~~~

Supporters of the ideas of Henry George are whistleblowers. There’s an ironical meme on social media “Land tax would fix this” oft-directed by Georgists at the respective students of climate change, human rights and economics.

It is spot on, but we’re only directed to try to fix the perverse outcomes, not their ultimate cause. The song ‘Rip rip wood chip’ comes to mind.

Humans require cheap and easy access to land but, when this is unavailable, poverty, social unrest, economic failure and even war are the results.

These are big statements. Surely if they were true, we would have remedied this parlous situation?

Not so. There is a relative handful people who benefit enormously from existing circumstances, and they’re likely to want to keep things that way. They have re-cast the study of economics to lie to us, and a media beholden to these mega-wealthy interests acts to support them.

Whistleblowers are rarely popular until their claims have been properly investigated. That Georgists have been able accurately to call real estate booms and busts has the ring of scientific explanation about it – such that the Georgist case surely merits public investigation: right now.