Comment - Land Value Tax Campaign

Economics professors discredited

Written on 22 April 2013. Posted in Economics.

It is nice to see professional economists revealed as charlatans, as has just happened in the Reinhart and Rogoff affair. The conclusion being drawn is that economics is not a science. We disagree. Economics is a science but, but one in a state of great confusion, as a Cambridge University professor, the late Wynne Godley, once said at the start of an article written about thirty years ago. What...

Welfare cuts and local economies

Written on 15 April 2013. Posted in Welfare.

One of the effects of the welfare cuts that start today has so far received little attention – their effect on local economies in depressed areas. By removing purchasing power from local economies, the cuts will make matters worse. Workers – especially in retailing – are going to lose their jobs as welfare recipients cut back. The cuts are meant to encourage work instead of living...

Margaret Thatcher’s sour legacy

Written on 9 April 2013. Posted in Home-Owner-Ism.

Margaret Thatcher will be best remembered for having said that “There’s no such thing as society”. This was taken out of context. Her exact words, I am told were “There’s no such thing as society. There are individual men and women and there are families. And no government can do anything except through people and people must look after themselves first. It’s...

Do LVT and Citizens’ Income belong together?

Written on 4 April 2013. Posted in Welfare.

Citizens’ Income is an unconditional benefit payable to all resident citizens. Could an LVT raise enough revenue to pay for it? If one considers the island model, under an LVT scheme all the rent is collected and put in a common fund. The islanders then have the choice as to whether to share it out equally between them or buy some Type 45 destroyers, and a few jet fighters.The citizens of...

Extreme poverty could be wiped out by 2030

Written on 3 April 2013. Posted in Welfare.

Extreme global poverty could be eradicated by the end of the next decade under optimistic new targets unveiled by the World Bank. The bank’s president, Jim Yong Kim, claimed that there was now an “opportunity to create a world free from the stain of poverty” by 2030.

Land tax, not wealth tax

Written on 27 March 2013. Posted in Taxation.

We are opposed to wealth taxes. It might seem pedantic to say so but land is not wealth and a land title is not wealth but a piece of paper which is a claim on wealth ie the rental income stream from the land. It is easy to value land. The valuations can be put on a public register for everyone to see and question if they wish. As long as the valuations are revised regularly – not less than...

A church for the poor?

Written on 22 March 2013. Posted in Religion.

New popes always bring a new direction to the Catholic church. It is over 120 years since the first of the Social Teaching encyclicals, Rerum Novarum, was issued by Pope Leo XIII in 1891. This was interpreted as, amongst other things, an assertion of the rights of both workers and property owners, and, importantly from our perspective, a condemnation of land value taxation. The latter led to the...

Economics professors discredited

Welfare cuts and local economies

Margaret Thatcher’s sour legacy

Do LVT and Citizens’ Income belong together?

Extreme poverty could be wiped out by 2030

Land tax, not wealth tax

A church for the poor?

Home ownerism on steroids – 2

Home ownerism on steroids – 1

The Cameron budget

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