Events

This session introduces Progress & Poverty, including an overview of what we cover in the course. Even if you don’t plan to take the full course, you can expect this introductory session to help you gain a new and useful perspective on today’s problems of wealth concentration, poverty, and lack of opportunity.

America in the 1870s faced increasing poverty, rising unemployment, rule by an elite and their corporations– many of the same problems we’re experiencing today.  Henry George described the cause of these problems and proposed a remedy which is even more applicable today than it was in his time. His book Progress & Poverty, perhaps the best-selling nonfiction book of the 19th century, presented his analysis and solution.

In this “classic” version of the course, students are encouraged to read the original 1879 text, and/or modern summaries and supplements, and to evaluate what George says against their own experience and understanding. You’ll gain a new understanding of how the economy works, which public policies promote liberty and prosperity, and which don’t.

Class meets every Tuesday, beginning 6:15PM on January 19, ending March 22.  More information about the course is here and here. Pre-registration is helpful but not required.

In 1831, Alexis de Tocqueville and Gustave de Beaumont were sent by the French government to study the American prison system. In his later letters Tocqueville indicates that he and Beaumont used their official business as a pretext to study American society instead. They arrived in New York City in May of that year and spent nine months traveling the United States, studying the prisons, and collecting information on American society, including its religious, political, and economic character.

— Wikipedia

Democracy in America was one of the products of this trip. It’s available in several translations, some free such as this one and this one, also free in audio format.  On March 29, the Political Economy Book Club will discuss volume 1.

PEBC meetings are free and open to everyone who has read and wishes to talk about the book under discussion. Convenor Bob Matter appreciates an RSVP if possible.

A subsequent meeting will discuss volume 2

[Please note: There is no need to stay the full 3½ hours of this event.  Come when you’d like and leave when you wish. ]

How much stuff do you think you “own,” but really only have a limited license to use in specific ways? You may be surprised to learn who is restricting your freedom to innovate and share information.  As software-driven products become more common, how can you be sure that your possessions aren’t working against you?  Is that the price we have to pay to live in an advanced economy?  It need not be.

Find out how software freedom fits into the “liberty means justice” political economy that we teach, why and how we use open source software wherever possible (and it almost always is).  Discussion and videos presented in cooperation with the Free Software Foundation.

Meanwhile, to learn more about DRM and why it might be a bad thing, visit Defective by Design.

Do we need to suffer like this (and/or pay someone else) in order to fund government?  In this presentation, HGS instructor Bob Jene looks at what it costs to collect income taxes.  The direct cost to the government of operating the Internal Revenue Service is only a small part, as the burden put on the taxpayer, and the diversion of effort from productive uses, should also be considered.