This documentary on much-needed education reforms is a clear-headed, gripping indictment. Using New Jersey as a case study, director Bob Bowdon lays out why one of the country’s most expensive school districts has one of the highest dropout rates and lowest standardized test scores. The problem is corruption, union bureaucracy, and reactionary politics. “Where the …
Author Archives: hgs
Jan 23 and 28: Two more Progress & Poverty opportunities
If you have not taken, or would like to refresh your knowledge of, Progress & Poverty, you’ll have two opportunities to start this week. At our Loop location, a Monday night class starts January 23 at 6 PM. This is the modern version, and Bob Jene will be the instructor In the South Suburbs, our …
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Jan 21 (Sat) 2 PM: Dr. Strangelove
Curious Georgists Go to the Movies present Dr. Strangelove. You need to have a unique (and twisted) sense of humor to find nuclear holocaust entertaining, but director Stanley Kubrick does a marvelous job of balancing his truely bizzare humor with the gut-wrenching terror felt in the Cold War era. The political satire stars Peter Sellers portraying …
Thursday, January 12: Republican Presidential Candidates and their Economic Advisors
On Bob Jene will look at eight Republican presidential candiates, analyzing their proposals to “fix” the economy. (Yeah, there used to be more than eight, and by the time of the talk there probably will be fewer than eight, but Bob is working with eight.) He’ll also consider the views of their advisors, and evaluate …
How I made a million dollars in Chicago real estate: I $tole it from you!
Successful land speculation is really a matter of capturing for yourself the gains that belong to the community. George Menninger is one of many who have done it. Far beyond any need to earn a living, George now spends some of his time explaining how the bad public policy he exploited not only made him …
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After the Crash course begins Tuesday
Traditional Henry George School classes, including Progress & Poverty, help us comprehend how an economy based on justice would never crash the way ours has over the past few years. But now that we’re in a mess, how do we get out? After the Crash extends and applies Henry George’s analysis to the problem of …
April 16 Monday: What has religion to do with political economy?
We call this course Economics as if God Cared. The United States has no formal established church, yet matters of religion keep popping in political campaigns. What has the Judeo-Christian-Muslim religious tradition to do with questions of political economy? One perspective is to ask how “God” advises us to organize our economic life. According to …
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Winter 2012 begins at the Henry George School
This term we’ll offer four courses in seven sections, including our first south suburban class in decades (Progress & Poverty at the Blue Island Public Library.) The schedule includes links to the course descriptions. As always, each course requires only a $25 registration fee, and you’re welcome to sit in on the first session before …
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Wednesday: The Political Economy Book Club reads Adam Smith
An inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, generally referred to by its shortened title The Wealth of Nations, is the magnum opus of the Scottish economist and moral philosopher Adam Smith. First published in 1776, it is a reflection on economics at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution and argues …
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Poverty will end when people think
[The following, originally posted in December, 2011, remains relevant and has received minor edits.] The mission of the Henry George School is to make available to everyone an education in political economy and social philosophy, based primarily on the works of Henry George. Anyone who understands George’s ideas knows the cause of poverty, and knows …