Prosper Australia

Over 115 people attended this packed event. Phil covered the long term issues like few others can. For more details on Phil’s exciting work, check his new website. Copies of the DVD + Powerpoint + Presentation are $20. Order here (credit card preferred).

For those interested in the type of comprehensive analysis Phil delivered, watch out for Fred Harrison from the UK, the world’s pre-emininent expert on the 18 year cycle. Prosper Australia is proud to be touring him in 2009. Fred has many books discussing this issue available from our bookshop

Phil Anderson is a presenter of the highest note.

• Hear about the Warren Buffett of the 1920’s
• Learn about the inter-related nature of economic cycles
• Analyse unique data

Dont miss this important evening in the comforts of our Hardware Lane abode.

RSVP essential

Level 1, 27 Hardware Lane, CBD
Entry by gold coin donation

Education by young people for young people

What Is The Earthsharing Challenge?

• An opportunity for an interactive workshop on land and natural resource use
• An offer to schools to show your students work on environmental projects
• A challenge to students to be selected to attend a free environmental camp, with a hands on role in the production of a video on sustainability

Outline Of The Challenge

Two members of the Earthsharing team will come out to your school and take your students through a 45 minute interactive environmental learning experience. The workshop is based around Earthsharing Australia’s philosophy of land and natural resources as part of the Global Commons. More specifically we will explore current environmental issues, eco footprints and opportunities for further student involvement.

In wrapping up the workshop, your students have the opportunity to present any environmental projects, issues or plans for the future that your school may have.

When? Where? What?

We run dynamic, interactive classes where students get an insight into how our economy encourages us to think certain ways. How can we reform our economy to look after the economy? Students will experience the possibilities first hand through our intereactive Earth Share game. Here’s a Photo of the students in action at the Earthsharing Challenge camp (JPG 169Kb)

These are 45 minute classes that we run for free, within 30m of the CBD. Next workshop season will be April 2007.

All we need is:

• A date and time
• A space to hold the workshop and presentation.
• An opportunity for students to prepare a five minute presentation of your schools environmental projects, issues or future plans. Any medium is good, with any number of students involved.

Want more info?

Email Us: students@earthsharing.org.au or
call Our Offices: 96702754

So… Challenge Your School, Challenge Yourself!

Land Supply and Housing Affordability: Where do the Homeless fit in?

Prosper Australia forum, Fri 13 October 2006

Ken Fernandes (Stop Evictions) & Bryan Kavanagh (Land Values Research Group) provided a cosy audience with a number of insights.

Amongst many interesting facts, Ken gave us some startling evidence from Karachi, Pakistan:

• Since Jan 2006, 3,490 houses have been demolished
• 40% had no opportunity to take their belongings out of the house.

The number of people evicted:

• Jan to June 2004 - approximately 334,593
• Jan to June 2005 - approximately 2,084,388

Ken informed the audience that this is a common trend throughout much of South-East Asia.

Bryan Kavanagh kindly provided his speakers notes

The evidence on housing evictions just given by Ken Fernandes shows that the dispossessed don’t fit in. The poor have no political clout, so they don’t really matter. It’s that simple. Homelessness is evidence of a corrupt system in any country, whether it be in countries of the first, second or third world.

As for housing affordability, the movie “Thank you for smoking” has more than a hint of an effective response to homelessness when Nick Naylor, successful anti-hero lobbyist for the tobacco industry justifies what he does for a living:-

• I’ve got a mortgage
• “99% of people do what they do because of the mortgage”
• “We’d all be better off if we rented” [!]

Provided it didn’t mean ‘from landlords’, Hollywood has never spoken truer words!

Unfortunately, few people understand land price. It’s simply the private expropriation and capitalisation of uncollected, community-generated rent.

This example may assist to explain:-

If a residential site sells for $200,000, and residential property yields are showing 4% gross, the annual site rent is $8000. [ie. 4% of $200,000]

So, if we took even half this publicly-created rent for public finance, the price of the site would fall to $100,000! [ie. $4000 pa capitalised at 4% = $4000 x 100/4] This would make land affordable!

If we didn’t capture the site’s existing $1000 in rates, the price of the site would actually increase to $225,000 [ie. $9000 pa x 100/4]

So, public charges on land actually lower land prices!

• And, if we took the whole $9000 pa each year, the site’s price would drop to zero!
• The homeless can afford zero land price. Landlords can’t – and landlords do have clout!
• [And, of course, landlords do not 'supply' land – it's a natural resource! ]

We used to capture more publicly-generated rent before Gough Whitlam at the outset of the 1970s decided to halve council rates and fund this reduction from federal revenues. A gigantic land bubble had burst during Whitlam’s Prime Ministership, creating a recession. “It was caused by property taxes and succession duties!” cried the landlord lobby.

So, State probate tax (led by Joh Bjelke Petersen in Queensland) and Federal estate duty were duly abolished during what remained of the 1970s.

With these incentives–coupled to those of negative gearing–the green light was given to rampant speculation. [And this, of course, has impacted negatively on land 'supply' and affordability.] Much the same process which inflated land prices was legislated by most of the western world, exemplified by California’s ‘Proposition 13′ which put a ceiling on the property tax in 1978.

Of course, the availability, or so-called ’supply’, of suitably zoned residential land has some affect on price, but I find myself at odds with the Institute for Public Affairs’ Alan Moran, whose “No opportunities on the property ladder”(23 August 2006 - please read comments section), argues simply that greater land release by Australian State governments, as is done in the US cities of Houston, Dallas and Atlanta is the necessary public policy response. [It is not coincidental that those three cities have experienced far greater than average US crime rates, due in no small part to their soulless, unplanned expansion.]

Inside a bubble, things have a habit of getting distorted. You even start to believe governments when they say ‘The economy is in great shape!’ The ‘wealth effect’ of a bubble has a powerful influence. People don’t bother to save. “We are asset rich and can borrow more”. [Up go land prices!] Housing equity withdrawal, or re-financing, went berserk in Australia, then in US, between 2000-2004 as the bubble in land prices was used to purchase even more residential real estate. Even people on modest means believed they, too, could become landlords. [Pity about productivity!]

Thus, a credit spree has funded history’s greatest bubble in land prices – whilst the gap between rich and poor, and dispossession and homelessness, grew.

As they say in the classics: “It’s pathological tax systems - not land supply, stupid!”

Land Supply issue in further detail

International Union of LVT Conference – London July 2006

The theme of the International Union Conference was The Economics of Abundance - the point being critical that the wealth is there in economies, it’s just that it is terribly distributed by taxation regimes devised and maintained by a small but powerful band of rentiers.

The conference was divided into 3 days, each displaying its own facet:-

1. The Economy of Abundance (There is plenty there!)
2. The Transitional Arrangements (Who will be affected and how)
3. Getting the Measure of Abundance (Facts and figures proving our case)

After an introduction by IU General Secretary, Peter Gibb, Fred Harrison opened the conference with the Terms for the New Society: Our economics is not working. New directions are now unavoidable in terms both of social processes and institutions. We need to re-write the specifications of a new science and quantify the benefits of a better sharing of our treasure trove of natural and common resources.

Fred was followed by the conference’s first keynote speaker, Dr Rana Roy, a former senior policy advisor in Paul Keating’s Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, but now an advisor to the European Conference of Ministers of Transport and the British Government. He spoke to The Economy of Abundance, outlining the technical case in favour of funding infrastructure from the capture of land value betterment.

US Economist Professor Michael Hudson launched keynote paper 2, Technology, Rent and Real Estate, a hard-hitting expose of the status quo – along the lines of his recent Harper’s Magazine article in the US: things have got out of hand: the piper must now be paid for the economic abuses wrought by rampant rentiers.

In the afternoon of day one, we were regaled with barrister Leslie Blake’s dissertation Beyond Utopia. This was followed by Alan Spence’s foray into Marx and the Dialectics of Urban Rent which told us that Marx had the right idea on rent, but it was not followed through by adherents. Alan also discussed some indebtedness to Henry George of Ebenezer Howard’s concept of garden cities surrounded by broadacres, as exemplified by Letchworth, north of London.

Day Two dawned as meteorologically hot and unusually sticky as had been London’s previous week. London Transport’s Dave Wetzel provided a review of Day One and introduced Australian director of Economic Indicator Services, Phil Anderson, to provide his view of how The Capital Markets will perform during the transition to Georgism. Phil showed authoritatively, by providing compelling examples, how the markets would factor the changes in earlier than many of us would expect, some public companies being affected more than others by the transitional arrangements - depending upon the extent to which they had been rent-dependent.

Dr Francis Smith, recently awarded an MBE, gave his exposition on how we may accommodate asset rich but income poor pensioners during the transition in his Pensioners’ Equity Plan, followed by a captivating summation provided by emeritus professor of Epidemiology, Dr George Miller, in his Costing a Nuclear Future.

James Robertson who had been on the staff of Prime Minister Harold Macmillan gave a lively view of the transition in Political Economy, Common Resources and a New Global System, followed by US Professor of Economics, Nic Tideman, who rounded off day 2 with his exposition on Land Value Taxation and Eminent Domain.

Day 3 found Canadian professor of law and philosopher Dr Frank Peddle chairing proceedings. He introduced the director of the LVRG, Bryan Kavanagh, who suggested in The Riches of Oz that had Australian captured half its economic rent since 1972, its GDP would have been $2200 billion in 2004 instead of a mere $830 billion. Despite this greater economic growth, it would have been quite sustainable and less destructive of the environment than we have experienced over the last 30 years, because of the increased charges placed on the holding of natural resources which would tend to protect and preserve them.

PhD student Jon Mendel spoke of how The Riches of Iraq had been hijacked away from the Iraqis, despite being otherwise promised by the US in the early stages of the invasion again Saddam Hussein.

In The Riches of Russia Russia, Dr Tatiana Roskoshnaya described how the ownership of Russian resources was far from the Georgist millennium following communism’s collapse due to the carpet-bagging privatisation that has ensued. Male life expectancy had declined to 58 years only. This spoke volumes about something being radically amiss.

Michael Hudson and Spanish lawyer and advisor to the Argentinean government, Fernando Scornik Gerstein, used their detailed knowledge of the current economic and political position in China to speak jointly on China: Capitalism without Private Property in Land. Fernando thoughts that a capital gains tax on real estate transactions may best suit China’s particular situation created controversy.

Ronald Banks proposed The People’s Budget 2009 as a tribute to the People’s Georgist Budget of 1909, and Peter Gibb, editor of ‘Land and Liberty’ Secretary of the UK Henry George Foundation offered a prayerful summary of how we should plan our attack in The Agenda for the 21st Century.

Conversations with panel speakers from each morning and afternoon session provided opportunity for cross-fertilisation of ideas, agreement, and a little disagreement. Attendees for the first two days numbered about 100. There may have been 70 on day three.

The conference was captured by two cameras by a team of professionals who propose to distribute the film commercially. The success or otherwise of this venture to get details out to the wider public will perhaps determine the conference’s ultimate success.

A Friday night banquet to celebrate the conference consisted of a sociable boat tour on the Thames from near the Hungerford footbridge past the Canary Wharf development on London’s Jubilee line extension - the subject of Fred Harrison’s ‘Wheels of Fortune’ - and to Greenwich and back. As the late evening sun disappeared, the Thames took on an engaging new life.

- Bryan Kavanagh

Alanna Hartzok’s Earth Rights Democracy Tour overview

Over 12 talks and 450 plus people heard Alanna’s core message –

“We all have an equal right and a birth right to the Earth. The earth has a biological & ecological right to its future too. We are promoting a new form of property rights where what you build with your own hands, what you labour for, is your private property. You shouldn’t be taxed for something productive you are doing. What we are saying is that the gifts of nature, the land & natural resources of the earth belong to we the people. We all deserve a fair share of the profits from these natural gifts. This is a natural form of public finance policy”

Alanna was kind enough to leave a few of her keynote presentations for us to digest:

• Triple Dip Plus - Oz Tour Master File (3MB, powerpoint)
• True Cost Economics(2.2MB, powerpoint)

Such a direct description of this system saw Alanna give presentations to Australian Greens leader Bob Brown and the Victorian Greens State Convention. Radio interviews took place on the ABC, 3CR and RRR’s Long Grass Sessions.

• RRR Interview - MP3, 15.24m, 14.4MB

Visiting Hobart’s Female Factory in ‘the Valley of Death’ (as it was once known), Alanna was shocked to read of the hardships of women sent to Australia for stealing food. She soon joined the dots. “They didn’t tell the real story, they keep suppressing the real issue, the enclosure of the commons, that’s what led to the petty crime”. Back in the days of the commons, poor or unemployed people could always find something productive to do by ‘working the commons’ by planting their own crop or grazing their herd on the unused (typically the least valuable) land. From these ‘common’ lands enough could be earned to barter with others so that a basic existence could be maintained. Sounds like a human right, yeah?”

Asked about the chances for change in today’s conservative environment, Alanna pointed out “look, imagine when there was slavery, did they ever think they’d get out of it? I mean people were actually saying that slave-holders should be compensated for giving up this ‘right’!!! Strong people said NO, there must be justice and we must move beyond this.

Look at women’s suffrage. Women were whipped in jails over raising questions about the right to vote These women must have thought they were in a hopeless position during the depths of those dark nights in jail. But in time they got this policy through, though it’s still not universal.

Now in time people will see that an Earth Rights Democracy is the way for true freedom, a true democracy. Do you think the creator planned for life to be this difficult, for some to get free rides and others to be taxed for all their hard work? For the earth to be easy pickings and polluted at the same time?

“Now you’re not going to fully get this in a one hour lecture, ’cause you all know how hard it is to look outside the square, especially when we’re conditioned to consider things from a capital versus labour analysis, but be patient. As a young woman I too was concerned with poverty, disease and the indigenous. With this new perspective hopefully now embedded in your outlook, you will see how much of a pivotal issue this is.”

Make sure you email us to sign up for a trial subscription to our Progress Magazine to continue your understanding of this outrageous concept - “Pay for what you take, not what you make”.

Alanna Hartzok CV

Alanna Hartzok is a Co-leader of the Earth Rights Institute and a UN NGO representative. She has worked extensively with the UN HABITAT on local funding issues and has a long list of public speaking engagements including the World Urban Forum, US Institute for Ecological Economics Conference, and the Eastern Economics Association Conference (NY).

Lecturer, legislative reformer and grass roots activist Alanna Hartzok’s vast array of interests sees her moving between villages in Nigeria to the halls of power at the UN. Her central focus is that with greater insight we can orchestrate a tax shift policy that addresses major local and global problems.

Alanna hopes to help show “that there is an alternative economic paradigm which addresses the dis-functions of the current system, rather than simply the symptoms, an approach that is both more efficient and more equitable than the current one. People working for justice need to understand what we mean by the land problem and its place within an ethical and human rights framework.”

In her 2001 E.F. Schumacher Lecture she said “The needs of the people and the needs of the planet are one and the same: protection, care, validation, respect, appreciation, creative expression. Thus, the ethics of the Next Economy will flow out of a profound perception that the rights of human beings and the rights of the planet are one and the same. The Next Economy will be founded on ethics so simple and basic that thoughtful human beings will say, “Yes, this is true.” The force of truth is a liberating force, always has been and always will be. Mahatma Gandhi knew and taught this. Gandhi lived according to sattyagraha, the truth force.”

From 1993 until 1998 she was involved in a very tough political campaign to bring in legislation which made taxes more efficient and fair in her native Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She learnt first hand that to change land laws much education of lawmakers is necessary along with an enormous amount of patience and resilience.

However Alanna does more than give lectures and talk to politicians. She is actively involved in bringing about peace and prosperity. This is seen with her involvement with the building of an Eco Village Living and Learning Centre in Odi, Nigeria. This is a region continually in conflict over oil rents, and Alanna and her Team are developing connections in Bayelsa State in the Niger Delta, working to develop a Resource Trust similar to the Alaska Permanent Fund.

While in Australia Alanna will address many diverse groups whose interests range from democracy to infrastructure funding, the green tax shift and peace. Upon hearing Alanna’s message you will gain a new policy outlook for which many of the world’s problems would be simplified if only the policy makers respected fundamental economic laws.

Alanna Hartzok CV Highlights:

Current:

• Working with the UN HABITAT Agency’s Land Tenure Center to develop worldwide training programs
• Finishing a book - The Earth Belongs to Everyone - A Collection of Articles and Essays by Alanna Hartzok, to be published by the Institute for Economic Democracy
  in July 2006.
• Advising associates of United for a Fair Economy to develop populist education on Land Value Taxation methodology in Pennsylvania
• Preparing a presentation for the World Urban Forum, Vancouver 2006

Articles featured in:

• Creating a Sustainable World: Past Experiences, Future Struggles edited by Trent Schroyer and Thomas Golodik (The Apex Press, 2006)
  • - article: Land Ethics and Public Finance Policy as if People and Planet Mattered
• A World that Works: Building Blocks for a Just and Sustainable Society, by Trent Schroyer (The Bootstrap Press)
  • - article: Pennsylvania’s Success with Local Tax Reform
• Building a More Democratic United Nations, edited by Frank Barnaby (Frank Cass),
  • - article: Acting As If the Second Assembly Already Exists.
• Planet Champions: Adventures in Saving the World by Jack Yost (Bridge City Books)

Synopsis:

• March 2006 - delivered her 40th major lecture in the last 4 years, a two hour presentation to a group of progressive Federal Democrats in Washington on tax reform.
• 2004 – set up Nigeria’s first Eco-Village in Odi.
• 2001 E.F Schumacher Lecture – Democracy, Earth Rights & the Next Economy. Talk reprinted in light of critical acclaim by the E.F Schumacher Society
• 2001 – represented the Green Party in Pennsylvania State elections.
• 1993 - initiated tax reform legislation and worked with state Senator Terry Punt and his staff to guide it through Pennsylvania legislative hearings to nearly unanimous passage of Senate Bill 211, signed by Governor Thomas Ridge as Act 108 in November of 1998.