Online Membership Brochure

Common Ground-USA is dedicated to the principle that all persons have equal and common rights in the earth and its resources and each has an exclusive right to the income from his or her own labor and capital investment. Therefore, we are committed to reducing and replacing taxes on labor, capital, and wealth, and to using the publicly recated value of land and the inherent value of other natural resources to pay for essential government services. We believe this to be essential to the attainment of liberty, justice and economic opportunity for all.

 

Because civic-minded Americans are looking for better answers to our great political and economic problems, Common Ground-USA works and campaigns to address these problems at every level of government -- national, state, and local.

We work to develop and implement political and economic policies and practices that will promote:

  • tax reform that will stimulate, rather than retard, production and trade, increase employment, reduce public debt, and make government costs reasonable and their payment just for all;
  • private development of low-cost housing without public subsidies;
  • adequate and equitable funding of effective public schools; efficient and convenient mass transit; and other essential infrastructure and public services without further taxpayer burden;
  • appropriate urban and rural land resource use without public subsidies, grants, and gifts;
  • free trade for all producers and consumers, while improving the competitive position of American industry and creating good jobs;
  • personal incentive, productivity, and prosperity without unjust privilege.

Common Ground-USA's platform

We advocate:

  1. protection of each person's exclusive right to private property, earned income, and return on invested capital, and equally shared rights to the socially produced and inherent value of land and natural resources;
  2. reduction and then removal of taxes on income, wages, sales, homes and buildings, crops, farm animals, inventories, machinery, and personal property. Essential government functions, infrastructure investments, and social services would then be funded with revenue derived from land values attributable to population growth and interaction, public investment, and fees for government-granted franchises such as:
    * broadcast channels and other exclusive monopolies
    * mineral extraction rights and livestock grazing or timber harvesting on public land;
  3. elimination of wasteful and unjust wealth transfers, "pork barrel" spending, subsidies, and other diversions of public funds for private profit; and assurance of economy and efficiency in government;
  4. stimulation of local cornmerce and industry, urban renewal by the private sector, and development of low-cost housing, without government subsidies, by replacing property taxes on improvements with levies on the land value only;
  5. protection of land, air, and water from pollution, preservation of wildlife and good stewardship of natural resources;
  6. stimulation of worldwide free trade by eliminating tariffs, quotas, and other restrictions on commerce.

What Common Ground-USA does

We work toward our goals by:

  • informing ourselves and the public as to how these concepts and practices apply to current social, economic, and political issues through our publication GroundSwell, our Letter Lobby bulletins, conferences, meetings, and discussion groups;
  • networking with allied groups and organizations to obtain favorable legislation (or to defeat unfavorable legislation) and to influence political candidates and parties, public officials, and other leaders;
  • operating information and display booths at conventions of organizations (such as the National Conference of State Legislatures) that would benefit from and support the application of these concepts;
  • providing information, evidence, and specific proposals to political candidates, legislators, public officials, and others who can influence public policy and implement these principles;
  • lobbying legislators, public officials, and interest groups through visits, letters, position papers, and other means of communication;
  • testifying at public hearings;
  • providing information and presenting these concepts and positions through radio, TV, the press, computer networks, and other media;
  • spotlighting giveaways and the flagrant waste of public resources by government;
  • initiating and supporting court actions to prevent the dissipation or misappropriation of the value of our public heritage in land and natural resources.

Common Ground-USA strikes at the root of poverty and social injustice. Please join us.

Common Ground-USA Membership Information

National Membership (includes local chapter membership, where available) brings you --
voting rights; annual subscriptions to GroundSwell, Insights, and the Letter Lobby kits, with research reports, sample letters, and tips on how to influence law and public policy on major social, economic, and political issues.

For an online form, click here, or mail a check for $36 to:

Sue Walton, Membership Chair
Common Ground-USA
P.O. Box 57
Evanston, IL 60204
Phone: (847) 475-0391

"Let no man imagine he has no influence. Whoever he may be, and whererer he may be placed, the man who thinks becomes a light and a power." -- Henry George

You are cordially invited to become a member of Common Ground-USA. In doing so, your light and power can impact the course of fundamental social reform and the evolution of civilization.

Please click here!


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