Successful land speculation (also known as “real estate investment”) is really a matter of taking for yourself the gains that belong to the community. George Menninger is one of the many who have done it, but he’s exceptional in his understanding of what he did, as well as his sympathy for his victims. He’ll explain how the bad public policy he exploited not only made him rich, but led to continued poverty, unemployment, and even the recent economic meltdown.
Menninger is a Henry George School volunteer instructor, and this stand-alone session also serves as the introduction to his modern version of Progress & Poverty. After his talk, you may, if you wish, sign up for the five-session course.
Guided by HGS instructor Bob Jene, this tour starts with a look at the City of Chicago amenities on the lakefront in Grant Park, and their effect on land values in neighboring private properties especially along Prairie and Indiana Avenues south of Roosevelt. This is the museum campus area with a mixed style of housing. We continue down to the Central Station Area where there are some vintage mansions on Prairie Avenue. We will stop to look at assessor’s data on the value of units, properties and parking spaces and how they relate to location.
The People of the Abyss (1903) is a book by Jack London (1876-1916) about life in the East End of London in 1902. He wrote this first-hand account by living in the East End for several months, sometimes staying in workhouses or sleeping on the streets. The conditions he experienced and wrote about were the same as those endured by an estimated 500,000 of the contemporary London poor. Decades later, this book inspired George Orwell to write Down and Out in Paris and London.
A bit late to be a contemporary of Henry George, Jack London lived mainly in northern California and was a passionate advocate of workers’ rights. Both London and George were members of Bohemian Grove.
(source: Wikipedia)
The People of the Abyss is available free on line as text from Gutenberg, and as an audiobook from LibriVox, as well as in hardcopy from various libraries and book dealers.
Political Economy Book Club is open to everyone wishing to participate in the discussion, without charge altho donations are appreciated to help pay for rent and snacks. Convenor Bob Matter appreciates an RSVP from those planning to attend.
As farmland yields to “higher-value” uses, how (and how well and how inexpensively) will we eat? Bob Jene reviews data from a leading agricultural preservation organization, the American Farmland Trust (AFT). Among other things they buy development rights from landowners to insure continued farming use, and attempt to facilitate community supported agriculture which makes family farms more viable. A Georgist fiscal reform encourages more conservative and productive use of all land and reduces sprawl, thus preventing encroachment on farmland. An alliance with AFT would benefit us both.
Bob Matter’s Political Economy Book Club is reading Jack London’s dystopian novel The Iron Heel. On June 25 we’ll discuss chapters 1-13, and on July 23 chapters 14-25. This 1908 text is available free from Project Gutenberg, in hardcopy from some public libraries, or as an audiobook. You can buy used hardcopies for < $10 from several vendors.
We’ll meet at the East Loop location of Bridgeport Coffeehouse, 73 E Jackson Blvd.
Bob Matter’s Political Economy Book Club concludes its discussion of Jack London’s dystopian novel The Iron Heel. On July 23 we treat chapters 14-25.
We’ll meet at the east loop location of Bridgeport Coffee, 73 E Jackson.