From Groundswell, Common Ground USA’s Blog

Crain's Magazine Crain's magazine gets Georgist, aka Tax Increment Financing to complete the 2nd Avenue Subway. A Crain's analysis finds that apartments near the Second Avenue...

Effects of Georgism by Brandon Fulcher

These comments are from someone looking for a political party to
vote for! Although I have voted for all major parties, I have favoured the Green Party in recent years. I believe in economic and social justice as displayed by party policy, local candidate and the
leader in that order.

Ever wondered why your Netflix statement bills to a company in the Netherlands, why people who place Facebook ads are charged by a company in Ireland, and why the tiny island of the Bahamas is the sixth-largest foreign owner of Australian farmland?

In the era when most multinationals produced manufactured goods, taxation was straightforward: the profits were taxed in the country where the goods were produced, and where the firm was headquartered. But these days, firms have become adept at shifting profits into low-tax jurisdictions. Two fifths of multinational profits now pass through tax havens and so-called “investment hubs”. Over half the corporate profits recorded in Ireland are shifted from other countries. In recent years, frustration with the slow pace of debates over multinational tax reform has led more than 40 nations to enact or announce new digital sales taxes on technology firms such as Facebook and Google.

The radical Republicans, Thaddeus Stevens and Charles Sumner promoted the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments to the US Constitution needed to insured a permanent end of slavery and citizenship for all men throughout the entire country.

These men wanted to redistribute land in the sprit of “40 acres and a mule”. That was ¼ the size of most homesteads and family farms. It had been implemented to a small degree by the Northern Army during the war, and obviously would have been a monumental foundation of independence and freedom for four million newly freed people. Unfortunately, only a tiny fraction of the former slaves got any land during the war, and most of them eventually lost it.

The conventional property tax is a mash-up of two very different taxes, a tax on the value of the location and a tax on the value of the improvements, the structures.

One of the great teachers of political economy, Harry Pollard, has died. In his ninety-sixth year he was one more victim of the virus that has taken so many lives all around the globe. I came to know Harry during the early 1980s and was honored to call him a colleague and friend. Harry’s intellect was keen, and his commitment to using all of his talents to spread awareness of the teachings of Henry George unequalled.

Tribute to Dr. Foldvary: From on Common Ground California’a website – Common Ground U.S.A.

I put together this tribute to Dr. Foldvary our colleague and friend who passed away last week- it will soon appear on Common Ground California’a website…

Two recommendations, Groundswell update, Meeting Dates

If you have a little time: Call Congress to express your support for carbon fee and dividend. With CCL groups meeting with members of Congress this week, your calls will add to the drumbeat of support to include effective carbon pricing in climate solutions moving forward this year. Use our online action tool to help make your calls.

The Washington Post published a letter of mine on Saturday, January 9, with title, “Georgism isn’t socialism.” The letter, as they published it, follows: In his Dec. 31 Style...

The Common Ground-USA Executive Committee is please announce that it has selected Derk Sagehorn to fill the Vice President vacancy left by the recent death of Paul Justus. The Committee made the selection at it’s March 1, 2021 bi-monthly meeting. Derke was first elected as a Director at large in 2020 and then ran against Paul for the VP position later that year.

Common Ground Vice President Paul Justus died suddenly of natural causes while on a walk in his Salem, Oregon neighborhood on January 20, 2021. Not only was Paul CGUSA VP, but he was head of its communications committee and webmaster of  CGUSA’s Oregon-Washington chapter.  Paul first joined Common Ground in September of 2002. Paul was also  a board member of the Robert Schalkenbach Foundation. 

My old friend and mentor, Mason Gaffney, died on July 16th, 2020 at his home in Redlands, California. I thank David Cay Johnston for a warm and insightful obituary in the New York Times. I also thank Wyn Achenbaum and Nic Tideman and the Schalkenbach Foundation for an extraordinary tribute with excerpts from his writing. Especially check out Mason’s timely article, The Red and the Blue, on why high median income cities like New York and San Francisco vote blue, while low income regions vote red: Land values are disproportionately high in prosperous big cities, making homeownership “unaffordable” for middle class residents.

We are all concerned about people with economic problems             and are looking for ways to help. Everything starts in some way with the LAND on which we stand. No person...

Carbon taxes are part of Georgist theory since carbon is “land.”  By taxing it, people will use less.  Providing a dividend from the tax is a great way to get support for the equitable collection and sharing of rent on the commons we all need to live on.  HR 763, currently in Congress, will do both, while cleaning up the environment and fighting climate change.  You can show your support here: https://citizensclimatelobby.org/energy-innovation-and-carbon-dividend-act/

The Common Ground-USA Executive Committee is please announce that it has selected Derk Sagehorn to fill the Vice President vacancy left by the recent death of Paul Justus. The Committee made the selection at it’s March 1, 2021 bi-monthly meeting. Derke was first elected as a Director at large in 2020 and then ran against Paul for the VP position later that year.

Our 2021 Oregon Legislative Agenda:

Conduct a property tax study statewide, along the lines of what Portland State University did locally, with our guidance, in 2019. You can help support this effort by submitting testimony once a hearing is scheduled. Thank you for your help!

My old friend and mentor, Mason Gaffney, died July 16, 2020 at his home in Redlands, California. I thank David Cay Johnston for a warm and insightful obituary in the New York Times. I also thank Wyn Achenbaum and Nic Tideman and the Schalkenbach Foundation for an extraordinary tribute with excerpts from his writing. Especially check out Mason’s still relevant article, The Red and the Blue, on why high median income cities like New York and San Francisco vote blue, while low income regions vote red: Land values are disproportionately high in prosperous big cities, making homeownership “unaffordable” for middle class residents. So they rent—and vote blue. Suburban and small-town homeowners vote red.

Common Ground Vice President Paul Justus died suddenly of natural causes while on a walk in his Salem, Oregon neighborhood on January 20, 2021. Not only was Paul CGUSA VP, but he was head of its communications committee and webmaster of CGUSA’s Oregon-Washington chapter. Paul first joined Common Ground in September of 2002. Paul was also a board member of the Robert Schalkenbach Foundation.

Proposed by Common Ground-OR/WA                                                   December 2020 A change from the conventional property tax to a land value tax (LVT) involves...

The earth is our common home.  Most people would agree with that principle at least on an abstract level. But what would that mean as a practical matter?

            Practically, this principle can be implemented through a concept known as “the Commons.”  A commons is something that belongs to everyone equally such as the atmosphere or the waterways and it’s possible to apply the concept to land use, too.

She had so many good qualities that it was almost selfish.  Except that she was anything but selfish.  With each passing year, as I got to know Pat better, I’d learn something more about her character, and realized that she was anything but ordinary.  She shared her interests and gently taught me her values.  In the early ‘80s, when I knew Pat personally, she kept a rack for drying out plastic bags that she was rinsing and re-using.  She was a woman ahead of her time, doing this practical task well before the term “environmentalist” was on everyone’s lips.  She never had, nor ever wanted to own a television.  Pat’s love of music, particularly opera, was evident in the continuous playing of classical music on her radio.  And the Pat that I came to know personally became a paradox to me professionally, because, as I look back on those important years of work we did for the Robert Schalkenbach Foundation, the Pat I knew then was devoted. She was so devoted to the work that it often kept her from her music, or Lincoln Center, or an evening at the theatre.  She sacrificed much for the Foundation and did so with humility and grace.

Dear Friends, We are all concerned about people with economic problems and must find a way to help. Everything starts in some way with the LAND on which we stand. God gave the...

By Edward J. Dodson / 10 November, 2020 One of the great teachers of political economy, Harry Pollard, has died. In his ninety-sixth year he was one more victim of the virus that...

by Fred Foldvary The Georgist school of economic thought has analyzed the real-estate-related business cycle, following the theory presented by Henry George in Progress and...