Events

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.

Would Rube Goldberg have been able to design a less straightforward system of funding government than the U S Federal income tax? In this presentation, HGS instructor Bob Jene looks at what it costs to collect this revenue.  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.

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.

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.