The Geonomist Volume Eleven Issue Two

Geonomics is …
… suitable for framing by Green Parties. When Greens began in Germany two decades ago, they defined themselves as neither left nor right but in front. Geonomics fits that description. The Green Parties have their Four Pillars; geonomists have four ways to apply them:

Ecological Wisdom. Want people to use the eco-system wisely? Charge them Rent and, to end corporate license, add surcharges. To minimize these costs, people will use less Earth.
Nonviolence. Want people to settle disputes nonviolently? Set a good example; don't levy taxes, which rely on the threat of incarceration, to take people's money. Try quid pro quo fees and dues.
Social Responsibility. Want people to be responsible for their actions? Don't make basic choices for them by subsidizing services, addicting them to a caretaker state. Let people spend shares of social surplus.
Grassroots Democracy. Better have grassroots prosperity. Remember, political power follows economic. Pay people a Citizens Dividend; to keep it, they'll show up at the polls, public hearings, and conventions.

"That's clear, succinct, sensible, powerful, and I'm with you 100%." – Thomas H. Greco, Jr., Dec 26

Becoming the first government to do so, Mozambican Prime Minister Pascoal Mocumbi in Geneva on Sep 13, before the 9th Congress of the Basic Income European Network, endorsed the basic income guarantee (BIG). He added that domestic poverty and international injustice make setting a target date for implementation difficult, yet he hinted they may begin a pilot program next year. (USBIG Newsletter, Aug-Spt).

The successor to Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Njongonkulu Ndungane, and allies have made BIG an issue. The South Africa Minister of Social Development on May 2 released the Taylor Committee report which proposed a social salary for every South African. They proposed only 100 Rand ($10) per month, but half the populace earns under $2 a day. Many families survive almost entirely off the pensions of retired members. The finance minister opposes the proposal, so the Taylor report sits on President Mbeki's desk. (Washington Post Foreign News Service via USBIG newsletter, June-July) To afford an income supplement, the officials of even a poor nation could forget taxes, which curb output, and collect Rent, which spurs output, notes GeoSoc VP Gary Flo.

"Dear Jeff; Sorry to have to tell you this, but I have lung cancer. No treatment. 3 to 6 months to live. So take me off your list; no more mailings to me, please. Good-luck to you in all your projects."

May that good clean Oregon air corral those mad cells gone amuk. As a new father late in life – me about 50, her about 5 – I watch our bodies changing in different directions, remembering when I as growing, imagining her aging. If that's all life is, why would the universe even bother to become conscious of itself? Given all the complexity of life, evidence of so much effort that went before, seems to me it must have been for laying the groundwork of something to come after. Or so I hope to explain to my kid. Anyway, if there's anything we can help you with, just let us know. It's been great having your support.

The struggles of farmers in developing countries fit a pattern. An elite, with the help of the state, grabs most of the best land. In Brazil, 3% of its 170 million people own 2/3 of the country's arable land. On part of it, land monopolists do not cultivate staples but crops for the domestic rich and for export. In Zimbabwe, they forgo maize or beans and grow wheat. Most of the land they let lie fallow. In northern Thailand, up to 70% of the productive land is unused or underutilized. (Asheville Global Report, Teena Amrit Gill, via Alanna Hartzok) Using their tiny plots to grow cassava and other staples, farming families go hungry. In Brazil, more than 23 million are malnourished. (Dollars and Sense, #241, May/June, Peters and Podur, via Alanna Hartzok) So the hungry farm the good, under-utilized land, which in many countries (e.g., Brazil, Thailand) is legal. But instead of help them get and keep land, police and politicians look the other way when large landholders violate and kill the squatting peasants. So leaders arise, and seek solidarity to redistribute titles. In Zimbabwe, the tale varies a little, due to race; there the black state evicts white landowners not for the poor but for the political insiders, merely changing the color of the skin of the over lords. When drought and famine hit, the US, Canada, and Europe send food, but also seeds – most recently the GM variety – that require imports of First World chemicals and machinery. The IMF, as a condition for loans, requires weak nations to open their borders to subsidized food from abroad and prevents state spending on land reform. Our source, The Guardian's George Monbiot, blames the market. (via Alanna Hartzok)

The struggle of an idea tells a different story. Four times in history, in four different times and places, leaders from very different backgrounds were able to persuade their governments to adopt what works, to tax the value of land. A king in Denmark in the 1840s, a schoolteacher in California in the 1880s, a settler in Australia in the 1900s, and a general in Taiwan in the 1940s, all guided the reform into place. Then plantation owners, having to pay a higher Rent to their community, quit hoarding and sold off their excess at prices their former tenants could afford. And so land got shared, sans violence. Four bloodless revolutions, that could be repeated today, much to the happiness of many people. But wanna-be reformers must do more than politicize; they've got to get the economics right – Rent is ours, and sharing it (not earned income) works.

The Vishwa Hindu Parishad, which has been blamed for sectarian violence in Gujarat that killed some 1,000 people, is one of the Hindu groups linked to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that were sold public land, ideally located in the heart of the Indian capital, at throwaway prices of less than one-tenth the market rate, reported The Indian Express in a front-page expose. Two weeks before that, the mass-circulation daily exposed how the government allotted thousands of gas stations and cooking gas and kerosene vendorships across the country to families and relatives of leaders of the BJP and its allies. Following a national outcry, the prime minister cancelled all gas stations given away since January 2000. (Indo-Asian News Service via The Progress Report) How different is it in the US where broadcasters get parts of the EM spectrum for free, and Bush Administration insiders sit on the boards of Enron et al? Such corrupt favoritism must continue until it's understood everywhere that the profit from nature is to be shared and that monopolies, if they're to be granted at all, must be franchised at full market value, just as a profit-making business would do.

In the eastern Indian city of Calcutta, smog is so bad that people from all walks of life pay to inhale pure oxygen. Meeting this need, two entrepreneurs provide for a price what nature once gave for free. In the city's first oxygen parlor, customers sink back in soft leather chairs, inhale oxygen flavored with various scents, and are lulled by soothing music. Bureaucrats, policemen, college students, housewives, and corporate bigwigs shell out $3.60 for 20 minutes of relieving their blood, lungs, and heart. The average Hindi gets $450/yr. People making much more than that buy monthly memberships. (Reuters, via EV World, via Progress Report) If the poor cannot afford breathable air, those suffocating won't use their petty cash to buy cigarettes, meekly trudge out of the store, and go peacefully into the night. There'd be air riots more desperate and vicious than any food riots of the past.

According to Edmonton-based economist Mark Anielski, Alberta collects $3.88 (CDN) per barrel of oil produced in the province, compared to the $19.68 (CDN) per barrel Norway collects. At the Norway rate, Alberta would have collected $50 billion (CDN) more over the last decade. (Toronto Star, Sep 22 via Frank Dejong, Ontario Green leader) Years ago, research out of the University of Wisconsin's Dept of Land Economics found Indonesia getting 80% of the world price per barrel extracted and neighboring Malaysia getting over 90%! While theirs is good oil (low sulfur), easily accessible (far from the Arctic), just how low do oil politics keep the public's share in North America? Frank adds, "We need research and compilations of alternative budgets based on resource/pollution taxes and land rents to demonstrate how income taxes could be reduced. We can only argue these concepts so long without numbers. People need to see numbers." To get those numbers, dear reader, we need deep pockets to fund the researchers. Know any funders who'd like to help us dig up the eye-opening numbers?

Like in an engine, when one piston is moving down, another is moving up, as the drive shaft keeps turning. When stocks crumbled, due in part to fraudulent profit statements of major corporations, many investors put their money into property. Between Jan. 1 and mid July, investors added $2.7 billion to REITS, trusts that hold real estate for absentee owners. The figure is a huge leap from $34 million for all of last year. (Philadelphia Metro, Jly 23, Melanie Coffee/AP, via Alanna Hartzok)

To try to appear useful, the Federal Reserve lowered its rates, so mortgage rates fell to under 6 1/2 %, their lowest in over 30 years. To save on mortgage interest, more people buy, which, tahdah, drives up the cost of homes. The median price – where half of the homes cost more and half cost less – went up an average of 8% in the first three months of 2002 from a year ago, the biggest quarterly jump in 15 years. In the second quarter, the median sales price increased by 7.4%.

In 2001, housing accounted for 61% of the growth in the US GDP. That, according to Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, makes US homeowners wealthier. (Oregonian, Jly 15) A bigger debt equals more wealth? Only if later, occupants can sell their homes high and buy a new one – smaller, or on a less desireable parcel – low. Eventually, the swelling cost of real estate (actually of land, the stuff under the houses which are getting older, worn out) syphons away so much cash and credit that too many people find it hard to do business. They do less hiring, more firing, so fewer workers look to buy homes. So housing declines, and investors head back to stocks. And the big wheel keeps on turning.

While housing prices jumped, it was only around big, desirable cities. In 97 of 118 markets, the median home price went up only 3%, barely exceeding income growth, which was 2.9% in the 12 months ended March 31, which barely beat inflation. The difference in price between similar homes can be over $1 million. Along the California coast, or between New York and Boston, a normal home runs from a quarter to three quarters of a million bucks. At the other end (the one visible with the naked eye), in most of the country a typical house is not much over $100,000. (CBS Marketwatch, Steve Kerch, via The Progress Report) Portland's neighborhood that appreciated the most, at 11.1%, was due to "the proximity of North Portland to the rest of the metro area, as well as new light-rail construction." (The Oregonian, Spt 6) Location, location, location: a pretty natural setting, infrastructure, near a happening downtown. Features that sellers don't create, and that society should share.

In 1913, to help widows and orphans, Congress exempted life insurance from taxes. Today, rich old Americans pass on fortunes of hundreds of millions of dollars tax-free and legally by buying huge life insurance policies on themselves at the highest rates, even 10 times the lowest rates. Spend $10 million on this insurance, avoid $90 million or more in income, gift, generation-skipping and estate taxes. Tax law lets the insured declare the company's lowest premium, even if no policy ever sold at that rate. The insurer then invests the difference between the (paid) highest premium and the (declared) lowest premium. That investment grows tax free, paying for future premiums on the policy. At death, the entire face value of the policy is paid tax free to heirs. Even the gift tax on the smaller declared premium can be avoided by shifting the gift-tax obligation to the spouse through a trust. In 1982, Congress made all transfers between spouses tax free. (NYT, Jly 28, DC Johnston)

Same old story about loopholes. Tax law is not like a scoop with holes in it; it's like a snare set for small animals while letting large ones lumber by. Still, trying to take wealth from the rich and powerful downstream is somewhat silly compared to collecting it upstream by having government charge full market-value for the privileges it grants – for the charters, waivers, franchises, patents, licenses, leases, and titles. Run government like a business, and business won't run away with the commonwealth, hoarding it into a few family fortunes. Divide social surplus among us all, then every dollar of profit, and inheritance, will have been earned.

People do adopt fundamental reform, such as making the outcomes of elections reflect what the electorate actually wants. The way to do that is to let voters rank their top three candidates. Its better known formulations go by the names of Instant Runoff Voting and Proportional Representation. Earlier this year, San Francisco voted to implement IRV for its major elections, 53 of 56 town meetings in Vermont voted to endorse it for statewide elections, the Utah Republican Party used IRV to nominate congressional candidates at its state convention, major universities adopted IRV for student elections, and leading national newspapers – such as the Minneapolis Star Tribune – endorsed it. Amarillo, Texas used cumulative voting for a second time for its school board elections, while the League of Women Voters of Washington endorsed full representation for elections in its state. To see how Alaskans voted on IRV, visit www.fairvote.org. (Rob Richie, Executive Director, The Center for Voting & Democracy, July 22)

Re 'As Multinationals Run the Taps, Anger Rises Over Water for Profit' (front page, Aug 26): Libertarians argue that privatized water will not be wasted. Environmentalists feel that natural resources like water are naturally and rightfully owned by all. There is no need to set these good ideas against one another. If we had laws ensuring the people's ownership at the source, water could be sold in bulk by governments at auction. The revenue, rebated to citizens, could allow each person to buy enough water to meet domestic needs, as domestic use is a tiny portion of total water use. This system would increase water conservation greatly: once water is a commodity, its use must become economically justified." (New York Times, Hal Horvath, Austin, Tex, Aug. 27, via Heather Remoff, who adds, "Does anyone know who Hal Horvath is? He sure writes like a Georgist. His letter should make Jeff Smith jump for joy." Hal adds, "I'm very impressed with the ideas on your site. I've spent perhaps 2-3 hours altogether reading Georgist source materials, like parts of Progress and Poverty, and your newsletter The Geonomist."

With 96.5% of all taxes paid to the Treasury, it is perhaps not a coincidence that Britain's highly centralized economy has led to decades of under-investment in transport. Average speeds on the most congested routes in London are now down to 3mph. The Strategic Rail Authority has a long list of projects; where are these huge sums to be found? Don Riley, a south London property developer, claims that the Jubilee line could have been financed from part of the increase in land values. A recent local government green paper backs the idea. Why should developers, landlords and tenants make untaxed windfall gains from transport improvements funded by general taxation? Why should the state not take a share? The idea of taxing increases in the price of land may sound dangerously radical but actually it is not. It has a history stretching back to the mists of fiscal time. The Treasury's reassessment of land value taxes in the green paper is thus encouraging. (The Economist, Week of August 29th, via Joshua Vincent, Henry George Fdn)

Mayor of London Ken Livingstone, responding to questions from the Green group, supported the idea of a charging air traffic more during peak hours to relieve congestion. Livingstone doesn't have the power to introduce such a measure for the skies but plans to for roads. Earlier this year the Institute for Public Policy Research – an influential Blairite think tank – also backed scaled sky fees, saying the idea had been well received at both UK government and European levels. Henry George Foundation Chief Executive Peter Gibb said, "we have to 'cap and licence' the use of the airspace. The government must auction annual tradable licences to the carriers." (July 25)

Reading, PA, property owners would get incentives to improve their properties under a tax shift proposed by Mayor Joseph D. Eppihimer. Using two new rates, the tax would be low on buildings, high on land. Finance Director Tammie L. Kipp said, "For the majority of the city it will actually lower tax bills." More than a dozen Pennsylvania municipalities, including Harrisburg, the capital, use a two-tier system. Councilman George R. Kerns Jr. looks forward to the tax helping to revitalize neighborhoods that have many vacant lots. (Reading Eagle, Aug 12, J. Brudereck, via Joshua Vincent)

Before the UN Conference on Sustainable Development held in South Africa, Worldwatch issued "From Rio to Johannesburg: Mining Less in a Sustainable World", by Payal Sampat, which called for an end to subsidies to extractors. (WW Policy Brief #9) One startling statistic they left out is each year, Americans throw away as much metal as they mine. Thus we could quit mining 100% if we started recycling 100%. One knock-me-over-with-a-feather fact they left out is Johannesburg, the financial capital of South Africa, used to a mining town that was fast becoming a ghost town when the ore played out, until they junked the conventional property tax for a site-value tax, spurring owners to get cracking.

At the confab, one World Bank official noted that the income of a poor African is one third the agri-subsidy supporting a cow on a rich continent. In 2001, rich countries gave $54 billion to developing nations but paid over $350 billion to their own agribusinesses that hold back imports from Africa and Asia. Delegates from the South and 200 poor farmers and local traders in the streets demanded that nations of the North end such subsidies and tariffs. (Reuters, D. Schuettler, via Grassroots Itntl News Assoc, via The Progress Report)

Two thousand South Africans linked arms in a 1.8-kilometer human chain connecting the plush convention center to a high-poverty neighborhood nearby. Demonstrators all wore T-shirts reading, "BIG beats poverty." ANC Minister Mosiuoa Lekota promised to pass on their demand to President Thabo Mbeki.

Three politicians came out for a Basic Income Grant. The presidential candidate of Brazil's Workers' Party, Luiz Inacio a Lula, who tops the polls in the campaign for the October election, has a Guaranteed Minimum Income in his Program, but in speeches promises jobs. An ex-adviser to UK PM Margaret Thatcher, Patrick Minford, had an article in the conservative newspaper, The Daily Telegraph, titled "Basic income could prove an escape route from the benefits trap" (May 13). He noted poor people pay effective tax rates of 70%. Stanley Aronowitz, sociologist and Green Party nominee for Governor of New York State, campaigns on redistribution from rich to everyone. (USBIG Newsletter, Aug-Spt). Clamoring for this social salary leads to debating how to fund it. Sharing Rents tidies up the issue nicely.

The Ontario Coalition Against Poverty demands a "use it or lose it" law, whereby abandoned buildings would be turned over to people needing housing. Becoming owners, they'd raise property values. Not just the land and the building, but also the quality of schools, community support, and crime levels – things provided by the residents themselves – increase property values. However, these "benefits do not all go to the tenants, but rather a large portion is appropriated by the landlord." (Suresh Naidu, Staff Economist, Center for Popular Economics) CPE sees the problem. Seeing the solution – de-taxing buildings et al, recovering Rents, funding a housing voucher or citizens dividend – can't be far behind.

In The Great Transformation (1944), Karl Polanyi writes about Britain's Speenhamland allowance system, which lasted from 1795 to 1834. Irrespective of their earnings, the poor received this stipend whose amount was dependent on the price of bread. Most other counties around the country adopted this scale. The supplement was very popular; it let parents care for children. Polanyi supported its repeal, arguing that people who identified themselves as residents and farmers but had been enclosed from the land chose to live in poverty. As long as people lacked class consciousness as labor, then the call of the Luddites (keep work out of factories, in homes) made sense. Once they did turn into workers, then the fate of Oliver Twist was inevitable. Polanyi claimed that paying people to not work prevented the formation of a labor market. Yet he also said the decades it existed were the "most active period" of the Industrial Revolution and that the assistance was a subsidy to employers who could thereby keep wages low. One problem with this income floor, it was a burden on small landholders, as it did not come from a levy on land value. Since the most valuable land is owned by the richest, and urban sites are very valuable, tapping site rent would be very progressive.

Subtitled: "The Private Plunder of our Common Wealth", by David Bollier (2002), was reviewed by Ralph Nader and Bill Batt. Citizens legally hold in common resources such as forests, minerals, the airwaves, DNA, sidewalks, art works in the public domain, the Internet, software innovations, and publically-funded medical advances. Yet government lets our property go for little or nothing. So Americans pay twice, first as taxpayers, paying something for nothing, and second as consumers, paying higher drug prices charged by pharmaceutical companies. This is news to Bollier and Nader, yet history is largely the successful rent-seeking, starting with land, by an ambitious elite, long before any corporation was ever chartered. The critics' solution? The usual – an enlightened public voting in better politicians. Which misses the main driver, the prevailing misunderstanding of property. Batt (progress.org) notes that having the public recover the Rent would preserve the commons.

This work (1994) could have been subtitled The Rebirth of Keynes. By the former head of economic assessment at The Economist, Paul Ormerod finds in his discipline the usual faults: nobody's rational, GDP mis-measures growth, forecasts appalling, too mathematized, and too mechanical, not enough non-linear or organic. And too selfish; tests of college students showed normal ones were two and half times more generous than students of economics.

Ormerod holds up Lorenz of MIT, who with three variables accounted for the weather, noting that tiny differences yield big outcomes. His advanced graph is not the familiar jagged line but an outline of an amoeba shape for periods of steady-state, then a tangent curves around the amoeba during the phase of chaos, then forms a new amoebic circle. Hence a reform will have greater impact if timed to start when a new phase starts. Another graph goes on to rescue Philip's Curve (proving unemployment and inflation cannot co-exist, eventho' they do), by plotting not their rates but the changes in their rates.

Such loyalty to theory is touching, but not necessary were he to incorporate the stuff beneath his feet. Instead, he relegated Rent to a minor category of what's left after dollar flows are put into his two big boxes – consumer spending and business investment. He was for growth, profit, full employment, and a shorter workweek as long as workers lose some income. Which they would have to do – in a world that did not share Rent.

Economists can be bad for your health: 2nd thoughts on the dismal science (1995) by George P. Brockway, the author of The End of Economic Man and a columnist for The New Leader whose articles have appeared in the New York Times. This short book is loaded with humor and insight, based on official statistics. Recalling our roots, long distance trade made fortunes not from dollar per mile but from opening holes in information loops to let the better-informed beat others; they used other people's money, selling equivalents to today's junk bonds. Railroads made fortunes from the US, not just from gifts of enormous acreage but also the Post Office sent the mail by train, a hefty concession. He quoted Keynes on the lack of justification for the retention of rent and the scarcity of capital. Since World War II, inflation and unemployment have had lows and highs together. He declares Brockway Law #1; given that debt (principal) is more than GNP, lenders cost more than inflation. Interest payments cost more than a 10% raise to all workers. Were the US not paying interest, the federal government would be in the black. The Treasury is still paying on trillions of bonds sold at 15.75 under Carter. High T-bill rates drained S&Ls. Law #2; raising interest makes inflation. Oil price jumps count for less than 3% of inflation.

Relying on Schumpeter, he got some definitions wrong: capitalism may be inequality plus family fortunes, but that's feudalism, too; the old land system still lives on, shaping our lives. He thought people didn't used to think of property as a profit potential until 100 years ago, but actually they did much longer ago, as the old link between the two words "custom" and "customer" show. Addressing what to do about failed policy, he cites the "Economic Justice for All" pastoral letter passed by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, 225 – 9: levy a "progressive land tax of farm acreage" to break up big holdings. But he may have skipped over that part, as Brockway, entertaining and as enlightening as he is, is still just a two-factor guy. He grumbled that capitalists and economists don't respect workers, foisting unemployment on them. Yet he doesn't, either, foisting employment on them. Find that third factor, land, share its return, rent, and let people develop far beyond mere workers, into spectular human beings.

John Watkins, SimSoc Prez (May 16): "Some believe that they personally own an unequal share of the treasures of the earth. It goes back a long way. Our forefathers argued for the right to life, liberty, and property. Those who own more than an equal share may have paid a good portion of their personal assets to acquire that unequal share; and law and custom agreed to the transaction. We can't just confiscate the property as we go about land reform. How do we make a fair transition?"

Jeff Smith: We offer any would-be losers bonds whose payout would make up for (most of) their loss, so that not just a few but all of us pay for the transition to a just system.

Jim Mann (Jan 10): "I don't see the difference between land monopoly and rent retention. By either name, the problem is no longer as serious as it was in Henry George's day."

Jeff Smith: Obviously, one can retain rent by owning land. Not obviously, one can also lend to another who buys land then pays back the loan with interest, which is actually the rent for that land. Both mortgage interest and absentee ownership of land (a more precise phrase than "land monopoly") are bigger problems than a century ago. Happily, both problems go away when residents pay dues to their community for land.

JM: "A hefty inheritance tax would take care of most of the people who become rich without doing anything."

JS: Won't the rich give it to family trusts before they die? (See above.) Better than fishing downstream, when your intended tax target has acquired so much political power to rule the roost, is abolishing subsidies (like corporate welfare) and fishing upstream, charging full value for government-granted privileges.

Carl Paulsen, SimSoc stalwart (Apr 18): "How can we own the land? Humans do not have the right to a dividend for occupying the land."

Jeff Smith: We can own land if we owe rent ("own" and "owe" used to be one word). Humans deserve the dividend not for occupying the land but for not occupying the land, for staying off all others' claims.

Jeff: Some wealth is, some wealth isn't. Wealth that's generated by private action belongs to the individual, untaxed. Wealth that's generated by public action belongs to us all, shared by dividends.

Daniel Wise, SimSoc supporter (Apr 19): "Instead of sharing Rent, how about we all live simply and locally."

Jeff Smith: Some of us already are. Many more of us could more easily were we all sharing Rent.

Daniel: "We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect. – Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac

Jeff: As long as you don't share Rent, you leave it for the grasping, ensuring that land stay a commodity. Carl: "Instead of to a dividend, pay the revenue to education, health care, environmental protection and/or cleanup, etc."

JS: You mean to the bureaucracies that are supposed to supply these services. Even when they do serve us, they're sometimes corrupt, often wasteful, and always distort price. Heck, private individuals can accomplish that. And it's to us, not to the state, that Rent belongs. We just need more self-esteem.

While Enron, WorldCom, and Xerox have cooked their books, so do government agencies. The Department of Agriculture and even of Justice routinely fail audits by the General Accounting Office. At the Dept of Education, $56 million disappeared from three appropriation accounts. At the Dept of Defense, the sheer logistics of organizing all of the finances, including a payroll with over three million civilian and military employees and thousands of transactions with defense contractors, is part of the problem. Yet the Social Security Administration passes the audit every year with flying colors. If the SSA can manage over a trillion dollars properly, then the other agencies should be able to get their balance sheets in order, too. (Taxpayers for Common Sense, www.taxpayer.net, Keith Ashdown, 202/546-8500 ext. 110; via The Progress Report)

Timber companies here in Oregon, where fires burned 40 times as many acres as normal, argue that logging prevents forest fires, because there's nothing left to burn (The Oregonian, Aug 8). OK, but it doesn't prevent wooden structure fires. However, using up the atmosphere's oxygen, now that would prevent fires in forests and in built areas. One could also argue that enough grazing prevents meadow fires. Or over-farming avoids any great loss to sprawl. Or over-hunting starves out predators preying upon livestock. Or pumping out a river prevents flooding. Or paving streets and parking lots prevents erosion. And you'd be right – but eventually dead wrong. Once we've consumed the biomass of earth, our life-support system, then not even the enormous amassed fortunes of corporations could buy it back.

A Gallup poll in June found 89% were at least satisfied with their job; Gantz Wiley found 87% like their work. But over the past 10 years, the percentages across job categories is down 6 points overall. The Conference Board poll shows job satisfaction down from 60.9% in 1995 to 47.4% this year. (The Oregonian, Dru Sefton, Sept 2)

The market keeps falling even after the Fourth of July rally that that reeks of government manipulation. And all my favorite shows were cancelled over the weekend for lots of war movies. I had a limp; mine's an opportunistic disease and the older and I get … Really makes me look forward to those golden years! No, I will not be part of the political scam that is "retirement". As we get older we all try to keep up appearances. We pretend we are still vital and that things are getting better. But why? Besides the obvious reason that nobody wants to talk to a complainer, there is a big political reason. It is essential to the wealthy that all young, strong people waste their best years tied to the grindstone, while "saving" (investing) their money for the promise of retirement. It is far more important for me to debunk the BS of retirement and "everything is getting better" than waste my time playing in the charade of democracy by voting! – Paul Alexander, Jul 11

What works draws attention. What works is to fund transport infrastructure from the Rent it generates. Don Riley (member of the UK's Henry George Fdn) showed how in his Taken for a Ride. From all over the world, including national governments, orders pour in for his book. In March, over 100 delegates paid up to £500 to hear Dave Wetzel, Vice Chair of Transport for London, Peter Gibb, Chief Executive of the HGF, and Fred Harrison, Editor of Geophilos, tout the taxing of land values. An interview in HGF's magazine, Land & Liberty, with Bob Kiley, head of Transport for London, was picked up by the The Financial Times and the rest of the UK mainstream national press. Specialist journals and magazines soon followed. Now Britain's Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott, has commissioned an investigation into how public spending raises land values. (Paul Brandon in The Georgist News, October 1) They need look no further than our annotated bibliography of over 70 titles on just that topic.

We were laughing so hard at Jim Stanford, Chief Economist, Canadian Auto Workers, who was a luncheon speaker at the annual conference of Georgist organizations in London, Ontario back in August, that we almost had to regret that extra dessert. Another luncheon speaker, Paul Hellyer, former Deputy Prime Minister under a Tory, fascinated us with his talk on how official money is so phoney! For the talk linking taxes, subsidies, and recycling, some locals came in off the street and paid the day fare. The Native Americans gave presentations that exuded an intimate relation with the land. The organizers put me, co-founder of the US Greens tho' no longer so active, on the agenda four times. The keynoter, Frank de Jong, head of the Ontario Greens, identified himself as a Georgist and gave some credit to our correspondence, newsletter, and website. And, miraculously, the hotel food was exquisite! And their jacuzzi wasn't bad, either. The closing moment of silence followed about a dozen obits; these gatherings are now down to about 50-60 who fly in. Next year's is in Connecticut.

People attending the annual conference of the International Economic Development Congress in Oakland in September picked up copies of two of our papers, "Plugging the Leaks in Local Economies" and "Financing Livable Cities". Conference organizer Jeff Stone wrote us (Aug 12), "We are happy to make the necessary copies. Thanks for some interesting reading." Others interested? Contact us for a copy.

"Geonomics: Bootstrap Development", was one of four to win a $100 prize in the essay contest by the McKeever Institute of Economic Policy Analysis. The entries were judged by three volunteers: John Jopling, a founder and co-editor with Richard Douthwaite of the Foundation for the Economics of Sustainability Review based in Dublin; Terry Manning, New Zealand lawyer resident in the Netherlands; and John O'Connor, most recently Senior Advisor in the World Bank's Environment Department. Ours has been picked up by two newsletters, Groundswell by Common Ground USA and Indicators by cycles analyst Phil Anderson. Read it at www.mkeever.com/taa.html.

Chris Anderson, Cincinnati, Ohio city planner, with permits, site plans and zoning (Jly 12): "While reading about libertarianism and Henry George, I came across your website. Incredibly informative, and it has my head spinning as I question some long-held beliefs. Thank you. Prior to my recent reading, I hadn't reflected that most of the parties who engage in huge lobbying efforts & expenses are using the government to capture some of the common wealth for their own private gain. The billboard industry fits that to a T."

Brian Beinlich (Jly 12): "I very much enjoy reading your newsletter. It's great stuff! Keep up the good work, and keep spreading the good word! Best regards. 'The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate.' – Martin Luther King, Jr." Let MLK be heard home and abroad, far and wide.

Denise Robb (Aug 19): "I'm working full-time, in college at night, and serving on Green Party county council and various other political boards. But taxation is a very, very important subject, and I believe the economy is the key to everything that we rail about. I just read Jeffery J. Smith's shortened version of the platform plank, 'Taxes and Subsidies, No – Dividends for Citizens Instead', and I think it's brilliant. It is exactly the sort of thing I think Greens should endorse. Thank you for this wonderful, succinct piece of writing, Mr. Smith." Wow, Denise, gee, thanks. I wish I could write a thank-you note so well. And I'd be happy to send a copy to anyone else.

Robley E. George (Aug 17), Director of the Center for the Study of Democratic Societies whose website offers relief via its Lighter Side pages, has out a new book, Socioeconomic Democracy: An Advanced Socioeconomic System. Socioeconomic Democracy proposes that people vote on both a Universal Guaranteed Personal Income and a Maximum Allowable Personal Wealth to solve the problems caused by the extreme systemic maldistribution of material wealth. The book is available from Praeger/ Greenwood, e-Amazon, and e-Barnes & Noble.

The Robert Schalkenbach Fdn helped us attend the annual Georgist gathering, in Ontario (above). For joining or rejoining, thanks to supporters Mason Gaffney (California prof), Nadine Stoner (Wisconsin mainstay), Mark Sullivan (New York cat appraiser), and Christopher Thacker (Missouri graduate). Anyone else if so moved, please contribute. It's an investment in a better world ASAP.

The Bioneers seek solutions for restoring the Earth, visionary and practical that draw on activities in culture, economy, polity, spirit and biology. If you or someone you know has designed or demonstrated initiatives that can serve as models to encourage other grassroots work and is an impassioned and charismatic communicator to inspire future activism in listeners, then please submit a one-page description of the work, including a brief bio, a proposed topic description, and a video or cassette tape of a sample presentation in November/December 2002. We consider all proposals and encourage you to continue to offer us your feedback and suggestions. Athena Beshur, Administrative Assistant, Bioneers/Collective Heritage Institute, 901 W. San Mateo Suite L, Santa Fe, NM 87505; 505-986-0366 x113; Fx 986-1644; info@bioneers.org

US Basic Income Group will hold its 2003 meeting in New York City in February 21-23. The meeting will be held jointly with the Eastern Economics Association's annual meeting. The EEA will handle registration and logistics, and anyone attending the USBIG conference is welcome to attend any of the EEA sessions, but in content USBIG is entirely autonomous, and will continue in its interdisciplinary character. Scholars, activists, and others are invited to attend, submit papers, organize panels in any discipline, chair a session, and/or act as discussant. Any points of view are welcome. Proposals are due October 8th to Karl@Widerquist.com.

The 4th Annual Global Conference On Environmental Taxation meets in Australia, Sydney, 2003 June 5-7. Abstracts deadline is November 29. It's sponsored by seats of wisdom around the world. More info: http://www.law.mq.edu.au/eti. Dr Hope Ashiabor, hope.ashiabor@mq.edu.au.

In Nicaragua, the move is on to privatize the delivery of water. Earlier privatizations of electricity and telecomunications failed to benefit most of the country. NGO's, mayors, national legislators, consumer groups, economists, university professor, etc resist this latest round. Unless someone else is, the Instituto Henry George plans to put on an international conference on privatization, offering an alternative. Interested? Contact Paul A. Martin, IHG Director, who just got back from talking to the deputy minister of the Nica IRS. nssmga@ibw.com.ni

An early issue of the National Single-Taxer notes a woman in the aught and teen years of the 20th c. operated a resort in the Catskills near Haines Falls by the name of The Squirrel Inn. Any East-Coasties have any second hand recollections? It's something of a precedent for Camp Hank. An hour east of Sacramento in California's Sierra foothills sits my Chautauqua on 27 acres of pine and manzanita – a place to revive the body, sate the brain, and stir the spirit of humanity. Near a small gold-rush town, Georgetown, no less, fifteen minutes from the whitewater rapids of the American River, and contiguous with the 50,000 acres of El Dorado National Forest, one can hike (strenuously) on public land clear to Lake Tahoe. To visit, contact David Giesen: PO Box 420664, San Francisco, CA 94142; 415-948-4265; telekosmos@yahoo.com."

The Henry George School of Social Science seeks a Director for the Extension and the Henry George Birthplace Museum in Philadelphia. The Director produces promotional materials to recruit students, teaches the economics of Henry George, trains volunteers to do the same, and co-hosts seminars at other locations throughout the Delaware Valley. Send resume to Mike Curtis, Director of Education, Henry George School of Social Science, 121 E. 30th St, New York, NY 10016; 212/889-8020; Fx 212/889-8953; hengeoschool@worldnet.att.net.

John David Kromkowski (Aug 16): "Your strategy for shifting the property tax not by amending a state constitution but by establishing a Benefit District to collect Rent, a Development District to exempt owners from the property tax, and a Housing Voucher to disburse the collected Rent, has anyone tried it? The only strategy that has worked to date (in Pennsylvania) is to win State legislation enabling localities to levy two distinct rates (one on land value and one on improvements), then persuading a locality to differentiate its rates gradually."

Jeff Smith: Let's do keep what works, but some times, some places, local politicians might be more ready than state politicians to implement geonomics. Why wait for the state? My strategy would pressure them to catch up.

"Australia's Site Rating Defence had great success obtaining contributions from businesses that wanted to support rates on land value at council level at least. John Bennett walked and talked his arse off drumming up such contributions plus constant phone calls to likeminded orgs and builders. Our best support came from property developers, developers as distinct from vacant lot speculators and real estate agents. This formula could be repeated anywhere in the world if done professionally, but it takes time to build." Phil Anderson

"If you had bought $1000 worth of Nortel stock one year ago, it would now be worth $49. If you had bought $1000 worth of Enron stock you would have $16.50. If you had bought $1000 worth of Worldcom, you would have less than $5.00 left. If you had bought $1,000 worth of Budweiser (the beer, not the stock) one year ago, drank all the beer, then turned in the cans, you would have about $214. Based on the above, my current investment advice is to drink heavily and recycle." (via Richard Biddle, Jly 27)

"I would consider the current events part of the mid cycle slowdown of the longer 18-year land cycle, which should continue till 2010 for next recession. Current events look good for this scenario: interest rates to go lower yet, push property higher; Dow to retrace back to a level of around 6000, should be there by around mid-December (less certain on that one), but interest rates I am very confident will go lower still yet; look out for the deflation word to enter the US lexicon again shortly. I have some recent research to go up on the site very soon, will fwd you a copy." – Phil Anderson, 25 Jul 2002

If stocks and interest rates keep descending, this won't be the first time Phil has been on the money. He is a successful stock trader who works from the 18-yr land-price cycle. I'm organizing some talks for him around the country next March as benefits for GeoSoc. Would you or anyone you know be interested in co-sponsoring? Get in touch ASAP.

"The Geonomist picks up a wider readership than any other Rent journal out there. Thanks for the wonderfully readable (liracle) and informative writing. We're sending you subscription dues in the morning mail." – David Giesen (Jly 11).

Many thanks. Let no snarling mongrel intercede. Just use the coupon below. Anyone can do it. And send as much as your conscience allows. Cheers.

THE GEONOMIST

Vol. 11, No. 2
Editor: Jeffery J. Smith

THE GEONOMIST

Vol. 11, No. 2 Editor: Jeffery J. Smith

Vol. 11, No. 2
Editor: Jeffery J. Smith