| Subject: | [socialcredit] Georgist Fallacies: Replying to Ed Dodson | | Date: | Monday, November 21, 2005 10:09:01 (-0800) | | From: | William B. Ryan <w_b_ryan @.....com>
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"I believe I understand the nature of totalitarianism.
Henry George offered a prescription for liberty, for
equality of opportunity..."
-----------------------------
It is in fact a species of Bolshevism. And the
Bolsheviks are very adept at using the rhetoric of
"liberty, equality of opportunity." In their own
minds they may really believe that's what they are
actually advocating. The delusion of true belief in
the one true faith, completely divorced from practical
reality.
-
"...His values are very similar to those espoused by
Thomas Paine."
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The familiar lie from the Georgist propaganda machine.
In *Agrarian Justice* Thomas Paine did use the term
"ground rent." At that point the simlarity between
Paine and George comes to a abrupt stop. We have
"ground rent" today, as in Paine's time, though not in
the Georgist sense. It is not the hare-brained
"single tax," nor was it the "single tax" in Paine's
time, nor is the "single tax" anything close to what
Thomas Paine advocated.
http://www.geocities.com/socredus/compendium/paine-agrarianjustice.txt
What Paine advocated was a type of land bank scheme to
finance his proposed social dividend. The land bank
notes were to be backed by bonds pledged against land
in payment of the inheritance tax. The inheritance
tax would be paid by the landowners in the form of
bonds secured by their land, against which the land
bank would issue notes by a multiple of four that
would be utilized to pay the social dividend. The
inheriting landowners would redeem their bonds from
their future r_e_p_e_a_t future income that is
augmented by the general increase to economic activity
that is enabled by the land bank notes being spent
into circulation by the dividend recipients.
A keyword significantly ignored by the Georgists from
*Agrarian Justice* is "cultivated." The inheritance
tax that _fractionally_ backs the land bank notes is
levied against land that is "cultivated," i.e.
productive in the sense that it in brings in an
objectively measurable income in exchange for the
consumable wealth that it produces, from which the tax
may be collected as a percentage.
Vacant and undeveloped land does not fit that
definition.
Nor do dwellings, which are items of consumption.
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--- Ed Dodson <ejdodson@COMCAST.NET> wrote:
Ed Dodson responding... Bill Ryan wrote:
Georgism is mired in the arbitrary definitions of
classical economics. One of them is that there is
such a thing as ojective "value," whether in "land" or
"gold" or anything else. "Site value" is to be taxed
regardless of whether the "site" is realizing actual
income that might be taxed. Moreover, it is to be the
"single tax."
It is the prescription for totalitarianism. And it is
predicated on a profound ignorance of the realities of
life.
-
Ed Dodson here: Bill Grennon responded quite
appropriately to Bill Ryan's statements.
In response to Bill Ryan's assertion that Henry
George's analysis is a "prescription for
totalitarianism," I would direct Mr. Ryan to any of
Henry George's writings. I believe I understand the
nature of totalitarianism. Henry George offered a
prescription for liberty, for equality of opportunity.
His values are very similar to those espoused by
Thomas Paine.
-
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Georgist Fallacies
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