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The British wealth gap

Written on . Posted in Reducing inequality.

The gap between rich and poor people in the UK is one of the widest in the developed world, according to a study by OECD reported in the Daily Telegraph. No surprise there. A commentator on the BBC mentioned the huge amounts of taxpayers’ money being spent on wealth redistribution. A goodly chunk of this money comes from the poor in the first place and is just churning in the system. Nobody...

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The Menace of the World Bank

Written on . Posted in Natural justice.

The mischief being perpetrated by the World Bank is much underestimated. Throughout the underdeveloped world, it promotes the desirability of introducing a system of land titles. This is perfectly reasonable when it argues that titles protect the poor against the weak and powerful and so improve their security of tenure, making them more likely to invest. But the bank is hopelessly wrong to advocate...

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Isn’t LVT a tax on gardens?

Written on . Posted in Efficiency.

Land value taxation is sometimes criticised for being a “Garden Tax”, which would hit home owners in the leafy suburbs. Of course it is not, until the owner applies for and gets planning consent to demolish the house and put up a block of flats on the site. Which often happens, but that is a decision by the owner, another decision by the planners, and is a response to market pressures....

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The fall of the giants

Written on . Posted in Efficiency.

What is going on now in the economy is like the progressive collapse of a dam. First, a crack, then a small leak, and over the past twelve months it has turned into a breach

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Labour announces new social equalities panel

Written on . Posted in Reducing inequality.

Family background is the most important factor in determining the quality and length of someone’s life, Hariett Harman, the Labour deputy leader will say in a speech to the Trades Union Congress today, suggesting that class “overarches” racial and sexual inequalities.

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