Talk:Pathways Out of Poverty

Notes on USPP project

This is a great start for an article. There's a lot of data here; it's sourced to a reliable source and organized well. Congratulations to the students who have worked on this. Mike Christie (talk – library) 01:40, 4 December 2010 (UTC)

The Cause and Elimination of Poverty

The elimination of poverty begins when we can better understand its basic cause. This is due to a lack of good opportunities for finding work of any reasonably paid kind, or only that kind that is so badly paid that it becomes like slavery. These opportunities are seriously limited because of how useful sites for entrepreneurs to use are so costly to purchase or to lease, that most of the entrepreneurs find it not worthwhile to try to use them.

The cause of this resulting lack of opportunity is that of the landowners, whose greed and monopolization of these new and unused sites, result in these sites being withheld from use for purposes of speculation in their rising values. This policy creates the high demand and a resulting exaggerated cost, even for those sites that are available and in use. They become too much for most entrepreneurs to be able to occupy. So we can see that this speculation in the price of land creates not only less of it being available for use, but also making those in use being very highly priced.

As the region is developed and the infrastructure improved, our municipal or regional taxes pay for these developments. Then the rising price of the land is gained by its speculators from investment in our tax money!

A solution for stopping this unethical and grim situation was first proposed by Henry George in his classic book "Progress and Poverty" in 1879. George proposed that the government should replace all the existing kinds of taxation with a Single Tax on Land Values, or LVT. Not only would this make the untaxed produce less costly to buy, but it would cause little or no land to be held unused, because the landowners would not want to pay tax on any vacant sites. They would either use them properly or sell or lease them to an entrepreneur who would. Of course a lot of opposition came from these greedy monopolists and with a few very interesting exceptions, few countries ever adopted and legalised this socially just proposal. The Georgist Movement has not achieved the success that it should have done, due to this kind of opposition.

AN ALTERNATIVE TO THE GEORGIST PROPOSAL FOR LVT--Macrocompassion (talk) 13:52, 12 December 2024 (UTC)

I reckon that the same thing could be achieved over a longer duration, were the law made for the government to immediately purchase any site that is being inherited or sold at a fair price, but with its buildings or other man-made development, being simply acquired by regular purchase as before. The government would then lease the sites it has purchased to the building owners (if any) or would-be users as if the lease fee were the same as the prior ground-rent or what it should be, were the site previously in proper use. Macrocompassion (talk) 13:23, 12 December 2024 (UTC)

After one has seen how LVT can eliminate poverty, it is analogous to a cartoon picture of a leafless tree that appeared in the late 1920's in a newspaper. The bare branches can be seen after a lot of searching to include the shape of a cat. The every time you may glance at this picture you cannot help but seeing its shape. This is how one can see the proposal for LVT afte you can understand it!

A MORE STEALTHY GEORGIST CAT

The Georgist cat is small and lean

And often doesn’t get to be seen.

It hides in the branches of an economic’s-tree

So it takes a long while for you or for me,

To appreciate its cute and original form

That the landlords are so ready to scorn.

The economic’s-tree has many fine branches

(On which we contend, there are no free-lunches).

Whilst the land-owning rich in the city all claim

As bloated capitalists, that they’re not to blame

For the gap that lays ‘twixt the poor and the wealthy,

But oppose any tax to make our nation healthy.

Have you heard the tale of a committee, that

Thought to bell and get warning of a fat cat?

But could not find a soul to apply this device,

Because typically all were a council of mice!

Our Georgist cat has a bell ready-fitted,

(Which makes this analogy more to be pitted).

This warning sound makes our ideals unwanted,

For a new tax is how politicians get doubted.

So the Georgist cat fails to catch any mice

That pose as landlords, along with their vice.

But how shall we silence the bell’s warning sound

And quieten the news that our pussy’s around?

Our Georgist feline is in serious error,

‘Cause its bell draws attention not only to whether

Valuable sites can be ethically shared,

But also the rent from a site is declared

As the means to replace other kinds of taxation,

Which obviously causes the landlords vexation.

In the economic’s tree many other beasts lurk

But are missed, after learning of Henry G’s quirk

Through the cat-finder’s recently brilliant discovery.

This writer seeks a new means for recovery

From our politi-unacceptable claim,

And stealthily project LVT once again.

If we would but examine some more of the tree

Alternatives are waiting there for us to see.

Among them is hiding a far better way

For an equivalent LVT effect, to stay

In essence, without causing such evil offences

To the landlords and their partitioning fences.

When a property-owner decides to sell--quick

The gov’ment buys its land, and not the public!

Its occupant then leases it for a similar fee

To the One-Tax of Henry George’s decree.

Any buildings on-site should be sold as previously

But without the land, on which the price grievously

Had risen, with huge speculation in its advance

That stopped entrepreneurs from having a chance.

The cost of this land must be raised through new bonds

Which the government sells and the public responds,

‘Though their interest-rate’s a bit lower than rent,

Their returns are more stable than the average tenant!

This process will take many years to complete--

So its financial support is no great money feat.

After the lease-fees begin to collect,

Gov’ments can tax less, and firmly expect

To pursue this policy without change, until

All the lease-fees are site-rents in the Gov’ment’s till.

With the land properly shared, the government sees

That site development stays with the current leasees.

Other taxes that cause so much trouble and hate

Are scrapped, with great pleasure to all in the state,

Except for some bankers and the tax collectors

Whose actions no longer apply in these sectors.

Land-rights will be shared through this simple device,

By a fast-growing country that takes our advice. Macrocompassion (talk) 13:32, 12 December 2024 (UTC)