Neoclassical economics is the idiom of most economic discourse today. It is the paradigm that bends the twigs of young minds. Then it confines the florescence of older ones, like chicken-wire shaping a topiary. It took form about a hundred years ago, when Henry George and his reform proposals were a clear and present . . . → Read More: Neo-classical Economics as a Stratagem Against Henry George
 Comments are closed  Publication  Economic History, Economic Science, Georgist history, Neoclassical economics, Politics THE TREATMENT of rent as public revenue is part and parcel of an organic theory of the State. In the contractual theory, government is a kind of business which extends services to landowners. They only need pay for benefits received, which are construed in the narrowest possible terms. In the organic theory, landowners hold . . . → Read More: The Philosophy of Public Finance Comments are closed Publication Economic History, Economic Science, Political Theory, Public finance, Tax policy IT WAS A DIFFERENT TIME, but often the same place (Cooper Union) in American life. No, it wasn’t radio, but the age of orators. One of the most spellbinding was Dr. Edward McGlynn; another good one was Henry George, who also wrote great books. They came together in 1886 to roil the waters of . . . → Read More: Henry George, Dr. Edward McGlynn & Pope Leo XIII Alfred Russel Wallace rose to fame with Charles Darwin: They independently found the principle of natural selection. Wallace later focused on reforming Great Britain’s land tenure system, under which a few owners had come to control most of the land, while most citizens had little or none of their own. In Land Nationalization (1882) Wallace . . . → Read More: Alfred Russel Wallace’s Campaign to Nationalize Land: How Darwin’s Peer Learned from John Stuart Mill and Became Henry George’s Ally The late Senator Albert Beveridge of Indiana in 1922 suffered the fate of Oregon’s Congressman Al Ullman: he was retired by the voters for proposing a national sales tax. Thereafter, he mellowed into being a scholar and biographer. In these philosophical years he wrote “You know, I’ve learned in the Widener Library at Harvard that . . . → Read More: Whose Water? Ours: Clearing Fallacies about Implementing Common Rights Comments are closed Publication Economic Science, Land Economics - Water, Land economics -- Environment, Law, Natural Resources, Politics, Property Rights, Water The Harvard Registrar reports the most popular undergraduate courses now are “Justice,” “Principles of Economics,” “The Concept of the Hero,” and “Literature of Social Reflection.” The “Me Generation” is passing; Justice, Heroism and Social Thought are “In.” Are economists ready for this future? I think not: changes must be made. Classical political-economists were moral . . . → Read More: Equity Premises and the Case for Socializing Rent Comments are closed Publication Economic History, Economic Science, Land Rent, land value tax, Politics, progressive, Public finance, Tax policy, tax reform, Tax Shift, welfare economics The writer acknowledges the role and value of abstract reasoning in economics. He has done his share of it, and is not reacting against rationalism or marginalism. Abstract, however, should not mean abstruse or obscure; theoretical should not mean irrelevant or impractical; ideal should not mean intolerant or imperialistic. Theorists are increasingly scorning those rules . . . → Read More: Logos Abused: The Decadence and Tyranny of Abstract Reasoning in Economics GEORGIST POLICY HAS been shown as a means to revive dying cities, and in the process to reconcile equity and efficiency, to reconcile supply side economics with taxation, and to reconcile capital formation with taxation of the rich. It can be seen as a means of harmonizing collectivism and individualism, in the most constructive . . . → Read More: How to Revitalize a Failing City Comments are closed Publication Economic Science, Land economics -- urban, Tax policy, urban development, Urban Economics, urban expansion, urban renewal The classical political-economists made distribution of wealth and income the centerpiece of their discipline. This led smoothly, if unintentionally, into the socialist slogan, “The problem is not production, but distribution.” From about 1890, “neoclassical” economists preferred to downplay distribution. Distribution is troublesome, they said, because beliefs about it are often subjective and . . . → Read More: Justice in Distribution National governments originate historically to acquire, hold and police land. Other functions are assumed later, but sovereignty over land is always the first business. Private parties hold land from the sovereign: every chain of title goes back to a grantor who originally seized the land. When economists today speak of “rent—seeking” they usually are . . . → Read More: Rent-Seeking and Global Conflict Comments are closed Policy Paper Economic History, Economic Science, Land Rent, Politics, Rent-seeking |