The United States has recently passed the ignominious milestone of incarcerating more than one per cent of its citizens.
1. Estimated number of people in US prisons and jails, as of April, 2008: 2,312,800
2. Percent of the world’s incarcerated population that is in the United States: 22%
3. Percent of African-American men, aged 25-29, in prison: 11.7% Continue reading
by Sydney A. Mayers
Sydney A. Mayers passed away in December, having reached his 100th birthday. He served as the President of the Henry George Institute since 1995, and was a Trustee of the Henry George School for many years. A consummate communicator, Sydney’s writing was precise and clear, and his public speaking sparkled with a wit and skill that seemed effortless. Continue reading
by Oscar B. Johannsen
Dr. Oscar B. Johannsen passed away this January, one day after his 96th birthday, and nine days after the passing of his life-long friend and fellow Henry George School trustee, Sydney Mayers. Continue reading
by Everett W. Gross
A stalwart Georgist, Everett Gross of Crete, NE, died March 5, 2008. He was 88. Everett and his wife Mildred were honored at the 2000 Council of Georgist Organizations conference in Des Moines, which their son Damon co-hosted. They had become Georgists in the 1940s after reading Progress and Poverty through a book club they had joined. Continue reading
by Lindy Davies
Georgists are sometimes accused of having taken rather too direct a path back from the heights of inspiration. Sophisticated friends warn that “things just aren’t that simple.” Now, I, for one, am not dismayed by this. I really like Henry George’s contention that once we implement his simple philosophy, we’ll then be free to give adequate attention to all the things in heaven and earth that it dreams not of. Continue reading
by Lindy Davies
Longtime HGI members will recall seeing articles, from time to time, by the celebrated death-row prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal in this magazine. The HGI’s website carried the words “Justice for Mumia Abu-Jamal” from its inception in 1995 until last year. The link was removed after those in attendance at our membership meeting in Scranton voted to remove it. The general feeling was that the Henry George Institute, as an organization, should not promote individual causes (and particularly not ones as controversial as this).
by Lindy Davies
Georgists set great store in Henry George’s scheme of economic definitions — and rightly so; they are a powerful logical tool. “Once you understand these definitions,” I have told students, “you can actually infer the whole rest of the course.” The ability to unambiguously divide the economic world into three mutually-exclusive factors makes everything easier, especially when compared to the trackless wastes of conventional, neoclassical theory. Continue reading
by Lindy Davies
The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy recently issued a glossy, authoritative “Policy Focus Report” on The Property Tax-School Funding Dilemma. The report was authored by Daphne A. Kenyon, Ph.D., a highly-credentialed Visiting Fellow and New Hampshire State Board of Education member. I thought this sounded like a good thing to share with GJ readers, so, with the organizational heft of the Henry George Institute behind me, I asked for a review copy, and Lincoln sent me one. Continue reading
by Richard Giles
The Robert Schalkenbach Foundation recently made a film. While $800,000 was committed to the film, it does not mention LVT as a solution to poverty. The RSF Program Director, Clifford Cobb [on the “Land Theory” email list], explains the decision this way. “The general theme of the movie is that world poverty is caused by powerful interests that can be traced back hundreds of years to colonial practices that include slavery, destruction of indigenous Continue reading
by Lindy Davies
Should we be concentrating on the B region, or the A region, of that glass of water? Ah, well — psychologically, motivationally, we know the answer, but at times it’s a little hard to keep the faith. Recently I’ve gotten three rather telling signals of how much traction Georgism, or the Single Tax, is getting in today’s marketplace of ideas, and the news isn’t good. Continue reading