Welcome to Progress.org
A short letter from Martin Adams and Floyd — what Progress.org is, the single idea that holds it together, and ten things that change when we share the value of land.
Hi —
You're in. Welcome to Progress.org.
We're Martin Adams and Floyd Marinescu, the editors here. Progress.org is a quiet library of essays, learning paths, and a growing wiki on the history and future of human progress — and on the single idea that holds the whole project together: that almost every problem we treat as permanent (inequality, unaffordable housing, stagnant wages, ecological destruction, even our addiction to growth) shares a common root, and a common cure.
The root is that the value of land and natural opportunity is privatized instead of shared. The cure is to flip that. When societies share the rent of land, ten things start to change at once:
- Extreme wealth inequality ends.
- Banks invest in real businesses instead of speculative real estate.
- The economy booms as capital flows into production.
- Wages rise — jobs chase people, not the other way round.
- Most taxes fall away; public revenue comes from land.
- Housing becomes affordable; homelessness ends.
- A basic income or citizen's dividend becomes affordable.
- Urban sprawl stops; cities use land efficiently.
- The environment recovers — people no longer have to destroy it to make a living.
- Happiness rises across the board.
None of this is utopian — it's what economists from Adam Smith to Henry George have argued for centuries, and what a growing body of evidence keeps confirming. For the short version, read Ten Things That Would Happen If We Shared the Value of Land.
Thanks for being here.
— Martin Adams & Floyd Marinescu
Editors, Progress.org