and 1980s. In contrast, in Indonesia, where
small farmers provide the bulk of agricultural production,
agricultural productivity and growth were greater in that period, and
were better for the rural poor."
-------------------------------------
3e. Good Press (Sad Press): Subsidies here suppress development there
By Tina Rosenberg, NY Times , March 25, 2007 (via Heather Remoff)
"Historically, the global balance sheet has favored poor countries.
But with the advent of globalized markets, capital began to move in
the other direction, and the South now exports capital to the North,
at a skyrocketing rate. According to the United Nations, in 2006 the
net transfer of capital from poorer countries to rich ones was $784
billion, up from $229 billion in 2002. (In 1997, the balance was
even.) Even the poorest countries, like those in sub-Saharan Africa,
are now money exporters. Sometimes reverse subsidies are disguised.
Rich-country governments spent $283 billion in 2005 to support and
subsidize their own agriculture, which undercuts small farmers in poor
countries who cannot compete, so they stop farming. Three-quarters of
the world's poor people are rural. The African peasant with an acre
and a hoe is losing her livelihood, and the benefits go mainly to
companies like Archer Daniels Midland and Cargill."
-------------------------------------
3fe. Good Press: Author sees the problems of high land prices
By Matthew Preusch, The Oregonian, April 02, 2007
"While some of the jump in the annual homeless tally is due to better
counting methods, the rise also stems from the high cost of housing...
people right on the edge simply can't participate in that housing
market anymore. Even though unemployment rates have hit record lows in
Deschutes County, many people working full time in the region's
service economy still can't afford to cover the deposit and rent for
an apartment."
-------------------------------------
3g. Good Press: Gore goes for carbon tax shift
By Robert Walker, The San Francisco Chronicle,
March 23, 2007 (via Paul Martin)
Testifying before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on global
warming, former vice president and now climate-change evangelist, Al
Gore, urged Congress "to reduce taxes on employment and production and
make up the difference with pollution taxes," principally on carbon
dioxide emissions.
-------------------------------------
3h. Good Press: Public radio airs carbon tax shift
Daniel Rosenblum, an environmental attorney and cofounder
of the Carbon Tax Center in New York City, interviewed by
Ray Suarez on PBS NewsHour, April 11, 2007
(via Paul Martin, and Heather Remoff)
"So whenever the refiners or the oil companies sell oil into the
pipeline, there will be a tax imposed there. When you take coal out of
the ground, it will be taxed as it goes into commerce... Raise one
tax, reduce another. You tax the bad, you tax pollution instead of
productive work... We're proposing that all the monies that are
received from the carbon tax go back to all Americans, either by
offsetting the payroll tax or through a rebate to all Americans, kind
of like the Alaska Permanent Fund. Alaska rebates all of the oil
royalties they get."
Editor's note: Such talk gets us closer to the ideal of taxing even
earlier in process of using Earth: at the point of ownership.
-------------------------------------
3i. Good Press: Berkeley newspaper article advocates complete
tax shift. By Dr. Fred Foldvary, Santa Clara University,
The Berkeley Daily Planet, April 13, 2007
If governments at all levels levy swiftly escalating charges on
pollution while simultaneously reducing taxes on income, sales, and
buildings, this revenue-neutral shift would efficiently reduce
pollution while also reducing the deadweight loss of taxes on labor
and enterprise. Pollution charges would not be able to replace all the
taxes on income, sales, and buildings, so a complete green tax shift
would also require a tax on land value or land rent.
-------------------------------------
3j. Good Press: Mountaineers read of complete tax shift
By Alanna Hartzok, Earth Rights Institute, The Charleston Gazette,
April 16, 2007
The money that the paper-title-holding companies demand and receive
from the working companies is entirely "resource rent" and rightly
belongs to the people of West Virginia. If West Virginians were to
capture resource rent, the unearned income now going to outsider
paper-title-holding, non-working companies, then taxes on both
workers' wages and on the rightful profits of working business owners
could and should be substantially reduced.
-------------------------------------
3k. Good Press: Hard truth for hard times on rent shares
By Richard C. Cook, Atlantic Free Press, March 24, 2007
Before he worked at NASA in the mid-1980s, where he was the expert on
the Challenger disaster, Cook was a policy analyst at the U.S. Civil
Service Commission, the Food and Drug Administration, and a special
assistant for consumer affairs in the Jimmy Carter White House. After
NASA, he spent twenty-one years with the U.S. Treasury Department. His
talk at the Eastern Economic Association to the Basic Income Group was
posted at the AFP site.
He wrote, "Of course there are potential tax sources that could pay
for at least a partial Basic Income Guarantee. Obviously, one would be
to roll back the Bush tax cuts altogether. Another would be to slash
defense spending a couple of hundred billion dollars a year. Another
could be to shut down all offshore tax havens, as suggested by
economist Michael Hudson, the ones that effectively reduce or
eliminate taxes paid by corporations, the wealthy, or organized crime.
Another would be a universal land use tax as advocated by the Henry
George movement. Yet another would be to raise taxes on capital gains
and interest income."
Editor's note: Make that land gains and monopoly interest income, and
Cook has a pretty geoist list.
-------------------------------------
3l. Good Press: Another review of Barnes' Capitalism 3.0 cites HG
By Gus DiZerega, a Third-Degree Gardnerian Elder who spent six
years studying with Brazilian shaman Antonio Costa e Silva, and
with other teachers in Native American and Afro-Brazilian
traditions; he has a Ph.D. in Political Science/Theory from the
University of California-Berkeley, teaches at several universities
and colleges, and authored Persuasion, Power and Polity: A Theory
of Democratic Self-Organization. Guerrilla News Network,
April 25th, 2007 (via Ed Dodson)
Barnes thus picks up a challenge first addressed long ago by Henry
George, that much of the value of land often has nothing to do with
the owner's actions and everything to do with the society wherein it
is situated. Why, then, should the owner get all the gain and society
pay all the price? Economically efficient use of the commons for
private purposes requires paying rent. Rent paid for use of the
commons can be paid as dividends to members of society as a whole,
which while benefiting all, would disproportionately benefit the poor
who are most taken advantage of in this time of rampant crony
capitalism and national kleptocracy.
-------------------------------------
3m. Good Press: LAT editorializes against subsidy abuse
Los Angeles Times, April 8, 2007
"The simplest solution to the pork problem -- stop writing earmarks --
goes unexplored. And shady new avenues of pork are emerging, such as
the growing use of emergency supplemental bills that include items for
such emergencies as peanut farming and money for the 2008 conventions.
Go ahead and rage at the faraway peanut farmer, but in the
government-handout economy -- a world of concentrated benefits and
distributed costs -- he'd be a fool to say no to that money, and his
representative in Congress would be a fool not to deliver it."
Editor's note: An even simpler solution is to replace discretionary
spending by politicians with discretionary spending by citizens
via a rent dividend.
-------------------------------------
3n. Good Press: NYT debates agri-biz subsidies
By Michael Pollan, April 22, 2007 (via Bruno Moser)
Like most processed foods, the Twinkie is basically a clever
arrangement of carbohydrates and fats teased out of corn, soybeans and
wheat -- three of the five commodity crops that the farm bill
supports, to the tune of some $25 billion a year. (Rice and cotton are
the others.) For the last several decades -- indeed, for about as long
as the American waistline has been ballooning -- U.S. agricultural
policy has been designed in such a way as to promote the
overproduction of these five commodities, especially corn and soy. The
reason the least healthful calories in the supermarket are the
cheapest is that those are the ones the farm bill encourages farmers
to grow.
By making it possible for American farmers to sell their crops abroad
for considerably less than it costs to grow them, the farm bill helps
determine the price of corn in Mexico and the price of cotton in
Nigeria and therefore whether farmers in those places will survive or
be forced off the land, to migrate to the cities -- or to the United
States.
The public-health community has come to recognize it can't hope to
address obesity and diabetes without addressing the farm bill. The
environmental community recognizes that as long as we have a farm bill
that promotes chemical and feedlot agriculture, clean water will
remain a pipe dream. The development community has woken up to the
fact that global poverty can't be fought without confronting the ways
the farm bill depresses world crop prices. Voting with our forks can
advance reform only so far. It can't, for example, change the fact
that the system is rigged to make the most unhealthful calories in the
marketplace the only ones the poor can afford. To change that, people
will have to vote with their votes as well.
-------------------------------------
4a. News: Income Gap Is Widening
By David Cay Johnston, NY Times, March 29, 2007 (via Gil Herman)
Income inequality grew significantly in 2005, with the top 1 percent
of Americans -- those with incomes that year of more than $348,000 --
receiving their largest share of national income since 1928. Their
incomes rose to an average of more than $1.1 million each, an increase
of more than $139,000, or about 14 percent. The top 10 percent,
roughly those earning more than $100,000, also reached a level of
income share not seen since before the Depression. Average incomes for
those in the bottom 90 percent dipped slightly compared with the year
before, dropping $172, or 0.6 percent. The new data also shows that
the top 300,000 Americans collectively enjoyed almost as much income
as the bottom 150 million Americans. Per person, the top group
received 440 times as much as the average person in the bottom half
earned, nearly doubling the gap from 1980.
-------------------------------------
4b. News: More lenders losing on mortgages
AP, MSNBC, April 11, 2007
Rising delinquencies and defaults among subprime borrowers -- those
with blemished credit histories -- have resulted in more than two
dozen lenders going out of business, moving into bankruptcy protection
or putting themselves up for sale. Now the so-called Alternative-A
mortgage sector, which lends money to borrowers with better credit
than subprime borrowers but not quite prime, is starting to hurt.
Alt-A mortgages made up a small share of the U.S. market at about 6%
of outstanding loans. Loans to prime customers, who are the most
creditworthy, make up 74%; those to subprime borrowers are about 11%,
and government-backed loans about 9%. The late-payment figures for
Alt-A loans was 2.6% in January, up from 1.3% a year earlier.
-------------------------------------
5a. Numbers for March: Income seems up, spending surely down
AP, by Martin Crutsinger, April 30, 2007
Consumer spending on all items was up 0.3% last month, the slowest
increase since a similar rise in October. Incomes rose 0.7%, the
fourth straight solid month of income growth. The spending performance
was even weaker when the effects of higher gasoline prices were
removed. After adjusting for price increases, consumer spending
actually fell 0.2% in March, the poorest showing since the fall of
2005 when the economy was suffering the aftershocks of Hurricane
Katrina.
The 0.7% rise in incomes matched the February gain and followed a
sizable 1.1% jump in January which reflected the one-time impact of
huge bonus payments paid to high-income executives. After-tax incomes
were also up 0.7% although this gain shrank to just 0.2% when the
effects of inflation were removed. The personal savings rate remained
in negative territory for the 24th consecutive month. The rate was a
minus 0.8% in March, better than the negative 1.2% recorded in
February. A negative savings rate means that consumers not only used
all of their incomes for purchases but also dipped into past savings
or increased their borrowing to finance purchases during the month.
-------------------------------------
5b. Numbers for March: More borrowers losing their homes
Reuters, April 18, 2007
U.S. home foreclosures rose 7 percent in March from February to
149,150. The figure, which comprises default notices, auction sale
notices and bank repossessions, was 47 percent higher than a year ago.
Default rates in the subprime segment of the U.S. mortgage market have
jumped in recent months as the housing industry has slowed and prices
have fallen. At least 20 lenders in the subprime mortgage sector,
which serves borrowers with poor credit histories at high interest
rates, have gone out of business as a result. While foreclosures are
causing a major disruption in the subprime sector of the lending
industry and saturating pockets of some local markets, it's important
to note that U.S. foreclosure activity overall is not far above
historical norms -- yet.
-------------------------------------
5c. Numbers for March: Biggest drop in 18 years (length of
the land-price cycle)
Existing home sales nationwide took their biggest monthly plunge in
more than 18 years, since 1989, as harsh winter weather and the
implosion of the subprime mortgage business undermined the housing
market. -- Los Angeles Times, April 24, 2007, By Jesus Sanchez, Staff
Writer
In February, new home sales had plunged to the lowest level in nearly
seven years. Sales of new homes rose 2.6% in March. The March
improvement was just half what analysts had expected and still left
the sales pace 23.5% lower than a year. In March, the median sales
price of a new home (15% of the market) rose $2,200 to $254,000 from
$251,800 in February. -- Reuters, USA Today, April 25, 2007
Prices of existing homes (85% of the market) continued to dip down,
with the national median sales price in March slipping 0.3% from the
same month last year to $217,000 in March. On a regional basis,
existing homes sales in the West fell 9.1%; 10.9% in the Midwest; 6.2%
in the South and 8.2% in the Northeast. The pace of existing home and
condominium sales in March fell 8.4% from the previous month. -- Los
Angeles Times, April 24, 2007, By Jesus Sanchez, Staff Writer
The S&P/Case-Shiller 20-city composite index in February was down 1%
from a year earlier. The metro-area price changes ranged from drops of
7.8% in Detroit and 5% in San Diego to rises of 10.6% in Seattle and
7.7% in Portland, Ore. In 15 of the 20 cities, March prices were down
from a month before... Some of the strongest markets have recently
shown signs of modest cooling. In the Portland, Ore., area, listings
in March totaled 10,557, up 87% from a year earlier.
- The Wall Street Journal, April 25, 2007, By James R. Hagerty
-------------------------------------
5d. Numbers for March: The one step forward?
AP, MSNBC, April 17, 2007
Construction of new homes rose for a second straight month in March,
an increase of 0.8 percent. While the March construction figure was
helped by unseasonably warm weather, applications for new building
permits also rose during the month, increasing by 0.8 percent, the
first advance in three months.
-------------------------------------
5e. Numbers for Q1: More homes left unoccupied
MarketWatch, Apr 27, 2007
The vacancy rate for owner-occupied homes rose to a record 2.8% in the
first quarter from 2.7% in the fourth quarter. A year ago, the vacancy
rate for homes typically occupied by their owner was 2.1%, a record at
the time. The vacancy rate increased in all four regions, led by the
South increasing to 3.2% from 2.3%. The vacancy rate rose to 1.9% in
the Northeast, 2.6% in the West and 2.9% in the Midwest. The vacancy
rate for rental homes rose to 10.1% from 9.8%, the highest in two
years. The median asking selling price was $185,200; the median asking
rental price was $659 a month. Of families earning less than the
median income, 52.1% lived in their own home, little changed over the
past five years. Of those making more than the median income, 83.3%
lived in their own home.
-------------------------------------
5f. Numbers for Q1: The good, the bad, the ugly
New York Times, April 28, 2007 By Jeremy W. Peters
Economic growth during the first three months of the year was 1.3%,
the slowest since early 2003 when the country was still emerging from
a recession -- barely more than half the 2.5% rate recorded in the
final quarter of 2006. Home construction fell by 17% at an annual
rate, the sixth consecutive quarter of decline, but also businesses
slimmed their inventories, exports declined, and military spending by
the government slowed. The G.D.P. price index, a measure of price
fluctuations, jumped 4 percent in the first quarter -- the biggest
increase in 16 years. Another gauge of inflation, which strips out
volatile food and energy costs and is closely watched by the Federal
Reserve, rose 2.2%, up from 1.8% in the fourth quarter. The value of
the dollar against the euro immediately plummeted to a record low.
Despite all, the stock market hit new highs. For the first time, the
Dow surpassed 13,000; it's up more than 5% for the year. The S.& P.
500, a broader measure of stock prices, has also added more than 5% to
its value this year. The recent surge in stock prices has made the
Feb. 27 global sell-off -- in which the Dow suffered its biggest
single-day percentage loss in four years -- look like a blip. Both the
Dow and the S.& P. 500 have gained about 7% since then.
-------------------------------------
5g. Numbers for what's next: Last step forward?
By Fred Harrison, April 11, 2007
A report out this week revealed that house builders were paying
astonishingly high -- record -- prices for land; in desperation, it
seems, and evidently in the belief that they will be able to recover
their money through the sale of homes. This is the final straw for
which I have been waiting; it's all up for the UK housing market...
only a matter of time before it stalls, in the wake of the U.S.
housing downturn... I stick with my original prediction: end of
'07/early '08.
-------------------------------------
6a. Movement progress: Seminar in Harrisburg PA
By Alanna Hartzok, April 23, 2007
Land Value Taxation: A Blueprint for Urban Renewal, held April 20 at
the Dixon Center in Harrisburg, was organized and sponsored by the
Frehn Center for Professional and Organizational Development of
Shippensburg University, which is in south central Pennsylvania.
Joshua Vincent, Director the the Center for the Study of Economics,
gave a persuasive PowerPoint presentation. Among the dozen or so in
attendance were a number of public officials from throughout the
state, and some in state government. Judy Yetter, Director of the
Frehn Center and board member of Earth Rights Institute, intends to
offer an introduction to implementation of site-value taxation in the
fall, also to be conducted by Joshua Vincent.
-------------------------------------
6b. Movement progress: New group in Arkansas
By Paul Justus, April 23, 2007
A budding team in Northwest Arkansas is advocating a Global
Environmental Tax Shift, calling for fees on natural resource
extraction, resource monopoly, and pollution. A few people with good
ideas can change the world. One of our goals is to introduce the
concept of Environmental Tax Shifting (Green Tax Shift, Geonomic Tax
Shift, etc.) into the political discussion for '08. We want to see
Obama, Clinton, McCain, Romney and all the other candidates debating
how they will include Environmental Tax Shifting in their programs. We
had an Environmental Tax Shift table at Springfest where we recruited
a handful of interested persons and volunteers. We even gave our pitch
to Julia Butterfly Hill, who stopped by our table. As you may recall,
she sat up in a tree for two years with the goal of saving an old
growth forest. Although she'd never heard of Environmental Tax
Shifting, she immediately understood the importance of our message.
(Unfortunately, she didn't sign up on our team).
-------------------------------------
7a. Letters to editor: Subsidies a geoist issue?
By Chuck Metalitz, March 31, 2007
Thanks for getting GN out on time. I look forward to all your reports
on other distortionary subsidies, though I can't imagine it will leave
room for anything else. It seems to me that the following item is
neither news nor, really, "Georgist: 3a. News: Road Subsidies".
Editor: Are subsidies a Georgist issue? Many people tell us, what's
the point of handing over rent to politicians just so they can waste
it? And people getting rent, a public value, and people getting
subsidies, a public value, is somewhat similar. And it's usually
the same people getting the public values in both cases. Then too,
subsidies distort prices just as taxes do, while recovering rent
smoothes out prices, just as sharing rent does.
-------------------------------------
7b. Letters to editor: Last issue reminds one of South Africa
By Godfrey Dunkley, Cape Town, RSA (landtax at global.co.za)
April 27, 2007
Last issue noted Minnesota's bill would shift taxes to
commercial-industrial property, but surely it should apply to all
land, politics willing. A study in RSA showed that over a 20-year
period the capital growth was twice as much on cities with Site Value
Rating compared to Total Value or Flat Rating. Details are given in
Chapter 14 of my book "That All May Live".
In the Pennsylvania town of Sharon, about 10% of the land is vacant.
Ten percent is exactly what it was in Cape Town after the last
official valuation four years ago. With a ratio of 3:1, total value to
land value, the present system of taxing improvements and land at the
same rate leaves a gift of R136 million for the owners of vacant land.
Johannesburg has been on Site Value Rating for most of the 20th
century and has very little vacant land, mainly only between
demolishing old buildings and building new. In one hundred years most
CBD sited have had four different buildings. By contrast, Cape Town,
on Improved Value or Total Value Rating has presently 10% officially
recognized vacant land, losing the city some revenue.
-------------------------------------
8. Obituaries:
Soler Corrales
By John Morales, April 21, 2007
Joseph Soler Corrales of Barcelona died on April 18th. He was over
88 years old and had some sort of cancer. There are other Spanish
Georgists who will continue his work.
Flynn
By Mary Lehmann, April 17, 2007 (via Nadine Stoner)
William Flynn died March 26. Born in St. Louis October 7, 1916
he "got the bug", as Charlotte, his wife of 66 years also from
St. Louis might put it, after meeting Noah Alper in the
Toastmasters Club. Sold on Henry George, he went to all the meetings
of the Public Revenue Education Council.
The Flynns moved to Panama where Bill was an engineer. When the
second world war broke out, Bill became an ensign in the Navy, and
afterwards moved first to Milwaukee, then California, and finally to
Austin in1969, where he was an engineer in the building of Seton
Hospital. He would send me relevant land tax material; just a
few weeks ago he sent me the excellent shortened Progress and
Poverty edited by Bob Drake. Even in Texas, where it's pretty hard
to interest people in shifting other taxes to a higher tax on their
land, as Bill learned after a number of appeals to legislators, he
never lost faith. He made the world seem less forbidding.
Gross
By Nadine Stoner, April 28, 2007
Mildred Gross died April 23. Her husband Everett Gross had moved
them into an assisted living center. She had fallen Jan. 17, and had
been in a nursing home. She died at the Crete hospital,
having swallowed food into her lungs a couple of days prior. Everett
and Mildred attended most of the Georgist conferences, dating back
to the 1950s. At the 2000 CGO conference in Des Moines, co-hosted by
their son Damon, they were honored as long-time Georgist activists.
They raised three children, Damon (who had served on Common
Ground-USA's board and then on the Schalkenbach Foundation board),
Donna Jaffe who serves on the Henry George Foundation Board (as did
Everett), and Daniel who were all Georgists. Mildred received her
PhD in math. Mildren and Everett became Georgists through reading
Progress & Poverty from a Book Club. They were both college
professors at Doane College, Crete NE.. Condolences may be sent to
husband Everett Gross at Garden Square, Unit 42, 1405 Hickory,
Crete, NE, 68333 email ewgross at neb.rr.com. Son Damon Gross'
address is: 817 Western Ave., Waterloo, IA 50702
email: damongross at forbin.net
The Lincoln Journal Star, April 25, 2007 (via Sue Walton)
Mildred L. Gross, 86, Crete, died April 23, 2007. Born, November 16,
1920, to Charles and Leafy Foreman. Survivors: husband, Everett;
children, Daniel and Anne, Solomons, Md., Donna and Lyle Jaffe,
Silver Spring, Md., Damon, Waterloo, Iowa; grandchildren, Alden
Lawrence Gross, Joy S. Gothe; great-granddaughter, Natalie P. Gothe;
sisters, brother-in-law, Gloria Spears, Apache Junction, Ariz.,
Phyllis and Joe Schuette, Racine, Wis. Cremation, no visitation.
Memorials: Grace United Methodist Church, Henry George Foundation,
Center for the Study of Economics, or charity of choice.
-------------------------------------
9a. Likable links: Photos of Henry George type stuff
By Stewart Goldwater, April 25, 2007
109 HG related images are available online at
http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/
nypldigital/explore/dgexplore.cfm?col_id=214.
By Lindy Davies, April 25, 2007
Thanks to some first-rate volunteer work by HGI faculty member,
Stewart Goldwater, we now have the full text of *The Life of Henry
George* by Henry George, Jr. online for your reading pleasure.
The edition is fully annotated and illustrations are included.
http://www.henrygeorge.org/LIFEofHG. Thanks, Stewart!
-------------------------------------
9b. Likable link: SCI Library gets new readables
By Ed Dodson, April 10, 2007
Additions to the SCI library of materials continue apace. A good many
references have been added to the "Biographical History of the
Georgist Movement" section. Among the additions written by Georgists
are chapters from the 1949 book, Rebels of Individualism, by Jack
Schwartzman, and chapters from the 1935 book by John Z. White (of
Chicago), Public and Private Property. Of more general interest you
will find excerpts from key writings of Pericles, Plato, Aristotle,
Aquinas, Machiavelli, Milton, Hobbes, Rousseau, Burke, Macaulay and
others. And, finally, you will find The Great Conversation, a book
written in 1952 by Robert M. Hutchins (Chancellor of the University of
Chicago and Co-editor of the Encyclopaedia Britannica). Browse the SCI
library when you have time; there is much more to discover and learn
from.
-------------------------------------
9c. Likable link: IHG Nicaragua News
By Paul Martin, Director Instituto Henry George,
April 8, 2007, nssmga at ibw.com.ni
Recently uploaded news stories are on the IHG Managua website. Enter
and click on the "NEWS and Photos" link to get to the "IHG News as of
April 2007" page and view informative news, updated statistics of our
popular "Comprender la Economía" course, and some interesting photos:
34th and 35th CE Economics Courses Graduate, CE Graduates Initiate
Teacher Training Course, and IHG Volunteers Bring George to the People
of Nicaragua. Enjoy. http://www5.ibw.com.ni/~ihg
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9d. Likable link: Latest Geonomist on line
By Jeff Smith, March 30
Did you know... One can get free land from a town in Spain? Your
subsidies to New Orleans went for tattoos, guns, and hookers? It costs
more to feed a pet hamster than a cow on public rangeland? Wall Street
bonuses for one year exceeded all US worker raises for five years? Ben
Bernanke, US Fed head, admits printing excess money makes inflation?
Read all about it and more in the spring issue of The Geonomist at
http://www.progress.org/geonomy/geonom154.htm.
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9e. Likable link: Latest Aussie Guardian
radical at aapt.net.au, April 12, 2007
By David Brooks
The April issue of Guardian is available on line. I trust you'll enjoy
it. Please distribute to friend and enemy alike.
http://people.aapt.net.au/~radical
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9f. Likable link: No fear, ask Henry
By Hanno T. Beck Banneker Center for Economic Justice
Are you familiar with Ask Henry, the specialized search engine? It
indexes the world of Georgist online resources. A search on, say, "max
hirsch" brings up a number of options. The Ask Henry search engine was
launched in November 1997 as a simple utility for Georgists. Plus it
provides a good starting place to recommend to non-Georgists whenever
we aren't sure of their particular individual subject interests --
they can choose their own search terms. Try it at
http://www.askhenry.com
-------------------------------------
9g. Likable link: Latest monetary reform newsletter
By Stephen Zarlenga, March 31, 2007
American Monetary Institute's 4th bulletin, the "American Money
Scene," is out. Write ami at taconic.net
-------------------------------------
10a. What You Can Do: Name that zine!
By Jeff Smith
All you PR people with your finger on the public's pulse, vote for a
name for a geoist e-magazine. The name you choose is to attract people
with open, curious minds but still no fixed ideology (probably young
people). Try to remember back to when this reform was all new to you
and which name would've caught your eye. Vote thrice; rank your top
three favorites with 1 being tiptop. May the most resonant candidate
win!
Landscape A Healthy Community
Our Daily Rent Earths's rent is Yours
Sharing Windfalls Level the Playing Field
Rent Rant Sharing Privileges
Renting and Raving Community Wealth
Free Lunch Our Space
Nature's Pay The Privilege Report
-------------------------------------
10b. What You Can Do: Get proof capping property tax hurts
By Mason Gaffney, m.gaffney at dslextreme.com, April 15, 2007
Now that Michigan is reaping the harvest of its foolishness, just as
California did before it, and Alabama and Mississippi and New Mexico
have for generations, how much more evidence do we need that Prop. 13
was a bad idea? The empirical evidence is loud and clear that the use
of property taxes in lieu of activity-based taxes stimulates output,
incomes, and jobs in those cities and states that use it. Michigan is
a current case study. Seems to me that publicizing this is a splendid
way to "spread the word," that should no longer be neglected. Write to
see material on the Decline and Fall of Michigan.
-------------------------------------
10c. What You Can Do: Inform Working Assets
By John A.Morales, jmoralessr at socket.net, April 04, 2007
How many Georgists are members of Working Assets Long Distance? The
Working Assets list of groups that are worthy to receive donations
would be a good place for our organizations to be listed, especially
since Working Assets founder Peter Barnes endorses our philosophy. And
we could fit into at least two categories, economic justice and
environmental stewardship. If you belong, would you be willing to
propose listing a geoist group among those eligible?
-------------------------------------
10d. What You Can Do: Global PR Taskforce
By Karl Fitzgerald, Projects Coordinator, Earthsharing Australia
Sick of the whipping we sometimes receive in the media? Join forces
with Karl to share PR resources. Our Global PR Taskforce would watch
for propaganda by narrow interests and, more importantly, get our side
of the story told. Currently, a quote from the Heritage Foundation
gets parroted by their brethren around the world in a number of hours.
Recent examples have included the hot topics of "Land Supply" and
"Equity Finance Mortgages." We need only three or four of us to work
together on predicting the news cycle, coordinating report (and book)
releases, and writing press releases. Team members are expected to be
versed in some form of PR and to write objectively. With the use of
email and Skype we can work strategically to turn the tide of
misinformation. Contact swymap at onthe.net.au.
-------------------------------------
11. At the Margin: Quips and Quotes
"What is the difference between a taxidermist and a tax collector?
The taxidermist takes only your skin."
- Mark Twain, notebooks, December 30, 1902
"Micro-economists are wrong about specific things, and
macro-economists are wrong about things in general."
- blog of Greg Mankiw of Harvard, Bush's ex-chief economist,
via Dan Sullivan; complete funny video at
http://www.standupeconomist.com/clips/
How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, and a bad licking
and a good licking be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are
opposites?
- By Richard Lederer, Crazy English:
the Ultimate Joy Ride Through Our Language
-------------------------------------
12a. Publication affairs: Contributing to this issue
Phil Anderson, David Brooks, Joe Casey, Lindy Davies,
Ed Dodson, Karl Fitzgerald, Mason Gaffney, Ted Gwartney,
Fred Harrison, Alanna Hartzok, Gil Herman, Paul Justus,
Paul Martin, Chuck Metalitz, Mark Monson, John Morales Sr.,
Bruno Moser, Heather Remoff, Sue Walton, Stephen Zarlenga.
Editor: Jeffery J. Smith
Asst Editor: Caspar Davis
Copy Editor: Enzo Piccone
Archivist: Stewart Goldwater
Owner: The Robert Schalkenbach Foundation
Founder: Adam Monroe
Send your news and other interesting material to the Georgist News at
jjs at geonomics.org or gn at progress.org.
The deadline for the next issue is May 25.
-------------------------------------
About The Georgist News
The Georgist News, a project of the Robert Schalkenbach Foundation, is
an email newsletter brought to you free of charge. Its purpose is to
keep you updated on the latest news, citations, events, and
initiatives of relevance to people who, like Henry George, seek a
world free from special privilege and the causes of poverty.
The Georgist News is also available online at
http://www.georgist.com/
The Georgist News, Volume Nine, Number Eleven, May 1, 2007