Renegade Economists Show 578
As broadcast on the 3CR airwaves 6 – 6.30pm on the fourth Wednesday of the month.
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Show Notes
Now we get down to the practicalities in the 5th Georgist podcourse. We discuss the best practices for ensuring the pathway to custodianship over consumerism is possible. Geeky but essential, local and state government policy levers are presented as counter-manoeuvres to established political and economic thought.
Related Links
Brigit Delaney – I was poor while all of my friends were rich – the hardest part was the lack of freedom
As for the poor – one of the worst things about being poor, and by extension being on Newstart – is the lack of freedom. Not just the lack of freedom to travel, or enjoy socialising with your friends, but the mental freedom. As soon as you get on Newstart, your mind isn’t free. It’s anxious and busy working out how to survive. It’s doing tiny sums with tiny bits of money. It’s going right down to the decimal point.
To have money is to be free, to have that space in your head freed up for other things: thinking, dreaming, enjoying your life, planning for your future, surrendering under the canopy of palms to the four-hand massage and thinking of nothing, because you don’t have a care in the world.
Mason Gaffney on the mansion as a basis for capacity to pay.
Now do us both a favor, please. Pause and savor that comparison. Let it linger, as though you were testing a slow sip of wine from Fredonia’s famous grapes. Roll it on your tongue, mull sensually over its aroma and bouquet, and, getting back to business, mull cerebrally over its full import. The house that shelters the very rich family is worth 2.8 times the house of the modest family; but the land under the house of the very rich is worth 17.5 times the land of the modest. Seventeen and one half times as much! Again, it is lot value, more than building value, that divides the rich from the poor. Seldom will you find an economic rule more strongly supported by data. It’s just a matter of presenting the data so as to test and bring out the rule.
The Total Resource Rents of Australia report. This graph summarises what we are working towards in this section of the course:
The ABS’ Environmental Economic Accounting System. Have a look at that summary list of resource use per household etc. Table 2.1 on Total Environmental Assets graphs up as:
Notice the dominance of anything? Interesting they don’t include privatised water entitlements.
Georgist Glossary
Here’s the Twitter and watch #LVT, #commons, #rentier.
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Thanks to Music by Poddington Bear, Wagon Christ, Bach and vocals from FreeSound.org (Right Purdy, Roses 1401 and Dobroide)
Check the previous podcourse shows, designed for those wanting to understand the basics of Georgism.
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