If global poverty is going to be tackled effectively there needs to be economic and social reform at a fundamental level. The International Union for Land Value Taxation (theIU) has launched a petition to amend the United Nation's Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The amendments acknowledge the natural economic laws which the teaching of Henry George made evident. These are that personal security is dependent on access to land and that it is a principal duty of all citizens to pay back to the community for the benefits they receive from holding property in land. Article 3. Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person, the enjoyment of which is dependent on the right of access to land. Land may be accessed indirectly, by sharing in the benefit of the enhanced use of land that accrues within a community when use right are assigned to others. The right to land will be satisfied when that sharing is equitable and proportionate to the benefit. Article 29. (1) Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible. The life of the community is reliant on the performance of those duties, principal among which is the payment to the community of the value of the land benefits received from it.... For more information and to add your name to the petition go to http://www.unpetition.org/ |
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On 7th July Rt Hon Vincent Cable, chief economic spokesperson for the Liberal Democrat Party gave the annual lecture to the Institute of Fiscal Studies. Dr. Cable gave an insightful review of the current economic situation. Amongst his proposals for counter-cyclical measures was a transfer of business rates from property to land "In principle it should also be possible to apply property taxes in a countercyclical manner. Stamp duty already operates counter cyclically since falling house prices lead to lower duty paid and lower rates. However, unfortunately, Britain does not have a national tax based on current property values, of the kind operating in Denmark, based on annual revaluations. One useful counter cyclical measure would be to shift the tax base of business rates to land values – including unused land – increasing the cost of holding land banks in booms but easing the burden in slumps which are transmitted to land prices." For full text see http://www.ifs.org.uk/docs/vincent_cable.pdf |
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A new political novel from John Stewart
The President goes missing. Every corner of the White House has been searched and double-checked, without success. The Vice President is in Europe, so the decision of whether to go public or not falls upon the Chief of Staff. Just then the phone rings: a journalist has spotted the President sitting on a park bench near the Lincoln Memorial, his only disguise a baseball cap pulled well down over his eyes.
The Commander in Chief of the most powerful military force in the world has acted strangely and explanations are sought, but the President is far from apologetic. It is he who is asking questions.
This incident, which occurs about fifteen months from the end of the President’s first term, provokes a change of attitude. This worries his campaign manager who fears he is throwing away his chances of re-election, but more sinisterly, it provokes the opposition of vested interests who fear their privileges are under threat.
But the President is convinced he has seen a way to make a real change, to cut through the tired arguments of both Left and Right and heal the rifts in society. In a carefully crafted dialogue, John Stewart spells out the implications and the reaction of press and public.
The interest in real change aroused by the US presidential primaries makes this book timely on both sides of the Atlantic. The reform the President seeks to introduce in the USA could be just as relevant for the UK. |
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