Hodgepodge posted:

maybe Post-Colonial Anarcha-Monarchist is more your speed

Ghost Leviathan posted:

I only seek Juffo-Wup. I grow turgid. Violence ensues.

Maximo Roboto posted:

quote:

In Neo-classical Economics as a Stratagem Against Henry George (2007), University of California economist Mason Gaffney argues that George and his Land Value Tax pose a far greater threat than Marx to America’s corporate elite. America’s enormous concentration of wealth has always depended on the inherent right of the wealthy elite to seize and monopolize vast quantities of land and natural resources (oil, gas, forests, water, minerals, etc) for personal profit. Adopting an LVT, which is far easier than launching a violent revolution, would essentially negate that right. What’s more, every jurisdiction that has ever implemented an LVT finds it works exactly the way George predicted it would. Productivity, prosperity, and social wellbeing flourish, while inflation, wealth inequality, and boom and bust recessions and depressions virtually vanish.

quote:

In Neo-classical Economics, Gaffney reveals that this backlash took two main forms. The first was the Red Scare (1919-1989), overseen by J Edgar Hoover as Assistant Attorney General and later as FBI director. The second was more insidious and involved the deliberate reframing of the classical economic theory developed by Adam Smith, Locke, Hume, and Ricardo as so-called neoclassical economics. The latter totally negates Adam Smith’s basic differentiation between “land”, a limited, non-producible resource. and “capital”, a reproducible result of past human production. Smith, Locke, Hume, and Ricardo all held that individuals have no right to seize and monopolize scarce natural resources, such as land, minerals, water, and forests. They believed that because these resources are both limited and essential for human survival, they should belong to the public.

Neoclassical economics, which first developed in the 1890s, was based on the premise that growth and development can only occur if a handful of rent-seekers are allowed to monopolize scarce land and natural resources for their personal profit. Henry George, who publicly debated the early pioneers of neoclassical economics, claimed the science of economics was being deliberately distorted to discredit him. Gaffney agrees. Because George’s proposal to replace income and sales tax with single land value taxed is based on logical concepts of land, capital, labor, and rent advanced by Adam Smith, Locke, Hume, and Ricardo, they all had to be discredited.

Gaffney believes neoclassical economic theory undermines George’s arguments for a single Land Value Tax in two basic ways: 1) by claiming that land is no different from other capital (ironically Marx made the identical argument) and 2) by portraying the science of economics as a series of hard choices and sacrifices that low and middle income people must make. Some examples:

• If we want efficiency, we must sacrifice equity.
  
• To attract business, we must lower taxes and shut libraries and defund schools.
  
• To prevent inflation, we must keep a large number of Americans unemployed.
  
• To create jobs, we must destroy the environment and pollute the air, water, and food chain.
  
• To raise productivity, we must fire people.

Gaffney’s book traces the phenomenal public support Georgism enjoyed before the tenets of neoclassical economics took hold in American universities. In addition to inspiring the Populist and Progressive movements, an LVT to fund irrigation projects in California’s Central Valley made California the top producing farm state. In 1916 the first federal income tax law was introduced by Georgist members of Congress (Henry George Jr and Warren Bailey) and included virtually no tax on wages. In 1934 Georgist Upton Sinclair was almost elected governor of California.

Gaffney also identifies the robber barons whose fortunes financed the economics departments of the major universities who went on to substitute neooclassical economics for classical economic theory. At the top of this list were

• Ezra Cornell (owner of both Western Union and Associated Press) – founder of Cornell University
  
• John D Rockefeller – helped fund the University of Chicago and installed his cronies in its economics department.
  
• J. P Morgan – investment banker and early funder of Columbia University
  
• B&O Railroad – John Hopkins University
  
• Southern Pacific Railroad – Stanford University

The final section of Gaffney’s book lays out the tragic economic, political, and social consequences of allowing the Red Scare and neoclassical economics to stifle America’s movement for a single Land Value Tax:

John Charity Spring posted:

how would a new zealand republic be worse

Weka posted:

Hi, I'm a monarchist AMA.
In my defence I live in New Zealand and I'm convinced the adoption of a republican constitution will inevitably turn out worse than how things are now. And the monarchy costs us like $3-10 million a year. It's not like I think it's the ideal form of government.

Archduke Frantz Fanon posted:

you should keep the monarchy but have a rotating one like malaysia's system with the maori cheifs

The Oldest Man posted:

This is just the assholes in Eastern Washington, gently caress you you stupid meme generator

Weka posted:

It could work. One of the problems with abolishing the monarchy is that the founding document of the country, the treaty of waitangi, is between the crown and various tribes.
The fact this would actually make a difference to anything is the reason we shouldn't be part of Australia.

A Buttery Pastry posted:

Literally just steal the British crown, the actual physical object, and have that be your head of state.

Maximo Roboto posted:

A Buttery Pastry posted:

Literally just steal the British crown, the actual physical object, and have that be your head of state.

Ghost Leviathan posted:

In some ways iirc this is literally how it works, like with the Holy See. (Vatican City, by the by, is iirc one of the only absolute monarchies left in the world, and the only elected absolute monarchy, since the Pope is also by position the King of Vatican City)

Weka posted:

Which one, they have seven.

There's a bunch in Arabia, plus Brunei and Swaziland.
Are you saying the popehat is where the power is vested?

Weka posted:

Which one, they have seven.

Ghost Leviathan posted:

I have learned from the r/relationships thread that white hoteps are a thing

One More Fat Nerd posted:

I desperately need an explanation on this.

Weka posted:

Which one, they have seven.

Maximo Roboto posted:

Georgist land value tax getting some network news play

https://twitter.com/FairweatherPhD/status/1562469670904422400

wait lol so what's the angle with this



ah so there's a pro-developer angle opposing pro-land speculator interests (land hoarders)