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Slate magazine has a book review of The Land Trap, a book by Mike Bird. Mr. Bird may not be a Georgist, strictly speaking, but what he writes about how land speculation contributes to economic instability seems to resemble what the late (Georgist) Professor Mason Gaffney and others have tried to tell the world for many years, and, according to the review, the book does include an account of the thought of Henry George.

Judging by the review, Mr. Bird favors taking land by eminent domain for housing projects, as has been done in Singapore. I believe on several grounds that this would be less good than simply taxing all land on its rental value, but if nothing else, this book may help get Georgist and and Georgist-adjacent ideas into mainstream circulation.

Reason magazine’s Liz Wolfe writes, inter alia, about families having fewer children, quoting the New York Times as saying “The number of New York households with three or more children has dropped by nearly 17 percent over the past decade, according to an analysis of census data by the Center for an Urban Future, a think tank.”

Ms. Wolfe then writes (I have added emphasis): “Reading the piece, there appears to be two almost entirely separate issues: New Yorkers’ unreasonable expectations (one mom bemoans how she hosts birthday parties with homemade cakes at the local playground, contrasting that with lavish vacations taken by other parents in the neighborhood) and the fact that there are real cost-of-living issues, primarily of the real estate variety (‘43 percent of units with three or more bedrooms have been occupied by the same tenants for more than ten years’ with median asking price of $1.8 million for three-bedroom and three-bedroom-plus homes). These are two totally separate problems that too frequently get bundled together.”

Those three bedroom homes probably do not involve over a million and a half dollars worth of bricks, plumbing fixtures, and labor; the high prices are chiefly for the land. Naturally, occupying much space in NYC will cost more than having the same space in a small town in Tennessee, but prices are higher than they need to be. Taxing the value of the land would keep the selling price from being so high, and enable other taxes to be cut. Then, among other things, at least some families could afford an additional child.

On Tuesday, September 2, Henry George’s 186th birthday, I put on my Henry George Sesquicentennial tie, and went around wishing the people I saw on my perambulations a happy Henry George Day. I managed to talk a bit with a few of them about the man and his ideas.

I also scratched off some numbers from a Virginia lottery ticket which I had bought a few days before the big day; then I scratched off more on Wednesday and Thursday. I didn’t win any money to donate to Georgist organizations, though, so I am making an appeal: if you think that we should tax the idle rich more and the producers lest, if you think that people should be taxed on the basis of the special privileges which they receive, in particular the privilege of owning land, rather than on what they achieve by their own efforts, then consider making a donation.

In particular, you can donate to the Center for the Study of Economics, https://urbantoolsconsult.org. Checks can be mailed to P.O. Box 400, Collingswood NJ 08108. If you have business before the Patent Office, if you are a fellow federal employee, or if it would be otherwise improper for me suggest that you make a donation, this does not apply to you.

Among other things, the CSE is involved in Baltimore, where Baltimore Thrive is trying to reform the city’s property tax, to tax land more and buildings less. They have also exposed problems with current assessments. A small, not very valuable house is assessed at tens of thousands of dollars for the house. Additionally, there can be an assessment of nine thousand dollars or so for the land under the house, while vacant lots in the immediate vicinity of the house are assessed at around three thousand dollars in land value. This is a disgraceful screwup, benefitting out of town land speculators at the expense of working class homeowners. (The assessments are done by an agency of the State of Maryland; also, the Maryland Legislature would have to pass enabling legislation for the city of Baltimore to go two-rate, although I believe that other jurisdictions in Maryland already have that option.)

One of my friends, Alanna Hartzok, has been trying to organize a Georgist Speakers’ Bureau, and we held a Zoom meeting on Saturday to discuss it. There are people who are willing to go speak to groups that have any interest in hearing us; I mentioned that I may retire in a few years, and then have more time to devote to Georgist activism, although less money to donate to Georgist organizations. The discussion was interesting; for example, there is a Georgist subreddit, and there are Georgists out there who are not plugged into the movement, what there is of it; they’re not members of Georgist organizations, and they’re mostly not lobbying their mayors, city councilmen, and state legislators to enact Georgist tax reform.

Also, when Alanna asked who said that all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing, I chimed in, “Edmund Burke.”

“They were belted barons led by a mitered archbishop who curbed the Plantagenet with Magna Charta; it was the middle classes who broke the pride of the Stuarts; but a mere aristocracy of money will never struggle while it can hope to bribe a tyrant.” — Henry George, Progress and Poverty, Book X, Chapter 4, “How Modern Civilization May Decline”

It is to some extent all too understandable that billionaires like Bezos, Zuckerberg, and the Muskbrat are now being respectful to Donald Trump. A big businessman who openly opposes a corrupt and vengeful president would risk various federal agencies waging lawfare against him and his businesses, perhaps not only trimming his own fortune, but even putting him out of business, and harming many people for whom he may feel responsibility.

I think that Henry George is well worth reading and rereading, yet someone who refers to Progress and Poverty, especially the chapter from which I quoted, may object that we are not in the straights that George feared; we have a substantial middle class, and our society is not divided between plutocrats and the wretchedly poor. That is surely true to some extent, and yet an article in Slate discusses housing as our biggest economic problem, and reports that the shelter index has been rising for 56 straight months. Unfortunately, the authors do not associate the housing problem with land prices, and do not advocate George’s remedy. Upper middle class families who own their homes, and can leave their children an inheritance from these homes or other investments, to a large extent derived directly or indirectly from land, can give their children a good start in life, and wealth to help their own children and grandchildren; people who don’t own valuable real estate largely cannot.

People don’t have to be starving, and don’t have to have studied Georgist economics, to feel that something has gone wrong, and to feel that things need to be set right somehow, which I believe has contributed to the politics of the last decade. Unfortunately, neither the leftists nor the Trump fascists have a good understanding of the land question, and how it contributes to growing inequality and economic instability.

I attended the Common Ground USA membership meeting Sunday evening via Zoom. Georgists have been trying to get Baltimore to switch to a two-rate or, ideally, land-only property tax, which would require authorization from the Maryland Legislature, although other jurisdictions in Maryland could enact such a property tax reform if they so chose. Perhaps we could get Cumberland interested. Also, assessments are sadly imperfect in Baltimore, with vacant lots typically assessed at much less than lots which have buildings on them. Even with poor assessments, land value taxation can spur redevelopment, but it is much better to have accurate and up-to-date real estate assessments.

The mayor of Detroit tried to get land value taxation there, but the Michigan legislature, whose approval was required, voted it down. Al of the Republicans and a few Democrats opposed it. The mayor will now run as an independent candidate for Governor of Michigan; we’ll see what comes of that.

We also discussed upcoming conferences, at which we hope to meet people and get our ideas into circulation.

Today is Henry George Day, the great economist and reformer’s one hundred and eighty-fifth birthday, so I wore my Henry George Sesquicentennial tie, and, when outside my apartment to get some exercise or run an errand, I wished people a Happy Henry George Day, and if they were receptive, talked with them further. One man said that as a free trader, he was familiar with Henry George, although he hadn’t known the man’s birthday. Several other people showed some level of interest, or at least politeness, and let me tell them that they could read George’s books, or at least look up his name, and “land value taxation.” One man whom I approached announced, sua sponte, that he would Google Henry George.

This is a vacation day, but I did spend some time working, considering prior art references listed in an Information Disclosure Statement for the patent application I’m currently working on. As I once said to an attorney who telephoned my office, and was surprised to find me actually at work rather late (I think it was either on a Friday or the day before a federal holiday), “You know how famously dedicated and hardworking we federal bureaucrats are.”

I bought a couple of scratch-off lottery tickets the other day (I had intended to buy one, but failed to pay attention to the notice, “This machine does not make change”). I would scratch off a number when I finished considering a prior art patent or other document. So far, I haven’t found any prizes, so I’ll make an appeal: If you think that we should spare people from paying income and payroll taxes on the work they put in, if you think we should not make rental housing more expensive with a property tax on buildings, if you think that we should charge people according to the value of the land they occupy, the pollution they release into the atmosphere, and other uses of resources not created by human effort (the electromagnetic spectrum, for example, if you favor a tax reform to charge the poor less and the rich more, without punishing the productive rich for their accomplishments, then please consider donating to the Center for the Study of Economics, urbantoolsconsult.org.

There is a donation button on the website, if you want to pay by card, PayPal, Venmo, or Google Pay; you can also mail a check to Center for the Study of Economics, P.O. Box 400, Collingswood, NJ 08108. This does not apply to you if you have business before the Patent Office, if you are a fellow federal employee, or if it would otherwise be improper for me solicit you to make a donation.

Many, many years ago, I first heard of the Bohemian Grove, a private club where a bunch of rich and powerful men (I think I remember the late William F. Buckley, Jr. being a member) socialized with each other, and did whatever else they did. I did not know of its origins, or that there was any historical connection to my favorite political economist, but an article by Kevin Taylor in The Sacremento News Review has taught me some things I never knew before.. The original Bohemian Club was founded in nineteenth century San Francisco by a bunch of writers and other creative people, originally excluding rich fudds who lacked sparkling wit or other skills for entertaining their fellow club members. Facing a shortage of funds, the Bohemian Club did start admitting wealthy businessmen, and one thing led to another. The Club acquired some forested land a distance from the actual city, and so became the Bohemian Grove.

The story is of interest as part of the tapestry of human affairs and culture, but also of interest to me, because who was one of San Francisco’s leading newspapermen, writers, public intellectuals, and original members of the Bohemian Club? That’s right, the political economist Henry George.

A few days ago, I mentioned making a new acquaintance, “Peter,” at a Bring Your Own Mug gathering at the Patent and Trademark Office. Among other things, we discussed land value taxation, and he brought up Detroit, where an attempt has been made to enact LVT. (As I understand it, so far the city has not obtained authorization from the state legislature, which would be required.). Peter asked me how this would help in parts of Detroit where houses are abandoned, and the land is essentially worthless. There are other areas which are not so badly blighted.

I pointed out that there two two aspects of Georgist tax reform, taxing land values more, and reducing or abolishing taxes on buildings, wages, sales, etc. A land value tax in Detroit could raise some revenue from neighborhoods which are not totally derelict, and discourage land speculation there. It would also enable lower taxes on buildings, etc., which would remove a disincentive to fixing up homes, taking derelict buildings and turning them into shops, habitable housing, etc. I gave Peter the example of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania some decades ago: it was about the most blighted city in America, with thousands of abandoned buildings and vacant lots; then, it enacted a two-rate property tax, much higher on land than on buildings, and it largely recovered, with the number of abandoned buildings falling steeply. So even when a community is badly blighted, land value taxation can help, even if it can’t make everything perfect.

Here is the next installment of the presentation I gave on February 28, on the topic, “Henry George: A Neglected Thinker, His Thoughts, and Their Relevance in Today’s World.” You may recall that in the second installment, I told a story which was intended to get people thinking about land prices, and how they were the result of things like population and government services, not anything which the particular landowner had done. Then I proceeded to summarize Progress and Poverty:

“With that as a provocation to thought, what did Henry George say in Progress and Poverty? He argued that low wages and the lack of jobs were not due to lack of capital, or to Malthusian overpopulation. He followed the standard political economy of his day in distinguishing land, labor, and capital. (Modern economists mostly conflate land and capital.)

“The Law of Rent: The rental value of land is the advantage a given piece of land has over the best land freely available.

“If there is free land available where a laborer can produce twenty bushels of potatoes, and you own superior land where the same labor can produce twenty-five bushels of potatoes, you can charge a tenant five bushels of potatoes as rent. Or you can pay a worker twenty bushels of potatoes, and keep five for yourself, which is pretty much the same thing. Land does not just mean agriculture; land in a city can be enormously valuable because of access to potential customers, employees, merchants and manufacturers wit( stuff for sale, and so forth.

“So, as productivity increased, most of the benefit went to landlords, not laborers or even capitalists.

“Furthermore, land speculators drove up the price of land and reduced the availability beyond even what the increased rent dictated. A would-be settler in George’s day had to go past unsettled or thinly settled land held as railroad grants, or otherwise owned by speculators, in order to find any land he could homestead or attempt to purchase. In effect, landlords locked laborers out from working, and that was what led to depressions and high unemployment.

“As an aside, a modern economics professor, Mason Gaffney, refined Henry George’s explanation of just how speculative bubbles in land prices lead to crashes and depressions.

“Henry George argued that various proposed remedies would not work, or at best would do very limited good.

“He proposed a single tax on the value of land, and the abolition of other taxes. This would, in effect, make land common property, without interfering with the ability of landowners to use their land as they saw fit, or with the security of their improvements.”

That will do for now. I will proceed to describe the public reaction to this proposal in the next installment.