Chris and Art, Such agreement among us!
The problem in every country is the hemorrhaging of production into the hands of the landholders. As I posted earlier, Marx saw this and pointed out that the Industrial Revolution was financed by the landholders. (He said more - that "surplus value" inevitably was swallowed into land rent - but who reads Volume Three of Das Kapital? I saw a recent estimate (knowledgeable guess) that the land of the US totaled $30 trillion. A nation paying for something that was initially provided by God - or was a gift of nature (choose one). My objection to the Basic Income is that it is an attempt - as are so many others - to take back some of that Economic Rent and distribute it to the people who pay the Rent. Why not take it all? It's a privilege for the tenant gets nothing back for the land Rent he pays. As everyone should know by now, I am against all privilege. Justice is infinitely more preferable. Harry ******************************************** Henry George School of Social Science of Los Angeles Box 655 Tujunga CA 91042 Tel: 818 352-4141 -- Fax: 818 353-2242 http://haledward.home.comcast.net ******************************************** -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Christoph Reuss Sent: Monday, December 15, 2003 5:18 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: [Futurework] FW Basic Income sites Arthur Cordell wrote: > The fact that [BI] might be "something for nothing" might be the barrier to > acceptance and implementation, not its cost. Capitalism as such gives "something for nothing" in the billions, e.g. in rents to heirs of land or houses. (*) E.g. in Germany, most people work about 1-2 of 5 days per week only for this! Nonetheless, few people are even aware of this fundamental injustice and its vast effects on society. It's a taboo issue. (*) Between 1949 and 1965, land prices in Germany rose by DEM 100 Bn., the state subsidized house/apartment construction with DEM 100 Bn., and total state debt in 1965 was ...**drum roll**... DEM 100 Bn.! The German journal of land surveyors then asked: "Could it be that the whole state debt is basically a donation to the land owners ?" By selling a re-zoned (i.e. previously worthless) piece of land to the state (for building a university), a single heir reaped DEM 400 million of tax money by night. He bought a castle with 500 rooms and his wife was caught riding a Harley-Davidson through the extended corridors. Sally would give her a BI to pay the gasoline, I guess. Chris ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~ SpamWall: Mail to this addy is deleted unread unless it contains the keyword "igve". --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.552 / Virus Database: 344 - Release Date: 12/15/2003 _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://scribe.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
