By Jamal Thomas
Jamal Thomas’ essay received the first-place prize in the 2024 Henry George in the 21st Century Writing Contest for the College/University & Graduate Students level. Congratulations on this remarkable accomplishment!
Abstract
The main issue with implementing Georgist principles is not in the research, but in the application. Trying to use politics and campaigns have beared little fruit. So, a possible option is to privatize some of our ideas and demonstrate that Georgism works. This can be done with full reserve equity banking.
Being a Georgist in the 21st century is a painful experience. Much of the movement has either stalled or calcified with no real change coming soon. The movement needs innovative solutions, some ideas that can show, unequivocally, that our economic prescriptions work and should be attempted. It is my belief that rolling Georgism into a private bank does this. Setting up a bank that is full reserve instead of fractional reserve, equity shares instead of issuing debt-based loans, provides customers with a basic income out of profits instead of interest rates catered to wealthy clients, and places land value taxes on properties fulfills the Georgist manifesto while leaving past restrictions in the dust. Historical and current evidence points to similar effective banking, finance, and community products. So, it is time to privatize Georgism’s methods and publicize the profits to show it is viable in today’s world.
See the rest of the article here: https://www.hgsss.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Privatize-the-Methods-Publicize-the-Profits-Jamal-Thomas.pdf