~~~

These interesting heterodox exchanges had me thinking about Henry George’s insights touching upon energy. Land, labour and capital is the actual order of production, not vice-versa as we’re often told. Our natural resources are worked upon by the energy expended by labour to generate both wealth and the capital that is used to expend further energy.

We tax wages and purchases, so we have less of them. George noted that if we were to capture our resource rents we’d have less destructive speculation, leaving labour and capital with their rightful returns–their earnings–sans taxes! This, in turn, protects the environment and natural resources. Joseph Stiglitz has argued a case for capturing as close to 100% of natural resource rent as possible.

Were we to do that, we’d be able to have Kate Raworth’s proposed universal basic income and abolish poverty: without inflation!