Progress.org | Economy, Society, and Nature

How Land Barons, Industrialists, and Bankers Corrupted Economics

Why It Matters:

The so-called discipline of economics has been systematically corrupted in two major ways.

Our mission is to promote equitable and scientific ideas that practically support our evolving humanity. By recognizing the interconnectedness of all living things, Progress.org provides deep insight in the areas of economics, society, and nature to affirm a world that works for everyone.

The Resources of Nature Belong to Everybody

To maximize freedom, share the natural resources and immense profits made with the public.

Bounty: People Power to De-classify Deep Data?

In a democracy, citizens have the right to pry out the measure of their own.

Jeffery J. Smith

The 125-Year Conspiracy Against Government Ownership and Management of Utilities and Transportation Networks

Henry George made it clear that he wanted utilities to be "managed by and for the whole people concerned,” using all three levels of government.

AFFEERCE Georgism (part 5)

Distribution Theory II – Allocation of the Distribution

Bounty: Movements Find a Piece to Their Puzzle

A good use for rent may inspire some movements to ask what’s the total of rent.

Jeffery J. Smith

Why a Land Value Tax is Inevitable

The 2020s will inflict a lot of pain due to policy mistakes of the previous years and governments will be forced into long overdue corrections, which start with an LVT.

20 Questions to Test Your Geonomic IQ

This test focuses on aspects of the economy that can change as often as daily. The answers can be found at official sites or professional sites that cull the official statistics.

Jeffery J. Smith

AFFEERCE Georgism (part 4)

Distribution Theory I – How to Distribute the Bounty of the Earth

The Basic Income Guarantee and Tautological Libertarianism

Rights-based libertarianism posits propertyless people that have no other option but to work for another group of people called property owners is "freedom" rather than slavery.

Karl Widerquist, Ph.D.

Bounty: Firms Offer a Rent Total—For a Price

Money talks but can it also add up a sum for the worth of Earth in America?

Jeffery J. Smith

Accounting (unearned) Profit vs. Economic (earned) Profit

Shedding some light on the confusing distinction between unearned profit (which should be heavily taxed) vs. earned profit (which should not be taxed).

Bounty: If Lowballing Inputs, How Much Is Rent?

Using official figures as are yields a total more palatable but less accurate?

Jeffery J. Smith

Vote and Demand Paper

I urge every voter in the United States to make sure that his or her vote is counted.

AFFEERCE Georgism (part 3)

AFFEERCE Collection Theory II – Land Capture and the Cellular Democracy

Highlights from the 2018 CGO Conference

Highlights from the 2018 Council of Georgist Organizations Conference in Baltimore, MD.

Bounty: Modern Enclosers Hinder Counting Rent

Controversy over public land makes tallying common rents controversial, too.

Jeffery J. Smith

The Concept of Profit

If you want to be clear when talking about profits, you should not just say "profit."

Fred Foldvary, Ph.D.

Bounty: New Hope From New Statisticians, Incs

New questers of insightful stats, meet new calculators of insightful stats.

Jeffery J. Smith

The 1890 Georgist “Constitution”

Platform of the Single Tax League of the United States, adopted September 3, 1890.

Bounty: Do What Others Won’t? Nail Down Rent?

No one else can be bothered to calculate natural surplus exactly. Can we?

Jeffery J. Smith

The Growth "Imperative"

Economic growth is not simply the piling-up of more stuff. Rather, economic growth is the satisfaction of more human desires.

Bounty: As Crises Climax, Why Tally Rents?

At a time like this, are gadflies who seek a stat fiddling while Rome burns?

Jeffery J. Smith

Sustainability Squared

We already have the technology to live and work in ways that vastly reduce stress on natural resources while simultaneously creating more jobs. The obstacles we face are political.

AFFEERCE Georgism (part 2)

AFFEERCE Collection Theory I – The Source of Ground Rents.

Georgist Globalization

Georgism can advance the case for "true free trade" so that as productivity increases land rent the benefits are shared by the whole population.

Bounty: Out of Sight, Out of Mind, is Land

To fix economics, take out the “eco” and put in a “geo” (not ego) for Earth.

Jeffery J. Smith

Focusing on the seemingly overlooked national period (1890-1895), it’s George’s most important work because it links to the 16th Amendment making his single-tax enforceable.

Bounty: Porcelain Economics—look, don’t touch

Is economics a hopeless case, utterly useless to knowing the size of rent?

Jeffery J. Smith

AFFEERCE Georgism (part 1)

AFFEERCE is an implementation based on the ideas of economist Henry George. The fruits of our labor belong to us alone while the land belongs to each of us and to all of us.

Bounty: The Federal Rsrv—The Vault of the Stat?

Inside the Santa’s workshop for all the needy banksters.

Jeffery J. Smith

A Little Better All The Time

Statistics of economic well-bring show that most of the world has been steadily getting better.

Bounty: Scouting Stats, Ahead of the Curve

Caution is called for when exploring ahead of the cutting-edge.

Jeffery J. Smith

The American Common Market - Gone!

A new Supreme Court ruling may require all companies to charge a sales tax when selling goods to residents in every state.

Fred Foldvary, Ph.D.

Bounty: Staking Claims on Field of Knowledge

The realm of the possible physical laws is part of nature, too.

Jeffery J. Smith

Smart Talk with Ed Dodson & Fred Harrison

Georgists need to seize on economic disenchantment, explain rent-seeking behavior on full display in the White House, and craft messages that resonate with younger generations.

Henry George School of Social Science

Bounty: Eco-librium Repatriates Rents

Our degrading land converts rents into other expenses—then vice versa.

Jeffery J. Smith

The Money-Making Ethic

We don't have a work ethic. We have a money-making ethic.

Karl Widerquist, Ph.D.

Bounty: Utilities--A Natural Resource Spouting Real Rent

What are utility networks doing in the category of natural resources?

Jeffery J. Smith

The Dog in the Manger

The expression “dog in the manger” from Aesop’s fables, where a dog refused to let other animals eat, is an apt description of land speculators in economics.

Bounty: Salute the Specialists Who Aid This Soloist

Some insiders extend assistance to the one seeking a total for all land’s value.

Jeffery J. Smith

Why the Purpose of Henry George’s “Single Tax” Changed After the Coinage Act of 1965

If taxes no longer fund government operations after the Coinage Act of 1965, why are taxes still necessary?

Bounty: True Total Trillions Yanks Spend on Land

A best guess—minus the politicizing that goes into minimizing all rents.

Jeffery J. Smith

2018 CGO Conference: Will Land Value Tax Turn Baltimore Around?

Schedule of events and speakers at the 2018 Council of Georgist Organizations Conference in Baltimore, Maryland.

Bounty: They Censor Rents, Colluding Or Not

Tuning out our spending for land was gradual, then worsened. Now it’s complete.

Jeffery J. Smith

A Just and Practicable Income Tax

Thomas G. Shearman before the Ways & Means Subcommittee on Internal Revenue (1893)

Bounty: Figures for Land--From a Fun House?

Those rubber rulers when measuring rents work like wavy mirrors.

Jeffery J. Smith

Transcending National Sovereignty

We might think about transcending the limits of the nation-state to create a global community similar to what international business has done.

Bounty: Even the US Fed Rips Official US Stats

If you can’t count on their counts, then count only on doing “freak-onomics.”

Jeffery J. Smith

The German Land Policy Success and Failure

The landed aristocracy of Prussia was unable to borrow funds for reconstruction. Cooperative mortgage credit associations were created to deal with the crisis.

Fred Foldvary, Ph.D.

Bounty: Even a World Banker Rips Other Economists

Criticism of the field comes not only from rebels but also big name academics.

Jeffery J. Smith

Henry George, Marx, and the 16th Amendment

It's important to differentiate the 16th Amendment from the Revenue Act of 1913, also among taxation litigation and legislation.

Bounty: Land--the More Pristine, the Less Pricey

Oil makes some rich, topsoil not so much, but every trillion counts.

Jeffery J. Smith

Every Day Is Earth Day

The health of the planet is very important. We can and must do better for the future generations.

Bounty: Mining Numbers at Official Stockpiles

Academic guesses are based on public records based on private sales.

Jeffery J. Smith

From Capitalism to Rentierism?

With nary a whimper, capitalism has been permitted to morph into rentierism and is suffering consequences warned by Adam Smith and Henry George.

Bounty: Scholars Guess: How Many $ In This Market?

Since land is so crucial, some can’t resist estimating its worth.

Jeffery J. Smith

Give me your tired, your poor...

When trying to understand the economics of sustainability and immigration, we must ask : Can a nation go it alone?

Georgism and Globalization

Globalization decreases the barriers around the world and also within a country. Such changes also include the flows of pollution, people, and trade from one place to another.

The Optimal Distribution of Income

We don’t need fancy equations to analyze the optimal distribution of income. We simply divide income into earned income from wages and unearned income from economic land rent.

Fred Foldvary, Ph.D.

Bounty: Money Talks … And Silences? (pt 3 of 3)

Spend a little rent to guarantee receiving a lot of rent.

Jeffery J. Smith

March For Our Lives Is About More Than Gun Control

Special Interests and plutocrats have taken over more of the government with the complacency of each passing generation while younger generation change makers are chastised.

Bounty: Money Talks … And Silences? (pt 2 of 3)

Spend a little rent to guarantee receiving a lot of rent.

Jeffery J. Smith

The Great Crash of 2008

We’ve “been there and done that” so many times before. Yet, the endogenous cycle keeps returning, as soon as we find peace, and economic life returns to its even tenors.

Mason Gaffney, Ph.D.

Bounty: Money Talks … And Silences? (pt 1 of 3)

Spend a little rent to guarantee receiving a lot of rent.

Jeffery J. Smith

Private Property?

It’s quite amazing how the term ‘private property’ has come to mean to some people the land over which we have been granted title.

Bounty: Media Report “Official” Land Values

Enough readers want to know Earth’s worth that mainstream articles do pop up with “answers.”

Jeffery J. Smith

Co-existing with Rent-seekers

A misunderstanding among Georgists revolves around the degree that rent-seeking should be allowed. Exactly how do we co-exist with hardcore rent-seekers?

Bounty: Data—Quantity, Lots; Quality, Hmm

Finding tons of articles is no problem; finding the nuggets amid them is.

Jeffery J. Smith

One of the most controversial and confusing topics in economics is interest. The payment of interest has been condemned and misunderstood.

Fred Foldvary, Ph.D.

Bounty: Our Turn With the Torch

Those who went before must not have labored in vain; we honor economia’s trailblazers.

Jeffery J. Smith

Labor-saving Robots?

Land is a factor when there are abundant workers chasing scarce jobs being made more scarce by advancing technology while those who have jobs are hanging on to them for dear life.

Bounty: The Call of the Riled

Hear that call? Officially calculating the worth of Earth in America is way past due.

Jeffery J. Smith

Basic Income’s Third Wave

The drive toward a basic income isn’t new. It’s a 100-year-old movement that has gotten stronger each time inequality has returned to the public discussion.

Karl Widerquist, Ph.D.

Bounty: Missing Link Would De-Mystify Economies

It’s not just another pretty fact; Earth’s worth is really something special.

Jeffery J. Smith

It’s time to call the housing crisis what it really is: the largest transfer of wealth in living memory

Most of today’s ‘wealth’ isn’t the result of entrepreneurialism and hard work – it has been accumulated by being idle and unproductive.

Bounty: Our Ignorance Is Whose Bliss?

Americans remain unaware of the worth of Earth in America. Who’d ever favor not knowing Earth’s worth?

Jeffery J. Smith

Net Neutrality 3.0

There are other ways to ensure the Internet is a freely and equitably accessible resource.

Bounty: Official Stamp of Insignificance

Officials do post a number for the worth of Earth in America. It’s so tiny. That’s the best Earth’s biggest economy can do?

Jeffery J. Smith

What is a Governmental Intervention?

Laws prohibiting offenses are interventions. Interventions are often bad substitutes for sound economic policies.

Fred Foldvary, Ph.D.

Bounty: Why Don’t Professors Profess the Figure?

As fewer can afford a home, might they nudge the experts to tally up what everyone pays to live where they love?

Jeffery J. Smith

How important is "Understanding Economics?

Sprawling development degrades human communities, worsens the decline of urban centers, and places ever-greater stresses on the environment.

Bounty: Knowledge Worth Knowing

Right under our collective nose is a way to divine economic performance—we just need to do some accounting first.

Jeffery J. Smith

Empires and Human Behavior

If we are going to have empires, maybe having them be dedicated to an ideal of good management and taking care of the people with a mind for long term sustainability isn't all bad.

Why Research Farmland Ownership And Values? (Presented Paper Excerpt 9)

On Publicizing Public Land Records. (Final excerpt)

Mason Gaffney, Ph.D.

Why Research Farmland Ownership And Values? (Presented Paper Excerpt 8)

Farmland assessment: Amenity values, expected rising cash flows, tax shelter values, mineral rights, and entitlement values.

Mason Gaffney, Ph.D.

Why Research Farmland Ownership And Values? (Presented Paper Excerpt 7)

Major biases in land assessment: Radio spectrum, rights of way, and severed property.

Mason Gaffney, Ph.D.

Why Research Farmland Ownership And Values? (Presented Paper Excerpt 6)

Major biases in land assessment: Tax exempt land, minerals, and water.

Mason Gaffney, Ph.D.

Why Research Farmland Ownership And Values? (Presented Paper Excerpt 5)

Major biases in land assessment: Slow-turning classes of property, different assessment methods, and preferential assessment.

Mason Gaffney, Ph.D.

Why Research Farmland Ownership And Values? (Presented Paper Excerpt 4)

Major biases in land assessment: Regressive assessment and raw land.

Mason Gaffney, Ph.D.

Why Research Farmland Ownership And Values? (Presented Paper Excerpt 3)

The many important functions and implications of land data: Forecasting from past cycles, finding the real interest rate, assessment discrimination, and planning public works.

Mason Gaffney, Ph.D.

Why Research Farmland Ownership And Values? (Presented Paper Excerpt 2)

The many important functions and implications of land data: Land as a credit base, raising consciousness of latent values, and protecting federal revenues.

Mason Gaffney, Ph.D.

Why Research Farmland Ownership And Values? (Presented Paper Excerpt 1)

The many important functions and implications of land data: concentrated holding and property taxation.

Mason Gaffney, Ph.D.

Bounty: Modern Man Can’t See Land

The worth of Earth and the human brain are a bad match. Sure, some humans don’t want the total known. But also, brains aren’t fully conscious.

Jeffery J. Smith

The Case Against the Case Against the Single Tax

Alvin Johnson, an American economist at several universities, denigrated the logic and evidence for land-value taxation in an anti-scholarly manner.

Fred Foldvary, Ph.D.

Bounty: Is Trillion the New Billion?

The worth of Earth is not just another pretty number. It's proof that nature and markets love us.

Jeffery J. Smith

Food, Clothing, and Shelter

The "invisible hand" of the market works wonders when it comes to food and clothing. So why does shelter demand more of what we earn every year?

Bounty: Worth Counting

One number—absent from mainstream economics for some unknown reason—could inform us of the health of the economy, our ecosystem, even our future.

Jeffery J. Smith

Henry George and the Single Tax Documentary and Interview

Mike Bonner, the creator of Henry George and the Single Tax documentary, spoke with us about his film and the Georgist movement. Watch the video and read his comments here.

Socialize the Rent

We need to capture the economic rent of our natural resources in order to, finally, put paid to this incredibly counter-productive period of economic retrogression.

The American Infrastructure

The best way to pay for a road and its bridge is from the land rent that gets generated by that infrastructure.

Fred Foldvary, Ph.D.

Why Land Value Tax and Universal Basic Income Need Each Other

Land Value Tax can generate and recoup the funds needed for a Citizen's Dividend Basic Income, while a Citizen's Dividend Basic Income makes a clear case for taxing land values.

There is a way-of-thinking that understands the key role that land, earth, and other opportunities of nature play in resolving society's deepest economic problems.

Individual Sovereignty

Individual sovereignty means that it is evil for anyone to interfere with one’s honest and peaceful choices. One more element needs to be addressed: the issue of land ownership.

Fred Foldvary, Ph.D.

How much does UBI cost?

Some “back-of-the-envelope” estimates and important findings.

Karl Widerquist, Ph.D.

Empty Sovereignty

Debating about sovereignty lost to climate regulations or trade pacts really amounts to squabbling about the crumbs that are left. No land means no sovereignty.

Norway's Resource Rent Sharing Fund Reaches 1 Trillion USD

The Fund was established only 20 years ago as a means for Norway to store and invest the oil and gas revenues in a responsible manner for the benefit of future generations.

Monopoly was Invented to Demonstrate the Evils of Capitalism

Monopoly was invented to demonstrate the evils of capitalism. Is it time to reinstate the original rules of Monopoly?

Equifax Moving Forward

An organization of such influential magnitude that affects so many people must act with integrity and be held accountable. It is clear that changes are needed.

Naming Things Right

Many people seek clarification of economic definitions -- and it's no wonder, for the glossaries offered in most Economics courses aren't the least bit consistent or clear.

The BIG Misunderstanding About the Cost of Universal Basic Income

The cost of a UBI is often greatly exaggerated, because people are tempted to think the cost of UBI is the size of the grant multiplied by the size of the population.

Karl Widerquist, Ph.D.

Sharing the artificial resources openly and the natural resources that we all have as a birthright is a step towards equity and justice in labor.

Flooding in Houston: No Real Surprise

A Georgist take on Houston and Harvey.

Declare Peace on North Korea!

The United States should offer a peace treaty with North Korea and offer diplomatic relations. The Korean War did not officially end. Let’s end it now.

Fred Foldvary, Ph.D.

Why Economies Are Failing

The Real Excess Burden: An Overarching Approach

My Own Private Basic Income

One person’s experience becoming a business owner shows how our economy is based on luck rather than merit and how it rewards people who own stuff rather than people who do stuff.

Karl Widerquist, Ph.D.

Replace Confederate Chiefs with Soldier Memorials

The Confederate statues of Robert E. Lee, Jonathan “Stonewall” Jackson, Jefferson Davis, and others could be replaced with war memorials for the soldiers of the Confederacy.

Fred Foldvary, Ph.D.

Basic Income as a Strategy to Promote the Georgist Movement

Basic Income is having its third and largest wave of support. Georgism had a peak wave of support over 100 years ago. Why is Basic Income taking off now while Georgism is not?

Karl Widerquist, Ph.D.

The Revolt Against the American Empire

The US political cycle has turned from globalist welfare-statism to nationalist ethnic-statism.

Fred Foldvary, Ph.D.

Changes are coming for the better!

Dropped by Gatekeepers

An investigator takes two steps forward, one back, then steps where?

Jeffery J. Smith

Superbugs in Indian Chicken…and Global Property

Debt and the current property cycle continues

Trump Says: Let the Lords of Finance Rule

Why the property market, the real estate cycle and banks will really take off under a Trump Presidency

Henry Plottre and the Magically Expanding Land

A tale of land economics.

Fred Foldvary, Ph.D.

Deplorable Taxes

Deplorable taxes maket people poorer, yet few oppose them.

Fred Foldvary, Ph.D.

Is the US Election Rigged?

Voter fraud threatens democracy. The remedy was proposed long ago by Thomas Jefferson.

Fred Foldvary, Ph.D.

Make the Deep-Data-Depositors De-classify

There is a law that’d uncover the sum of all rents—if obeyed.

Jeffery J. Smith

Call in the Cavalry—the Moneybags

Good data costs big bucks. Who’s willing to spend their money to make public the worth of Earth?

Jeffery J. Smith

Eliminate Electronic Voting

Electronic voting can be and has been manipulated.

Fred Foldvary, Ph.D.

The Fallacy of Excessive Premise Extension

The Fallacy of Excessive Premise Extension

Fred Foldvary, Ph.D.

The Blessings of Cash

Eliminating cash would deprive us of blessings. The problems with cash such as for tax evasion can be cured by taxing what cannot be evaded: land.

Fred Foldvary, Ph.D.

Status Update, 2016: the real estate boom and bust

The real estate cycle continues, so we can benefit from seeing where we are on the timeline.

Fred Foldvary, Ph.D.

Does a Tax on Land Imply Not Owning the Land?

The objection to land-value taxation because it denies ownership is rebutted.

Fred Foldvary, Ph.D.

The Privatization of the Moon is Coming

Entry into commercial space travel could bring reduction in environmental damage costs, find new resources and unlimited related applications; productivity gains for next boom.

Type I Civilization Issues

How would advanced extraterrestrial beings view humanity? As humans, do we "come in peace?"

Markets: Getting Past the Debate

While there is a lot of discussion about whether to regulate markets or not, there is little talk about being outside of markets

Position: Social Media Manager

Progress.org has an opening for the volunteer position of Social Media Manager. Expected time investment would be around 5 hours a week.

(Click on above dots to paginate through older articles, or enter a search term in the search field above)