A Few Questions for Mason Gaffney

We thought this might be an opportune time to check in with the eminently sane Prof. Mason Gaffney at his home in Redlands, California. The author of The Corruption of Economics, After the Crash: Designing a Depression-Free Economy and The Mason Gaffney Reader (as well as hundreds of published papers and articles: see masongaffney.org )has slowed down a little, perhaps, but not awfully much. Continue reading

Georgist Tax Policy in Western Canada, 1890-1920

by Mason Gaffney

From about 1890-1930 many cities in the four Provinces of Western Canada chose to attract people and capital by a simple tax device:  raising the property tax rate on land to support public services while lowering tax rates on capital, labor, sales, and production and trade generally. Vancouver quintupled its population from 1890-1900, far outpacing US cities, even on the booming Pacific Coast. Continue reading

A Life in the UN: an Interview with Teckla C. Negga Melchior

Teckla is an Essayist, Journalist, and a life-long advocate for the ethical and just treatment of the earth and all its inhabitance. “The plight of any one group does not supersede another’s. I believe when one is diminished we are all diminished.”

GJ: You have a long history of connection/involvement with United Nations work. Could you tell us about that?

I grew up in the United Nations. I am one of a minuscule minority. Continue reading

Organic Societies

by Rich Nymoen

The 20th Century can be characterized as “The Age of Bureaucracy”—an era of increasing emphasis on size, hierarchy, regulations, incentives, and eligibility protocols. During the 20th Century we saw the rise of corporations in the business sector, the increasing scope of agencies in the government sector, and the grant-driven dynamic of the non-profit sector. And we’re still living with that legacy today. Continue reading

Ethics of Democracy

Adapted by Robert Clancy from the 1903 book Ethics of Democracy by Louis F. Post, ca. 1950

Democracy, from Greek Demos (people) and Krateo (rule), means Rule of the People. Not some of the people, but all the people. Ethics, we know, is the science of human duty. It is the science of right: moral science. Whether there are, or should be, ethics in democracy is with some, perhaps, only a point of view. Continue reading

Mass Democracy and its Discontents

by Fred Foldvary

In the 2016 US primary elections, many voters, unhappy with the social conditions, favored candidates who, with bombast, promise to bring back or push forward to greatness, equality, and prosperity. That so many are dissatisfied speaks badly for the current officials and policies, which had offered hope and change. While much attention is being focused on the candidates, the voting, and the political horse race, almost nobody is stepping back and taking a wide view of the whole corrupted and unfixable system of mass democracy. Continue reading

RSF Announces Volume I of The Annotated Works of Henry George

From its inception, the Robert Schalkenbach Foundation has been committed to keeping the works of Henry George in print. This new major venture, which will be published as a six-volume series by Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, seeks to go well beyond that goal, by offering George’s works in a new, scholarly edition which places those works in historical and intellectual context. Continue reading