Happy Chinese New Year! A second chance for New Year's Resolutions!
One resolution you could make would be to commit to one of the many
opportunities to advance the cause that have come our way the past
month. If you do that, then we're likely to get even more good
press. Read below about an economist telling an advisor to a
nation's PM to try LVT and about a sub-nation not taxing.
Welcome aboard new subscriber Nick Mitchell of Portland Oregon,
geothermal engineer. Dear readers, if you know anyone who'd happily
be a subscriber, please put them in touch. Thanks.
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CONTENTS:
1. Good Press: Papers in Bangladesh & Kansas City, Silobreaker on
the web; Many commentators using "Citizens Dividend"
2. News: Google News reads The Progress Report!
3. Numbers: African Region Lacking Taxes
4. Movement Progress: Tax Justice Network; Summaries from TruthOut;
on PROUT
5. Corrections: Links Gone Bad? Find Link to Interview; Missing Link
6. Obituary: HARRISS--Clement Lowell
7. Likable links: Glasgow land tax & Russia Today; Aussie rent & US
inflation; Taiwan Rent Collector
8. What You Can Do: Order another Aussie newsletter; Edit manifesto;
Re-Write bio; Attend IU conference; Stabilize climate; Operate a
camp?
9. At the Margin: Quips and Quotes
10. Publication affairs: Contributors, About the Georgist News
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2010 Conference Theme Announced
by Sue Walton, January 19, 2010
The CGO Program Committee is please to announce that it has selected
the following theme for its 2010 Conference: NEW TOOLS, STRATEGIES
AND PARTNERSHIPS. The Conference will be held July 12-16, 2010 in
Albany, NY: Please note that only a limited number of Conference
Brochures will be printed. The conference program and registration
form will be posted on the Council's website: www.cgocouncil.org.
For more info. please contact: Sue & Scott: sns at swwalton.com
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1a. Good Press: Papers in Bangladesh & Kansas City, Silobreaker on
the web
Two newspapers, half a world apart, both give voice to experts who
concluded that public recovery of site rent works.
"Taxing land would benefit KC" and "Economic use of land to help
achieve double-digit growth" [in Bangladesh]. Both at:
www.progress.org/2010/bengali.htm
A business website picked up one of our Progress Report articles:
"Taiwan land tax revenues up -- Silobreaker"
Some people on this planet actually are recovering natural rent.
Plus, some media are giving good press coverage to thoughtful
proposals for society to recover more of its socially-generated
values...
www.silobreaker.com/taiwan-land-tax-revenues-up-5_2263147675627028514
Reader Frank Walker notes: One of the top news stories listed by
Google under the search heading "land Value" refers to one posted on
the Georgist website, progress.org
http://news.google.com/news/section?pz=1&cf=all&q=land+value&ict=ln
Editor's Note: If you spot an article you want the world to read,
send it to us, we'll reprint it, and since we get over a million
readers a year (the first Georgist website to achieve that plateau),
then major search engines such as Google will find it yet again.
Don't keep our mind-blowing light under a bushel basket.
Utilize the media that you own and exists to serve you!
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1b. Good Press: Google Web Alert for: "citizens dividend"
Daily Kos: Distinguishing Public and Private Employee Unions
The common idea has been a citizens' dividend, where land rent
is paid to the entire community, and everybody gets an equal
dividend (similar to Alaska's ...
http://tinyurl.com/ygxcxlv
(about half way down; use your "find" command for "dividend".
Emerald: Journal Issue - International Journal of Social Economics:
Thomas Paine (1737-1809) and Thomas Spence (1750-1814) on land
ownership, land taxes, and the provision of citizens' dividend.
John Marangos
http://tinyurl.com/ykv5yl2
A couple of business sites, housepricecrash.co.uk and
MarketTicker Forums:
I came to support the citizen's dividend because of the growing
gap between wages and productivity per hour of the workforce.
www.housepricecrash.co.uk/forum/index.php?showtopic=133438&st=30
Citizens Dividend as a tax-free grant to all U.S. citizens residing
in the U.S. in order to provide liquidity to the banking system at
http://tickerforum.org/cgi-ticker/akcs-www?singlepost=1713810
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2. News: Google News reads The Progress Report!
To keep up with the latest in the world of economic justice, try
visiting the daily news site, the Progress Report. You'll find such
articles as:
Californians say they're worried over finances. Are they ever in
luck. A new initiative would fund their new infrastructure:
"How to finance California's water projects"
www.progress.org/2010/finances.htm
Reader Scott Baker (Author, Community Activist, New York City) adds:
Sec. of State initiative #1413, A.G. File No. 09-0051 would
institute a fair tax by taxing land (and products of land) 75% of
their value, while untaxing the productive uses of that land
entirely. My third change.org petition argues for reform along these
lines as well.
Frank Walker (San Diego), the author of the initiative, writes
(January 20, 2010): "The link below is to the California Legislative
Analyst's fiscal analysis of the voter initiative, which I prepared.
www.lao.ca.gov/ballot/2009/090642.aspx
Editor Notes: Frank makes presentations of the campaign via Skype
for any group that asks. The talk he gave the Arden Georgist Guild
really excited everyone. To put him on your program, please contact
Frank at frank_walker at mac.com.
Sending the progress.org link to friends, family, neighbors, and
co-workers is a great way to establish a shared frame of reference
for a discussion about how to solve economic issues.
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3. Numbers: African Region Has No Taxes
Want all the current indicators in one place? Periodically, The
Progress Report publishes just such an article. To give readers
greater breadth, depth, and the most salient facts, many articles at
the Progress Report are not single articles but compilations of
articles on a particular theme, offering a compendium of data on one
subject:
In Soroland, seven years without traffic lights, taxes, or utility
bills develops habits that are hard to budge:
"Ivorian tax-free rebel city flourishes"
www.progress.org/2010/ivorian.htm
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4a. Movement Progress: Tax Justice Network
by Carol Wilcox, carol.wilcox at labourland.org, January 30, 2010
The Tax Justice Network, which campaigns against tax havens/secrecy
jurisdictions, are a very successful international group who have a
high profile in the UK and with international organizations, such as
the OECD, IMF, etc. They are often asked to comment in the media on
tax issues, including TV. I am a member of TJN and have been
courting them on LVT since I attended their first seminar in 2003. I
want them to recognize LVT as not a panacea but as part of a good
tax system. They have asked me to submit 3-4 articles on LVT, write
the editorial, and guest-edit an edition of Tax Justice Focus, their
newsletter. They are proposing to call this the Natural Rents
edition and intend to follow up later with a more general one on
capturing Economic Rent.
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4b. Movement Progress: Summaries from TruthOut
by Paul Martin, Director, Instituto Henry George,
ceihg at ceihg.org, January 10 & 26, 2010
Getting the CEIHG building up and running continues. Currently we
are waiting for a new infusion of capital to finish the flooring
then the installation of the office and bathrooms on the second
floor. Our lawyer is registering us within the corporate status of
the Nicaraguan Spanish School to run the intl. education program
which will hopefully help fund the IHG activities in the CEIHG
building. We are doing market studies and making our organizational
development plan, so that when the building is ready, we can hit the
ground with a functional administration, some trained staff,
documented program procedures and materials, marketing strategy,
etc.
For some useful reference information, I have assembled news stories
and edited them into brief summaries with a few comments which I
post on my FaceBook page and in comments to the articles from the
one news service I subscribe to, Truthout.org. -- short to-the-point
blurbs relating social complaints to the underlying cause of land
monopoly, etc, as explained by georgist economics. I am keeping
copies of my comments with notes on their dates and locations in a
document (www.ceihg.org). I have found my happiness in humble
obscurity as a georgist gadfly.
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4c. Movement Progress: on World Prout Assembly
by Alanna Hartzok, Earth Rights Insti.
Global Prout, an egroup, posted on World Prout Assembly a brief
summary of "A Green Tax Shift Policy Approach To Financing
Local-To-Global Public Goods", a long paper I presented about a
decade ago at the Global Institute for Taxation Conference. Hector
Sandler agreed to add his name, as did Tatiana Roshkoshnaya and
Rashmi Mayur (since deceased.)
www.worldproutassembly.org/archives/2010/01/a_green_tax_shi.html
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5a. Correction: Links Gone Bad?
by Stewart Goldwater, January 1, 2010
Two items that the last issue of Georgist News linked to:
1/ The BBC iplayer Landlords' Game/Monopoly
and more importantly,
2/ Ed. Dodson's pp's
are no longer available.
Ed Dodson replies, January 1, 2010:
The powerpoints are still up and accessible at www.authorstream.com.
From the main page, scroll down to the "browse" link; then insert
the words "Henry George" in the search line and the 2 presentations
will come up for opening.
[www.authorstream.com/tag/Henry+George will also get there.]
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5b. Correction: To Find Link to Interview?
By Yisroel Pensack, January 1, 2010
How does one find the cited interview (3f. Good Press: Interview:
Georgist-oriented Caucus in the Democratic Party by Mike O'Mara) on
such a massive web page?
Mike O'Mara replies, January 2, 2010:
They added a more direct link to the interview:
http://tinyurl.com/ydrsvqk (episode 16)
The audio control is in the middle of the page at the top. You can
go directly to the interview by clicking on the white bar that has
moving words on it, and go to 11:28 minutes into the show. The
interview goes for about 55 minutes.
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5c. Correction: Missing Link by Karl Widerquist, Visiting Associate
Professor in Philosophy, Georgetown University School of Foreign
Service in Qatar, www.widerquist.com/; January 1, 2010
Good newsletter. Can you send me the links for the sites you're
referring to on this article? 3g. Good Press: On many sites, posters
promote a rent-share. Thanks,
Editor replies:
Big Soccer:
www.bigsoccer.com/article/05v2dUs1xW6v (expired)
Nation States (Nov 25):
http://forum.nationstates.net/
Politics Forum (Dec 5):
www.politicsforum.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=49&p=13261668
DocStoc (Dec 8):
www.docstoc.com/search/citizens-dividend/?catfilter=1
Capital Gains & Games (Dec 15):
www.capitalgainsandgames.com/blog/.../rising-inequality-proble
Jeff Wolfe on Twitter (Dec 17):
http://twitter.com/Jeff_GroSolar
LeftLibertarians2 (Dec 21):
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LeftLibertarian2/message/33084
Jim Hansen of NASA in The New York Times (Dec 6):
www.nytimes.com/2009/12/07/opinion/07hansen.html
I guess that'll teach me to include links for the curious, at the
risk of too much length for the harried reader.
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6. Obituary: HARRISS--Clement Lowell
by Nadine Stoner, nadstoner at aol.com, January 13, 2010
Many of you already know that Lowell Harriss died Dec. 14, 2009. His
obituary is published in the Nov.-Dec. 2009 issue of GroundSwell.
Unfortunately, the information conveyed therein may not reach you
before Jan. 19 when the comments for the guest book are supposed to
be submitted. Due to reasons beyond my control (health problems of
my son) I was not able to bulk mail GroundSwell until Jan. 11.
A few on this email have already submitted condolences on the Lowell
Harriss obit. website. For those who have not and would like to, you
can access the on line guest book at
www.legacy.com/gb2/default.aspx?bookid=799001432660&cid=full
We are all very sad at Lowell's passing.
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7a. Likable link: Glasgow land tax & Russia Today
by Fred Harrison, January 26 & 29, 2010
This film was made to circulate to Glasgow councilors, to add
pressure on them re. their project to consider the tax shift.
We have worked pop music into a land tax story! It appears on
the IU website. Does it sweeten the message?
www.theiu.org/films/glasgows-stolen-birthright.html
Here's a turn-up that will amuse you. Russians having resisted
our proposals during our 10 years in their country, their
government-funded TV station (Russia Today which has a global
reach) provided me with a platform to promote LVT!
Go to 17 minutes into the program.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpVgkRuq2mc
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7b. Likable link: Aussie rent & US inflation by Bryan Kavanagh, Land
Values Research Group, Melbourne, www.lvrg.org.au, Blogsite:
www.thedepression.org.au, January 9, 2010
I've updated the chart showing the extent of rent within the
Australian economy so that it is less 'preachy'. I've another (still
preachy!) chart showing how US real incomes remain significantly
lower now than they were back in 1972. Beware, however, of the
apparent increases in the 1990s, though. Mason Gaffney warns that
these are the result of "Michael Boskin and his crew of kept
economists" understating the CPI from that time.
Editor's Note: For those who want to dig into Dr. Gaffney's articles
on the topic, contact him at m.Gaffney at dslextreme.com.
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7c. Likable link: Taiwan Rent Collector
by Richard Biddle, January 25, 2010
Here's a Taiwanese film regarding the collection and payment of the
2009 Land Value Tax on youtube:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQ9o28jIAwk
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8a. What You Can Do: Order Another Aussie Newsletter
by David Brooks, davidsb1 at bigpond.com, January 28, 2010
I trust you enjoy reading my newsletter, and will email me for a
copy, then forward it to others.
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8b. What You Can Do: Edit Manifesto
by David Spain.
I have completed another edition of my Overview essay. It attempts
to be an eagle-eye view of our entire position You can view it at:
http://tinyurl.com/yh8h5kd
Comments welcome.
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8c. What You Can Do: Re-write Bio
by Stewart Goldwater, January 1, 2010
There is a mini-bio of HG at the Library of Economics and Liberty:
www.econlib.org/library/Enc/bios/George.html
Could do with a rewrite -- any takers?
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8d. What You Can Do: Attend London, April 26-30, IU Conference
by Megan Ashcroft and Ross Ashcroft, megan at theiu.org,
ross at Motherlode.org.uk
This conference will be of particular importance in the light of the
global financial crisis and is an opportunity for the IU and our
colleagues to get our message into the mainstream.
Monday 26th: A debrief on the Georgist success. Have we succeeded or
failed over the last 80 years and how do we face the future as a
movement?
Tuesday 27th: New Strategies for Fiscal Reform
Wednesday 28th: Beyond 2010: an expert roundtable discussion
Thursday 29th: Land taxation and the future of the Islamic world
Friday 30th: The ecology of community: looking at the environmental
challenges and how LVT can lead real change.
We will be also be showing the world premier of "Treason" throughout
the week - the IU sponsored 3 part series that is currently in
production.
Would you like an email with the glossy brochure?
Register for further details of The IU Global Conference at
www.theiu.org or megan at TheIU.org , +44(0)207 386 5277
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8e. What You Can Do: Stabilize Climate some what?
by Ximena Montao, Permanent Mission of the Plurinational State of
Bolivia, Geneva, Switzerland
The Government of the Plurinational State of Bolivia invites
activists, scientists, academics, lawyers and governments to the
Peoples' World Conference on Climate Change and Mother Earth's
Rights that will be held from 20 to 22 April 2010 in Cochabamba,
Bolivia On the website http://cmpcc.org you can find the preliminary
program, working groups, and the accessions for social organizations
and personalities that wish to join the call.
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8f. What You Can Do: Operate a Camp?
by David Giesen, San Franciscan, school teacher, and the Director of
the Henry George Historical Society.
For eight years, I have been the would-be operator of a campground
in the Sierra foothills an hour east of Sacramento. In 2002 I
purchased 27 acres of forestland abutting 700,000 acres of national
forest and just 25 minutes from white water rafting on the American
River. I had a 40 gallon-a-minute well dug, installed a 2,500 gallon
water tank, built two cabins, and advertised the rustic camp. My
idea was that I would incorporate Georgist messages in camp
activities (no land hoarding in the natural world being the main
message).
But I have no more capital and my teaching obligations prevent me
from devoting any more time to Camp Hank, given the results shown
thus far. I have a found a gentile (non-georgist) buyer and am happy
with the terms, but I wish to toss the idea out there:
Any out-doorsy georgists out there eager to operate a camp? No land
payment expenses. Simply pledge a year's action as Camp Operator.
It's a rustic site with plenty of water (see above), but no toilet,
only a latrine. 150 watts of solar panels, and a 14 foot
self-contained trailer. Two miles from Georgetown (population 1,600)
(uh-huh, GEORGEtown). 30 minutes from Placerville and Auburn
(towns of 10,000 each). No connection to commercial electricity, but
propane gas is available.
If interested, holler real soon. Tel. 415-948-4265
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9. At the Margin: Quips and Quotes
How can the weather be hot as hell one day and cold as hell the next?
- Richard Lederer, Crazy English (1989)
In what other language can your nose run and your feet smell?
- Richard Lederer, Crazy English (1989)
We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors, we borrow it from
our Children.
- Ancient Indian Proverb
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10. Publication affairs: Contributing to this issue
Along with those acknowledged above with each blurb,
Editor: Jeffery J. Smith
Assistant Editor: Caspar Davis
Archivist: Stewart Goldwater
Owner: Robert Schalkenbach Foundation
Founder: Adam Monroe
Send your news and other interesting material to the Georgist News,
jjs at geonomics.org or gn at progress.org. The deadline for the next
issue is the 25th of this month.
The Georgist News, a project of 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.
Do you know someone who'd enjoy reading the GN? Please forward them an
issue and ask them to subscribe, or send us their eddress. As always,
it's free. Thanks.
The Georgist News is also available online: www.Georgist.com/
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The Georgist News, Volume Twelve, Number Eight, February 1, 2010