Health, Wealth and Land:
Reclaiming Our Common Heritage
July 23-24, 2004
Further Information
James Howard Kunstler, Home from Nowhere - "Our system of property taxes punishes anyone who puts up a decent building made of durable materials. It rewards those who let existing buildings go to hell. It... encourages ever more scattered development, i.e., suburban sprawl. In tandem with zoning, the taxing of buildings rather than land itself promotes such wasteful practices as putting up cheap one-story burger joints in huge parking lots on prime city land. It is one of the biggest impediments to the free market creation of affordable housing. As a consequence of all these things it is a drag on economic productivity and employment. This happens because we tax buildings much more heavily than the land under them.... Under this system, a rational person has every reason to put up crappy buildings that will not be highly assessed, or he has every reason to let his property run down, or build nothing at all. This is a major reason for the current desolation of American towns and cities. The alternative to this is to tax land itself and not the buildings on it. If [a building] is one block away from Main Street, for instance, it is considered to have high site value because it is very close to other things that people like to be near, public utilities, the post office, civic amenities such as parks, museums, libraries, schools, other businesses and other services, and so on.... This is termed socially created value. Owners of prime real estate derive large benefits from socially created value and therefore should be taxed on that basis rather than on the basis of whether they choose to use or squander those benefits... Our current system favors the vacant lot and discourages the hotel."
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Dr. Robert V. Andelson, 1931-2003 - "There is a body of socio-economic truth which incorporates the best insights of both Capitalism and Socialism. Yet they are not insights that are artificially woven together to form a deliberate compromise. Instead, they arise naturally, with a kind of inner logic, from the profound ethical distinction which is the core of the system. They arise remorselessly from an understanding of the meaning of the commandment, Thou shalt not steal. This Middle Way is the philosophy associated with the name of Henry George."
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The Georgist movement is unlike other "advocacy groups" in many interesting ways. Adherents come from across the political spectrum. The Georgist philosophy can be viewed as a synthesis of the best of "left" and "right": a reconciliation of justice and efficiency in economic relations. Due to the far-reaching implications of this philosophy, activity is pursued on many fronts, including activism in support of taxation policy reform, popular education, research, publishing, and networking. The Council of Georgist Organizations hosts an annual conference at a selected location in North America. The 2004 Conference is scheduled for Albuquerque, New Mexico. For further information go to: www.progress.org/cgo
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