Re: POV-RED: The Geonomist

[Mbindnerdc@aol.com]

Hi, Jeff!

In a message dated 1/23/2003 1:18:30 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
geonomist@juno.com writes:

> 
> 
> Hi, Michael;
> 
> On Wed, 22 Jan 2003 13:38:31 -0500 Mbindnerdc@aol.com writes:
> > Jeff,
> > 
> > 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 
> 
> Besides taxation, there's also fees for use of land and land dues,
> similar but subtly different, each variant more or less useful depending
> on cultural context. Once in place, we might evolve to public ownership
> of land (as in Hong Kong, much of the US West, etc) without the expense
> of compensation.
> 

Compensation is only required if you wish to seize the land and offer something 
akin to a homestead act.

> As for income taxes, for how long would we need them if we were to quit
> the privatization of natural rents and the shelling out of corporate
> welfare and all the other subsidies that concentrate wealth?
> 

The biggest items of welfare for the rich in the US are income caps on social 
welfare insurance and the payment of net interest on the debt, plus provisions 
which tax the estates of the dead rather than counting it as income for the 
living.  Pay off the debt and count inheritance as normal income (unless sold 
to an ESOP or to tenants) and a personal income tax on the wealthy is no longer 
necessary.

> > 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.
> 
> Commitment grows ever more necessary as education grows ever more boring.
> Make it interesting, and you couldn't keep people from learning.
> 
> > Workers 
> 
> Focusing on workers leaves out those who're not working, reinforces the
> Protestant Work Ethic, and implies the cause of poverty lies with
> insufficient production, not inequitable distribution. Perhaps we could
> extend any benefits to everyone.
> 

I meant the working class.  There should be incentives for firms and churhes or 
government programs to educate all adults without a 14th grade or technical 
educaiton and to pay them while they do so.

> > for employee owned firms could be compensated with a mortgage 
> 
> By (from) whom?

The employee-owned firm or cooperative.

> 
> > After they learn the equipment, such individuals could even be sent
> north
> 
> By whom?

Sent was a bad word.  Job opportunities would be made available.

> 
> > to teach the art of farming to those of us for whom that knowledge is
> lost.
> 
> As one who lived on an organic farm and knows the work never ends, I'd
> certainly welcome them.
> 
> > That would be an interesting switch, from being exploited by
> northerners to teaching them how to farm.
> 
> Hear, hear. The hungry know how to farm. They just don't have their own
> land to farm.
> 
> Besides exporting a green revolution, we need to set a better example and
> in the north share land and more importantly share land value, by paying
> land dues and getting back land dividends, a la Alaska's oil dividend.
> Oil-rich Mexico, Venezuela, etc, could easily do the same. And more
> important than sharing oil revenue is sharing the rental values of city
> centers, far more valuable than most oil fields and the object of most
> speculation that corrupts business, banking, government, and the
> citizenry. Educate everyone that all of us deserve a fair share of
> Earth's worth.
> 
> SMITH, Jeffery J.
> President, Geonomy Society, www.progress.org/geonomy
> Share Earth's worth to prosper and conserve.
> 
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