Taxi users should be angry at being the victim of a scam obliging them to travel in discomfort so some ‘entrepreneur’ can enjoy a concessional license fee. And regular license holders ought to share that anger – their rent-seeking activity is being topped and captured by a sub-group, all in the name of mobility for the disabled.
BLOG: economic rent
3 terms to make property speculators stammer
Who pays for a $43 million windfall gain in three years? That's a 352% return for the "entrepreneurial" Richard Gu. His skill? To have the capital to buy the land, then to apply for a 1500 apartment re-zoning of the land (from commercial to multi-density). Not bad...
Thimk, Grattan Institute, Thimk!
If the Grattan thimkers wanted to reignite prosperity and national competitiveness, they would look at the cost of land – for Rural, Manufacturing and Services, for business and for workers alike. Inexpensive land de-risks all economic activity. We have been bloody fools to abandon this vital natural advantage to the ticket –clippers.
The ABS values Australia’s assets
The latest report by the Australian Bureau of Statistics on the world leading System of Environmental Economic Accounting was released yesterday. The ABS have taken a lead role in developing the system at the United Nations level over the last decade. Last year the UN...
Why the rent is so damn high
How one person can own another by our continual ignorance of the Law of Rent. A vital 5 minutes.
The mystery of unearned income
As published today on Truthout The wealth gap is dividing society at an astonishing rate as the lessons from the Great Recession are helicoptered away. QE3 has worked for Wall St but little else. Over 30 nations are facing the shock and awe of property bubbles as the...
Harnessing Monopoly to Finance Government
The Total Resource Rents of Australia report finds the complete removal of income, company and sales tax is possible by replacement with a tax on monopolies such as water trading, cyber squatting, taxi licenses and land. “Economists have for hundreds of years pointed...
Total Resource Rents of Australia
Major Findings The Total Resource Rents of Australia report finds: The influence of monopoly is 10 times greater than mainstream economists acknowledge. Economic rents are a significant component of the Australian economy, comprising 23.6% of GDP. Almost half of all...
Rentals Brittle, Under Pressure
Last week the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI) held a seminar in Melbourne on the serious stresses on renter households that have emerged over the last twenty years. Dr Wendy Stone from Swinburne found: • A decline in overall private rental...
Australia’s newest taxpayer
Linc Energy today announced a major shale oil and gas discovery around Coober Pedy in South Australia. Unrisked prospective reserves have been separately estimated by two independent consultancies at 103 and 233 billion barrels of oil equivalent. That is an...