Happy New Year! May it see our progress grow exponentially, with more
tours, members, and gatherings, as you can read below. If any reader
knows anyone else who'd enjoy the News, put them in touch. Thanks.
CONTENTS:
1. Movement Progress: Canadian speaking tour, News from HGI,
News from Managua
2. Good Press: Cape (of Good Hope) Times
3. News: Oil royalties and elected office widen wealth gap
4. Numbers: Both rates of crime and prices of homes are down
5. Letters: Monopoly & Presidential candidates
6. Likable link: YouTube video on ending poverty
7. What You Can Do: Conferences: South Africa, Canada; A Valuable
Investment Idea
8. At the Margin: Quips and Quotes
9. Publication affairs: Contributors, About the Georgist News
The 32nd North American Conference of the Council of Georgist
Organizations July 30 - August 6, 2012, Next to Harrisburg,
Pennsylvania at the Camp Hill Radisson
Tentative Program
Two public outreach sessions:
A panel on the hot Marcellus Shale controversy, focusing on collecting
a royalty or severance tax and on including mineral rights in the
property tax. A debate on whether to replace property tax with a
non-real-estate tax. We are looking for a neutral moderator and the
best advocates of abolishing property tax we can find.
Sessions of general interest to Georgists:
Land value tax in Pennsylvania
Land and race, from Thaddeus Stevens to Martin Luther King
Sessions to make us more effective: Strategic Planning. Marketing your
message. Networking and Skills Exchange. Feedback from Focus Groups.
New Methods in Georgist Education. Toastmaster-Style Speeches. Open
Mike. Sue Walton, conference administrator, sns at swwalton.com
Biannual IU in Buenos Aires, Argentina, May 15-18
All the Georgists of Argentina hope that a crowd of Georgists from
around the world will join them in Buenos Aires. To register for the
conference, please contact Hector Sandler: hsandler at speedy.com.ar
and copy the accountant Gonzalo Lecuona (Secretary General of the
ASAP) gonzalo_lecuona at me.com. Thank you.
1a. Movement Progress: Canadian speaking tour
by Frank de Jong, Earthsharing Canada, December 3, 2011
On the invitation of the Frontier Centre for Public Policy, Frank de
Jong visited Calgary, Regina, Winnipeg in November, speaking on the
multiple benefits to urban design when municipal property taxes are
shifted off buildings and onto land value alone. I expanded the topic
to include the advantages of financing governments through economic
rent capture in lieu of taxes on jobs, business and sales. Interviews
-- audio, text: http://www.fcpp.org/media.php/1882
1b. Movement Progress: News from HGI
by Lindy Davies, Director, Henry Georige Inst, lindy at
henrygeorge.org, December 17, 2011
The Henry George Institute currently has 201 members, from 28
countries. Dues are $20 per year, and are also accepted in kind for
service as a volunteer instructor, or on the board.
1c. Movement Progress: News from Managua
by Paul Martin, Director, HGIEC / CEIHG, Managua, Nicaragua,
ceihg at ceihg.org, December 17, 2011
Georgist Community Fund is a vehicle to gather and organize old and
new georgist leaders and supporters into a constantly multiplying,
self-reinforcing, functional network whose members can then better
support all the great georgist educational and advocacy projects now
in progress. GCF membership has increased to 32, including six
international (non-Nicaraguan) members. You can see updated membership
and procedural information on the GCF webpage. The GCF's online
qualifying test is working fine. So far, only one of the six who have
taken the exam had trouble passing it. The rest passed by a large
margin. A local celebration of the GCF at the CEIHG in Managua of
60-70 GCF members and CE graduates was December 28, to which
international members paid virtual visits via Skype.
2. Good Press: Cape (of Good Hope) Times
by Peter Meakin, Registered Professional Valuer, Associate Institute
of Valuers SA, meakin70 at iafrica.com, December 21, 2011
Three letters were recently published in the Cape Times. If you'd like
to polish them up I agree to co-publish it. Our SACPRIF has finally
taken the plunge and instructed attorneys to seek relief from the
income tax and VAT Acts. We must have a war chest.
3. News: Oil royalties and elected office widen wealth gap
The conventional media sometimes cover the reform of tapping natural
values for public benefit while de-taxing our efforts. To keep up to
date, visit The Progress Report daily. Here is one of the latest
articles:
Societies accepting inequality and undue property overrun societies
that respect its members, as the US grows less equal.
"Stanford researchers-- those who spread were deprived"
http://www.progress.org/2011/hierarch.htm
To establish a shared frame of reference for a discussion about how to
solve economic issues with friends, family, neighbors, and co-workers,
try sending them the progress.org link.
4. Numbers: Both rates of crime and prices of homes are down
How the Other Half live. New studies on kindness, cruelty, and costs.
Crime in streets drops as crime in suites rises.
"Poor People May Have More Compassion"
http://www.progress.org/2011/stellarj.htm
5. Letter: Monopoly & Presidential candidates
by Ed Dodson, ejdodson at comcast.net, December 19, 2011
I have rewritten the rules of Monopoly to make the game somewhat close
to what Lizzie Magie might have approved - using the Monopoly game
board with some added and different property cards and adding office
buildings to the game. Also, I have written a biography of Lizzie
Magie and posted it on the website of the Philadelphia extension of
HGS: http://tinyurl.com/6phk7dx
"What the candidates for the U.S. Presidency say they will do for the
economy and who they have chosen as their economic policy advisers"
was the subject of a lecture I gave using PowerPoint slides. I
apologize in advance for not providing information on candidates for
other parties, even though their proposals may be more thoughtful and
worthy of support. Also, I just composed the latest "Updates on the
School of Cooperative Individualism". All are available on request.
6. Likable Links: YouTube video on ending poverty
by Jacob Shwartz-Lucas, December 3, 2011
I need your help! The youtube video page of How to End Poverty, teaser
introducing the needed reform, is going crazy with comments. I can not
attend to all of them. There are just too many. We have many potential
converts here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=itO7OoKtNUc
7a. What You Can Do: International Conference: Land Divided 2013
by Godfrey Dunkley, December 14, 2011
This international conference on Land and South African Society,
scheduled to take place in Cape Town next March, could be very
important and should draw participation from many Georgists/Land
Value Taxers. The RSA Government is already looking for solutions in
its Parliamentary Green Paper, closing end of this month. Comments
appreciated.
The conference will be organised around four main themes:
* The Legacy of the 1913 Natives Land Act
* Land and the environment
* Land reform and agrarian policy
* The multiple meanings of land: identity, rights, belonging.
Organisers are calling for initial expressions of interest, to assist
in the planning. These can be submitted either via
www.landdivided2013.org.za or Obiozo Ukpabi: oukpabi at plaas.org.za
7b. What You Can Do: International Conference: Land Dividend & BIG by
Kelly Ernst, Sheldon Chumir Foundation for Ethics in Leadership,
Co-Chairs of the North American Basic Income Guarantee Congress,
December 13, 2011
I would like to invite you to participate in the next congress in
Toronto this coming May 3rd to 5th, 2012.
http://tinyurl.com/6p7cdyo
The deadline for the call for papers is January 13th.
Please submit your 50-150 word proposal directly to:
basicincome2012 at gmail.com
Please send this invitation to anyone in your networks that you may
feel could contribute to the congress.
7c. What You Can Do: A Valuable Investment Idea
by Phil Anderson, Economic Indicator Services at hotmail.com,
December 18, 2011
"A great (and rare) Australian book recommended by Steve Keen is The
Secret Life of Real Estate, by Phillip J. Anderson. His book looks at
18-year cycles in real estate throughout the last two centuries and is
simply the best book on long term real estate trends we have ever
seen."
- Harry S. Dent, jr. 2009
"His expertise in economic forecasting is second to none! His
lectures, and his two-day workshop, which I've filmed, are deeply
informative."
- Maireid Sullivan, arts and media advisor, Melbourne
Available easily on Amazon:
www.amazon.com/Secret-Life-Real-Estate-Banking/dp/0856832634
If you let me know you have bought a copy, I will include a
complimentary subscription to the website and all the site material,
for both yourself and the person you buy the book for, free for one
month.
8. At the Margin: Quips and Quotes
Intellectual property has the shelf life of a banana.
- Bill Gates
I told my mother-in-law that my house was her house, and she said,
"Get the hell off my property."
- Joan Rivers
Property has its duties as well as its rights.
- Thomas Drummond
9. 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 Jon 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: http://www.Georgist.com/
The Georgist News, Volume Fourteen, Number Six, January 1, 2012 |