We begin our 12th year! Wow. Well, let's move this movement, wrap this
revenue policy shift up, and not take another eleven years to do it.
We got lives to live! Meanwhile, enjoy your Independence Holiday.
Welcome aboard to new subscriber Scott Baker, recent NY HGSSS grad and
editor of the website OpEdNews. If any reader knows of anyone who
should also be a reader, please put them in touch. Meanwhile, enjoy
discovering legislative progress, a center opening, and lots of press
from around the world.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
CONTENTS:
* CGO Conference
1. Movement Progress: Connecticut bill; Movement in Argentina;
New Nica HQ
2. Good Press: Update on Endorsements; Aussie minister's ad;
Mike Gravel; Thom Hartman; IBT Commodities; Free Liberal;
Miller-McCune; UK's Citizens Income
3. News: Mortgage brokers or Chinese to rule?
4. Numbers: Aussie cycle research; Yank medical system
5. Letters: D. Wetzel, K. Fitzgerald, H. Pollard
6. Obituaries: Richard Noyes
7. Likable links: OpEdNews; Student Utube; GRAIN
8. What You Can Do: Help global land course; Attend SF's LaborFest
9. At the Margin: Quips and Quotes
10. Publication affairs: Contributors, About the Georgist News
----------------------------------------------------------------------
* CLEVELAND OHIO, August 5 to 9, 2009, Council of Georgist
Organizations Conference by Sue Walton & Ted Gwartney,
sns at swwalton.com,
April 17, 2009
Have you made your hotel reservations and booked your transportation
for the 2009 CGO Conference yet? The absolute deadline for registering
for this exciting conference is Tuesday, July 7, 2009. Register online
at: www.cgocouncil.org for both your hotel and conference package.
Questions: please contact Sue or Scott Walton at: sns at swwalton.com.
Tom Johnson video
Dan Sullivan adds (June 29, 2009): Students of the Shaker Heights High
School in Cleveland, Ohio, won the Ohio History Day competition with
this documentary on Tom Johnson, Henry George's biggest supporter:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XW8sJS6UPPw&feature=related
We will be showing this documentary and honoring the five students who
made it on Thursday, at the Thursday, August 7 lunch session of the
CGO annual conference. The conference theme is how the proposals of
Tom Johnson, America's greatest mayor, could solve the economic crisis
in which Cleveland now finds itself.
For more information on the conference, see:
http://www.cgocouncil.org/conf09.htm
----------------------------------------------------------------------
1a. Movement Progress: LVT Blasts Through Connecticut General Assembly
Onto Governor Rell's Desk
by Joshua Vincent, Executive Director, Henry George Foundation
USA/Center for the Study of Economics, June 9, 2009
Read all about the newest progress in the effort to get LVT enacted,
this time in Connecticut! www.urbantools.org...
----------------------------------------------------------------------
1b. Movement Progress: The Georgist Movement in Argentina.
by Fernando Scornik Gerstein, President of the International Union for
Land Taxation and Free Trade, madrid at scornik-gerstein.com,
June 22, 2009
Argentina was always home of important Georgist thinkers and it even
had a Georgist Political Party in the thirties.
Actually the movement has 3 groups:
- One in the city of Buenos Aires, called the Belgrano Group, led by
Dr. Hector Sandler, Professor of Philosophy at the Buenos Aires
University Law School. It has a very interesting Internet blog
organized by Guillermo Andreau (g.andreau at hotmail.com) and has
many followers.
- There is another group in the city of La Plata, capital of the
Province of Buenos Aires, led by the Engineer Saul Martinez,
former Argentinean Director for Highways.
- The third group is in the province of San Luis, with very
enthusiastic young people coming mostly from the Civil Radical
Union (a Political Party) and led by Jorge Moriconi.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
1c. Movement Progress: New Nicaragua HQ
by Paul Martin, Director, Instituto Henry George, Managua Nicaragua,
ceihg at ceihg.org, June 12, 2009
I have finally moved into the new building and continue to work on
making the second and third levels functional for IHG project work.
At this stage it is becoming still clearer to me that the third-world
is ripe for georgist reform, but sadly, the deeper the poverty cycle
goes, the less time and energy the average impoverished third-world
citizen has to advance a consistent initiative on things that go
beyond the struggle for immediate survival. Also, in the case of
Nicaragua, and I am sure many poor countries, the deeper the economic
crisis goes, the more totalitarian and politically sensitive
everything becomes (i.e., fear of losing one's job, blacklisting,
etc.)
I believe that the reform initiative needs to be led, or at least
forcefully facilitated by an intervening agent which is at least
partially outside of the controlling cycle of poverty, i.e. a foreign
or foreign funded NGO. Up to now, with the now dwindling support of
georgist community $, I have been able to play that role. But now I
find myself more vulnerable (as a private person, they can find a
pretext to kick me out and take all my property, though not without a
legal fight), and less prestigious because I am not as foreign and
independent as I used to be. This is a challenge because I now feel
that even if I myself get on TV and start talking what I now know to
be true, the reaction could be significant, because the cause of the
perceived injustice and misery is so apparent.
For instance, recently the entire national assembly unanimously passed
a law to consolidate private ownership of all the beaches in
Nicaragua. But they are spinning it as a law to guarantee public
access to the beaches. Obviously all of the public functionaries, who
are almost always divided by party interests on all issues, came
together on this issue because they are all land "investors" or have a
stake in such profiteering. If I reveal the truth on TV, I believe I
will suffer serious consequences because I would be a lone voice
telling the truth. I would be willing to do that if I had adequate
international support to protect me. As you know, the US embassy is
useless in protecting a US citizen's human rights in foreign countries
if the citizen is perceived as being "leftist" or contrary to official
US doctrine. (The US is the number one proponent of private property
in Nicaragua.)
I also make available summaries of news articles from January to June
of this year. My summary is the fruit of many hours of analysis and
editing, full of relevant facts and journalistic analysis regarding
the relevant economic, environmental and scientific trends reported in
the last two months. Topics include the growing Recession/Depression;
the Energy and Food Crisis; Global Warming and Alternative Energy;
Medical breakthroughs, etc.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
2a. Good Press: Update on Endorsements
The UK keeps moving toward reform, while US profs and media publicize
the idea. We trim and blend five 2009 articles, using excerpts from
each, into one integrated article:
End All Taxes - Except One
Atlantic's Ideas Issue - How to fix the World
http://www.progress.org/2009/scottish.htm
----------------------------------------------------------------------
2b. Good Press: Aussie minister orders ad for land rent
By Victor Violante, Australia's Canberra Times, 21 May 2009
ACT (Aussie Capitol Territory) Chief Minister Jon Stanhope ordered the
Land Development Agency to take out a taxpayer-funded newspaper
advertisement which "points out the merits of both OwnPlace and Land
Rent". A half-page color ad appeared in the Canberra Times three days
later.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
2c. Good Press: Former Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel
June 20, 2009 (via reader Alanna Harzok)
Mike Gravel - Sales Tax vs Income Tax
If we must have a sales tax on everything, I would be open to it, if
we needed it, only after we collected from owners of land, natural
resources and the electro magnetic spectrum the full value the
community as a whole confers on these ...
http://www.a-apure.com/tax/mike-gravel-sales-tax-vs-income-tax
----------------------------------------------------------------------
2d. Good Press: Radio host Hartmann discusses Tom Paine/land tax
June 9, 2009
http://www.progress.org/cgi/webbbs/config.pl?read=44890
----------------------------------------------------------------------
2e. Good Press: IBT Commodities comments on Foldvary
By Jon Nadler, Senior Metals Market Analyst, 26 June 2009
(via reader Josh Vincent)
At the World Economic Summit (part of FreedomFest 2009, scheduled for
July 9-11 at Bally's Events Center in Las Vegas, with over 1,000
expected to attend):
* ALL STAR PREDICTION PANEL - One of the highlights is the "All Star
Prediction Panel" (Peter Schiff, Bert Dohmen, Alex Green, Fred
Foldvary, Dennis Slothower) who warned attendees last year about the
impending crisis. What are they predicting now, and how should you
invest? http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/20090626/saver-nation.htm
----------------------------------------------------------------------
2f. Good Press: Free Liberal website reprints Foldvary editorials
June 17, 2009
http://www.freeliberal.com/archives/003843.html
Free Liberal - Woodbridge, VA, USA
Smith advocated the elimination of restrictions on labor and
enterprise as well as the taxation of ground rent. Taxing ground rent
is both efficient and ...
----------------------------------------------------------------------
2g. Good Press: The good health website, Miller-McCune
by Bob Gramling & Bill Freudenburg, Jun 17, 2009
Before the US goes along with drill, baby, drill, it should revise
leasing and royalty rules that cost the public billions.
Pay, Baby, Pay
http://www.progress.org/2009/offshore.htm
----------------------------------------------------------------------
2h. Good Press: The website melange on Hartzok's book
The website melange, supporting globally social & ecological justice,
cultural freedom and the technological revolution, reviewed The Earth
Belongs To Everyone by isiria: "Alanna Hartzok, a U.S. environmental
and economic reformer, has put articles and essays of more than 20
years into a book called The Earth Belongs To Everyone, which also
discussed the idea of the citizens' dividend, and green economics ...
melange - http://isiria.wordpress.com/
----------------------------------------------------------------------
2i. Good Press: The Citizen's Income Newsletter, Issue 3, 2009
This issue includes a report on our recent seminar series, A Citizen's
Income for All, news, book reviews, and viewpoints: 1. The Citizen's
Dividend: sharing the wealth of the commons, by Jeffery Smith.
www.citizensincome.org/...
An American website spreading the word (or the phrase) is Lindy
Paintbrush, activist house painter (May 11, 2009), quoting Richard C.
Cook, former NASA administrator, on how we get true monetary reform:
"Use the citizens' dividend to start a new network of community
savings banks to lend to people at very low interest rates."
----------------------------------------------------------------------
3. News: Mortgage brokers or Chinese to rule?
To keep up with the latest in the world of economic justice, try
visiting the daily news site, the Progress Report. You'll find such
articles as:
Who oversees more assets than the Federal Reserve? How can banks so
easily find the money to give to mergers? "BlackRock to Buy Barclays
Fund Unit for $13.5 Billion" http://www.progress.org/2009/barclays.htm
Chinese leaders take seriously the challenges of solving the "resource
curse" (countries with oil don't develop while countries without
resources do prosper) internally and dollar dominance externally. "Is
Washington still able to call all the shots?"
http://www.progress.org/2009/curse.htm
Sending the progress.org link to friends, family, neighbors, and
co-workers is a great way to establish a shared frame of reference for
a discussion about how to solve economic issues.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
4a. Numbers: From the subprime to the terrigenous:
by Bryan Kavanagh, Research Associate, Land Values Research Group,
Melbourne, pav-exec at yahoogroups.com.au, May 31, 2009
Dr. Gavin Putland, the new director of the Land Values Research Group,
continues to do some excellent research. See his international survey
of GFC recession timing. http://lvrg.org.au/...
----------------------------------------------------------------------
4b. Numbers: The Cost Conundrum
Want all the current indicators in one place? Periodically, The
Progress Report publishes just such an article. To give readers
greater breadth, depth, and the most salient facts, many articles at
The Progress Report are not single articles but compilations on one
theme, offering data on one sector:
Doctors charge more every year and current proposals won't fix what's
broke at the core, just make taxes cover the cost.
"Moyers Interviews Robert Reich on Who Runs Government"
http://www.progress.org/2009/insurers.htm
Read more at http://www.progress.org/
Bookmark it!
----------------------------------------------------------------------
5a. Letters: Wetzel in China
By Dave Wetzel, davewetzel42 at googlemail.com, June 1, 2009
I'm off to Harbin in China to speak at a conference in July. I've
written a paper to be included in the conference brochure. I would
welcome comments.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
5b. Letters: EarthSharing Australia's E-newsletter
By Karl Fitzgerald, k2 at earthsharing.org.au, June 9, 2009
EarthSharing Australia's E-newsletter for June is out.
Email us for a copy.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
5c. Letters: Re the issue in the last issue
By Harry Pollard, June 26, 2009
First-class work, Jeff. Informative, useful - and keep in the jokes!
----------------------------------------------------------------------
6a. Obituary: Richard Noyes
by Nadine Stoner, June 6, 2009
Word has been received from Joan Noyes that Richard Noyes died of a
stroke May 15 at age 85. If you attended the 1990 conference in Santa
Fe, NM or the 1994 conference, in Fairhope, AL, you may have met his
wife Joan. Dick was the publisher of The Salem Observer for 35 years.
He sold the newspaper in 1993.
Dick was one of the founding directors of Common Ground USA in 1985.
He served on the CG-USA board until 1993. He was the editor and
publisher of Groundswell from 1986 to 1993. He served as the Council
of Georgist Organizations president in 1993 and 1994. He was the
editor of the 1991 book Now The Synthesis, Capitalism, Socialism, and
the New Social Contract (available from Schalkenbach.) He served on
the board of directors of the Robert Schalkenbach Foundation.
Dick was elected in 1992 to the New Hampshire House of
Representatives. A Republican, he served four consecutive two-year
terms before returning to the House in 2003-2004 for a fifth and final
term. He served on the Municipal and County & Government Com. as
clerk.
In 1995, Dick introduced HB 615 which would have levied $3.30 on
$1,000 of land value (not buildings) statewide and would have given
homeowners a $7,000 homestead exemption to offset the tax on the land
portion of their tax bills. Dr. Lowell Harriss testified to the Ways &
Means Committee. However, The New Hampshire Legislature defeated the
bill.
The next year, Dick introduced HB 1380 which would have allowed towns
and cities to tax land more heavily than buildings. Al Hartheimer and
Josh Vincent testified for the bill before the Municipal and County
Government Committee. Dick also introduced HB 1471 which would have
permitted a per-acre surcharge on land in those municipalities which
wanted to adopt it. HB 1471 was found unconstitutional.
Dick subsequently introduced 1999 HB 1666 which would have given new
Hampshire a statewide property tax on land values only to fund an
education trust fund to pay for a constitutionally adequate education
per pupil statewide.
Dick contributed articles on his legislative efforts for publication
to the current GroundSwell edited by Nadine Stoner.
Dick Noyes, a 7th generation New Hampshire native, grew up in
Peterborough and graduated from Peterborough High School as
salutatorian in 1940. He served in the U.S. Army as a naval aviator
and plane commander flying in the Pacific Theater during WW II. He was
a member of the VFW Post 8546 of Salem, NH, a member and past
president of the Greater Salem Chamber of Commerce, and a member and
past president of the Salem Board of Trade.
Sympathy cards may be sent to Mrs. Joan Noyes, 25 Settlers Lane,
Salem, NH 03079-1253.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
7a. Likable link: Geonomics: what ever happened to the movement Henry
George started? By Frank Walker, June 29, 2009
At his website, OpEdNews, recent NY HGSSS grad Scott Baker reaches out
once again: www.opednews.com/...
----------------------------------------------------------------------
7b. Likable link: Econ student video
by Fred Foldvary, Sta Clara U, June 1, 2009
Here's some video competition from one of my students:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImZgHpMWybs
----------------------------------------------------------------------
7c. Likable link: New land grab website
by GRAIN, 3 June 2009 (via Alanna Hartzok)
GRAIN, an international non-governmental organization which promotes
the sustainable management and use of agricultural biodiversity based
on people's control over genetic resources and local knowledge, has
published "Seized: The 2008 land grab for food and financial
security", one of the first overall analyses of this new trend.
http://www.grain.org/briefings/?id=212
There is a global trend in several countries to buy up or lease
foreign farmlands as a strategy to secure basic food supplies, or
simply to get rich. For more information on the global land grab for
outsourced food production since the food crisis in 2008, see
http://farmlandgrab.org.
The website will serve as an active forum for debate and proposals on
how to turn things around, with free and open space to write your own
piece, comment on someone else's, or create new sections.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
8a. What You Can Do: Oppose the Global Land Grab
by Alanna Hartzok, June 19, 2009
In an article on the Global Land Grab, Foreign Policy in Focus says:
Governments and corporations looking to outsource food and energy are
promoting a new wave of land acquisitions, also known as "land grabs."
Persian Gulf states are working out land deals in Africa, Asia, and
Eastern Europe. India has set up agricultural projects in Brazil.
South Korea recently tried to buy up nearly half of the island of
Madagascar.
We at the Earth Rights Institute have opened a forum on the Land
Rights and Land Value Capture course website on the theme of Global
Land Grab. You are welcome contribute your knowledge and thoughts
about the Global Land Grab by going to the Forum section of the site
and scrolling down to the Thematic Section under which you will see
the link to the Global Land Grab Forum.
http://www.course.earthrights.net/forum
Help us consider how the land value capture policy can address the
Global Land Grab.
These three websites will inform you about this new challenge and
other land rights issues:
Foreign Policy in Focus: http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/6201
Food Crisis and the Global Land Grab: http://farmlandgrab.org
International Land Coalition: http://www.landcoalition.org/
----------------------------------------------------------------------
8b. What You Can Do: LaborFest: Henry George, Newspaperman,
Floats Labor's Boat by David Giesen
Hear living history veteran David Giesen portray Henry George when his
San Francisco Post challenged the absolute rule of ship captains. Are
you ready to rock the boat? San Francisco, July 11, 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM,
$5.00 Pier entry fee - good for one year
http://www.laborfest.net/2009schedule.htm
----------------------------------------------------------------------
9. the Margin: Quips and Quotes
Did you hear that we're writing Iraq's new Constitution?
Why not just give them ours? We're not using it anymore.
- Jay Leno
Those who sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither.
- Benjamin Franklin
That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men,
deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed.
- Declaration of Independence, 1776
----------------------------------------------------------------------
10. Publication affairs: Contributing to this issue
Along with those acknowledged above with each blurb:
Editor: Jeffery J. Smith
Assistant Editor: Caspar Davis
Archivist: Stewart Goldwater
Owner: Robert Schalkenbach Foundation
Founder: Adam Monroe
Send your news and other interesting material to the Georgist News,
jjs at geonomics.org or gn at progress.org. The deadline for the next
issue is July 25.
The Georgist News, a project of Robert Schalkenbach Foundation, is an
email newsletter brought to you free of charge. Its purpose is to keep
you updated on the latest news, citations, events, and initiatives of
relevance to people who, like Henry George, seek a world free from
special privilege and the causes of poverty.
Do you know someone who'd enjoy reading the GN? Please forward them an
issue and ask them to subscribe, or send us their eddress. As always,
it's free. Thanks.
The Georgist News is also available on line at
http://www.Georgist.com/
==================================================================
The Georgist News, Volume Twelve, Number One, July 1, 2009