Land Monopolization: Land, and all that is on or under land, is nature’s wealth of which every citizen is entitled to their share. Under exclusive title to land, a residue of aristocratic property rights, the landlord (a clue to that aristocratic origin) captures the landrent. Just as under aristocracy, no allowance is made for others’ rights to their share of what is obviously nature’s wealth.
Before they go to their final reward, every economist of high standing says, “Henry George had it right.” Standing the test of time and the world’s best minds, his philosophy said, “As no one’s labor produced land and it is a gift of nature in which all are entitled to their share, it is social wealth. Society should collect the landrent and each receives their fair share of nature’s wealth through that social income replacing all other taxes and paying the operating costs of all levels of government, federal, state, and local.”
In the wealthier oil-producing nations, people do not pay taxes and are likely allotted land rather than paying for it. But I guarantee you that the rental value of land will develop right along with the development of your economy. How much will you pay for a home on a nice sandy beach and how much will you pay for that same home in a crowded suburb? How much will you pay for a retail outlet in the center of a city which will earn you $10,000 a day and how much will you pay for one on the edge of town which will earn you $100 a day? How much will you pay for a farm with rich soil close to markets and how much will you pay for one far from markets with poor soil?
That difference you are willing to pay represents the rental value of land and those location and wealth values are there no matter what philosophy a society is structured under. If you do not allot that land by rental value, it will be allotted by corrupt political power. I say corrupt because having such power to distribute the total wealth of a nation will corrupt virtually anyone.
Corruption will not be the only costs. Without the rental costs of land factored in, a countries’ distribution mechanism will be highly arbitrary and inefficient. With land distribution through political power, those values are still there, massive funds will be paid under the table, their will be battles between clans over turf similar to the mafia battles in America.
Efficient land distribution through society colleting rental values sweeps those struggles and inefficiencies aside. Each citizen owns the land their home sits on and, through society spending landrent on governing and social needs, receives their share of the wealth produced from all resources on or under land (oil, iron ore, gold, timber, etc.). This achieves a country's goal of full and equal rights for all.
As the most efficient can pay the highest resource (land) rent, the most efficient farmers will own and operate the farms, the most efficient businesspeople will own and operate businesses, and the most efficient entrepreneurs will own and operate industries.
With each having rights to land for personal use and their share of the wealth produced by nature on or under all land, those huge blocs of capital capitalism is worshipped for vanish and reappear as equally-shared use-values. Instead of earned wealth, they were at all times the capitalized values of the wealth annually appropriated through private collection of landrents or rental values collected within other monopolies (banking, technology, communications) in which there is little tangible wealth produced by labor but massive wealth appropriated through capitalizing rental values.
Keep your eyes on those huge blocs of capital within capitalism which has the world mesmerized. They are nothing more than the capitalized value of wealth appropriated through exclusive titles to nature’s resources and technologies. Change those exclusive titles to Henry George’s conditional titles (society collect [capture] those rental values) and those huge blocs of unearned wealth are instantly transposed into relatively equally-shared use-values. Under those full and equal rights, economic efficiency increases equal to the invention of money, the printing press, and electricity and each need work only 2 to 3 days per week even as the average quality of life rises rapidly.
Monopolization of Technology (patents): Technology is a part of nature waiting to be discovered. Consider the costs to the consumer if fire, the wheel, gears, levers, etc. were held under exclusive patent titles requiring payment of royalties. Due to patents monopolizing technology, those obviously high costs are added to the price of all consumer products today. Pay inventors a capitalized value for their inventions, place that technology in the public domain alongside of fire, wheels, gears, pulleys, levers, and millions of other inventions already free to use, and the cost of consumer products will drop by at least half (our research suggests 75%). Patent profits are collected through the stock market and the above suggested change in patent law would eliminate fully 85% of the gambling casinos called stock markets. Remaining would be an efficient stock market, similar to a bond market, buying and selling real values. It is the elimination of that ethereal financial world and all finance capital funding the real economy where those efficiency gains are claimed.
Communication Monopolies: Radio, TV, cell phone, and broadband spectrums are a part of the wealth of nature which were discovered many decades ago. As we speak, the American Congress is parceling out exclusive titles to choice spectrums to cell phone companies. The $2 billion expected from that sale is dwarfed by the hundreds of billions, even trillions, of dollars in savings to the public if a reasonable share of those spectrums remained in the public domain.
WiFi technology with 10 times the capacity for 10% the cost (meaning 1% the cost per unit of capacity), is here today. That capacity can handle each person’s broadband connection, phone, TV, radio, and beamed movies, all for possibly $20 a month as opposed to current costs of $70 to $95 a month for just broadband and phone connection.
Under WiFi efficiency, phone and cable companies will disappear. TV and Radio beamed over WiFi will reach consumers direct. With no need for satellite stations, 90% of the TV and radio stations will have to produce their own material. With the popular programs reaching their audience over WiFi, most other stations will fail to draw a paying audience. Interest groups, Georgists, environmentalists, peace groups, etc., with their own built-in audience, will be able to pick up those stations for pennies on the dollar. Stations worldwide can reach the American audience and American stations can reach WiFi wired citizens worldwide.
Here is where those premium spectrums able to penetrate trees, walls, even mountains, and currently being auctioned off to cell phone companies, are so valuable. Those choice spectrums can not only be installed for half the cost of lower capacity spectrums, they can simultaneously carry cell phone traffic, broadband, radio, TV, and movies. This means those spectrum sales are blatant plans to monopolize those valuable sectors of nature’s wealth. On top of the above savings, spectrums reserved for product or service databases can replace advertising which is a major part of the several hundred dollars per month per consumer the monopolized communications industry currently collects.
If that monopolization can be avoided, again huge blocs of monopolized wealth are transposed into equally-shared use-values. All wealth is processed from resources. Most those resources are in the impoverished world. Ally together, protect those resources through Henry George’s conditional titles (society collecting [capturing]rental values), negotiate access to your resources for access to technology, and you will have converted current patent monopolies into public domain resources, and you can go on to develop a productive, wealthy, economy.
Money and Banking Monopolies: The Technology of money was discovered 5,000 years ago. The skills of banking were learned over the centuries since. Outside of a little brick and mortar, there is nothing within an honest banking system to own. Yet a banking license will develop a value of hundreds of millions or even hundreds of billions of dollars. As there is nothing within those values built by labor, there is nothing there to own, a country’s banking system should be socially owned. Just as resource rents, banking profits should go to society. Just as resource rents pay governing costs, banking profits should go towards other social needs (infrastructure, communication, education) The huge blocs of unearned monopolized capital have been converted to equally-shared use-values.
Secondary Monopolies: The monopolization of insurance, health care, law, etc., are eliminated by full and equal rights such as some countries are now guaranteeing their citizens. Again huge blocs of unearned monopolized capital are transposed into equally-shared use-values.
Within the monopolized world, I will be challenged that those blocs of capital are necessary to run an economy. Not so. Every bloc of capital that disappeared had only been buying and selling values that had been appropriated, by the mechanism of exclusive titles, from true producers. Those false values are no longer there even as real values, meaning use-values, increase.
Not only do values honestly earned through true production remain, any need for finance capital can be covered by created money. By a central bank recording the figures into a Treasury account and spending that money for social needs or loaning it for productive uses necessary money is created. However, this can only be done if a small nation is allied with other small nations to form a trading bloc and this you must do. Currently the money creation process is being used by imperial nations to buy your resources and you must ally together to gain that right for yourself.
Worshiping the huge blocs of capital in the imperial centers is worshipping the theft of one’s own wealth. Applying Henry George’s conditional titles to nature’s wealth throughout the developing world, ally as one trading bloc, trade access to your resources for access to technology and training, create your own regional trading currency, retain your cooperative trade structure, and the currently impoverished world will become prosperous.
All through the 23 years putting this together, I understood that a superefficient, individualized, capitalist, economy would strip the earth’s resources and there would be massive chaos. Evolution did not design the human animal for an individualized life. We are designed for communitarian living but to use those words within the capitalist world is to be instantly ostracized. Only in the forthcoming editions have I figured out how to address the necessity of a communitarian society such as a few third world countries are establishing. Only a communitarian structure can guide the energies and need for identity of the human animal into peaceful channels.
Our research concludes that the elimination of four primary monopolies are crucial, banking, land, technology (patents), and communications. The elimination of each is equally important. When they are eliminated, all secondary monopolies stand exposed and will quickly disappear.
Posted by proutist-universal on March 13, 2007 1:18 AM
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"In economic life there is extreme inequality and exploitation. Although colonialism no longer exists openly in the political and economic sphere, still it persists indirectly, and this should not be tolerated... In this respect you should remember that in economic life, we will have to guarantee the minimum requirements of life to one and all... There cannot be any sort of adjustment as far as this point is concerned. The minimum purchasing requirement must be guaranteed to all. Today these fundamental essentialities are not being guaranteed. Rather, people are being guided by deceptive economic ideas like outdated Marxism, which has proven ineffective in practical life and has not been successfully implemented in any corner of the world. Why do people still believe in such a theory, which has never been proved successful? The time has come for people to make a proper assessment of whether they are being misguided or not." |
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"Human beings have still not been able to form a human society, and have still not learned to move with the spirit of a pilgrim. Although many small groups, motivated by self-interest, work together in particular situations, not even a small fraction of their work is done with a broader social motive. By strict definition, shall we have to declare that each small family unit is a society in itself? If going ahead in mutual adjustment only out of narrow self-interest or momentary self-seeking is called society, then in such a society, no provision can be made for the disabled, the diseased or the helpless, because in most cases nobody can benefit from them in any way... in that case there always remains the possibility of some people getting isolated from the collective. All human beings must attach themselves to others by the common bond of love and march forward hand in hand; then only will I proclaim it a society." |