by Lindy Davies
Is capitalism the last best hope for wordwide peace and prosperity? Or is capitalism inherently exploitative, dehumanizing, and inimical to the preservation of our world for future generations? Here is an argument that has raged unchecked in the hearts and minds of society for centuries. Continue reading
by Lawrence Moss
Larry Moss was Professor of Economics, Babson College, Massachusetts, Editor of The American Journal of Economics and Sociology from 1996-2009, and an all-round great guy. This is the introductory section of a paper published in the book The Path to Justice: Following in the Footsteps of Henry George, published in 2001 by Blackwell. Continue reading
by Dick Noyes
Richard Noyes was the publisher of The Salem Observer for 35 years. He was one of the founding directors in 1985 of Common Ground-USA, and was the editor and publisher of Groundswell from 1986 to 1993. He served as the Council of Georgist Organizations president in 1993-94, and he edited the 1991 book Now The Synthesis, Capitalism, Socialism, and the New Social Contract. This is excerpted from a paper delivered at the Georgist conference in San Diego in 1987. Continue reading
by Bruce Oatman
Bruce Oatman was a sociologist, teacher and social worker, who taught for 12 years at Oniaka College, and advocated for the homeless in New York. He served on the boards of the Henry George School (where he was a popular teacher), Robert Schalkenbach Foundation and Common Ground-USA. The following is excerpted from an interview with Bruce in 2006. Continue reading
by Bob Drake
Bob Drake was a writer, teacher and record producer; he founded Kopasthetics Records to produce his wife Spider Saloff’s work. In 2006, after years of careful work, he published his popular modernization of Progress and Poverty. He served as Education Director at the Henry George School of Chicago. Thanks to Chuck Metalitz for the following excerpt from Bob’s “Beatlenomics” presentation — which always included a few bars of each highlighted song. Continue reading
by Phillip J. Anderson, 2008, London: Shepheard-Walwyn Ltd. Review by Mason Gaffney
This is an exciting, important and timely work; it will sell well. Anderson has ferreted out and marshaled dozens of sources on the 18-year cycle of boom and bust in real estate, its history, its mechanics, and its dynamics. Continue reading
by Joseph Jamme
The following was written in response to two questions, in the HGI’s course in Fundamental Economics, about conditions that are currently lead to social decline, and how George’s remedy would affect them. Mr. Jamme is incarcerated in Texas.
Many social conditions that should have been checked in years past have already led to a decline in civilization. The days when a statesman would be insulted to be called a politician are long gone. Continue reading
by Salih Hall
As we search for answers to the question of the great inequities in our world, it becomes clear that the fundamental problem is not simply a balance sheet, but the moral condition of our society. One of the greatest indicators of society’s disease is the concept of private property in land, a legal concept for which there can be no moral basis — and which stands as the greatest cause of the inequitable distribution of wealth, resulting in class discrimination, poverty, and cycles of recession and depression. Continue reading
by R. D. Keall
The cause is not the banking system. It is the unearned gains from land values privately monetised through the banking system. This has become a sacrosanct industry promoted by Government with tax breaks. Continue reading
10. Wage Rates Don’t Depend on Productivity.
We hear a lot about lifting oneself by one’s own bootstraps — but that can’t be done unless there’s a pool of poor saps to lift oneself above. Education and training can help an individual to compete — but competition, of abundant workers for scarce jobs, drives wages down even while overall productivity increases.
9. Technological Progress Reduces the Value of Products.
Look at today’s low prices for a microwave oven, a gigabyte of digital memory, a dress shirt or a car that gets 35 mpg and goes from 0 to 60 in seven seconds. We just can’t blame our eroding standard of living on the prices of the goods we buy.
8. Land Is Not Produced by Labor.
It just isn’t, and that makes land fundamentally different from things that are produced by labor. Economists have tried and failed to get around this fact, in many complex and convoluted ways, for a century. Continue reading