Re: POV-RED: The Geonomist

[Mbindnerdc@aol.com]

Jeff,

Thanks for joining the discussion.

Two approaches are possible.  One is to tax the land and the other is to take 
it by eminent domain and pay off the landowners (who should of course be 
subject to progressive income taxes for all other income - proceeds from 
governments should not be taxable when these are compensation for moving 
productive assets to the masses).

There is another radically different approach, and it is not as futuristic as 
it sounds, provided there is a commitment to universal education of both 
children and adults.  Workers for employee owned firms could be compensated 
with a mortgage to a dwelling capable of food production for their particular 
family size (which they could trade up or down as family size grows and 
shrinks).  The mortgage would be coincident with the period it takes to buy 
enough stock to live off the dividends of that stock for non-food, non-housing 
expenses.  Who better to sell an environmentally self-sufficient dwelling than 
someone who still knows how to farm.  After they learn the equipment, such 
individuals could even be sent north to teach the art of farming to those of us 
for whom that knowledge is lost.  That would be an interesting switch, from 
being exploited by northerners to teaching them how to farm.

Michael Bindner
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