photo credit: Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

The ability to charge rent is in effect imposing an entrance fee to life on this planet. Having a wise old supporter in George Jukes placating the office over the last few days, we were reminded of the wisdom of Roots Revolution stocked deep in the vaults of this website. Written in 1985, Steve Wall unravels the entrance fee to life in this eloquent article.

Equal & Inalienable Rights to the Earth was superbly presented by Dr Terry Dwyer in his Henry George Commemoration speech this week. Make sure you sit down with a good cuppa to read this.

And on this topic of rights, one’s political stance is often tested. Sarah Palin, Governor of Alaska and new Republican VP candidate, has written of the improvements she has made to Alaska’s resource rental system, closing off many loopholes. Will she be able to curb the influence of Big Oil amongst the Republican elite of ‘rich white guys’? Let’s hope so because sharing the rent of the earth enables us all to have a little dignity in our place on the planet.

photo credit: thmcmahon

Vanuatu was judged the world’s happiest nation in 2006. However, with the growing privatisation of land title, their idyllic lifestyle is being carved up and sold off to the highest international bidder.

A concerned chief from South Santo, Mack Paiiamaja, has expressed serious concerns regarding massive uncontrolled land speculation and sub division development happening within Santo.

Land is acquired at local prices, then priced upwards and marketed on an international level, selling at international prices that dwarf local prices. The difference between the local and international prices is known as economic rent. The majority of this rent should be returned to the people of Vanuatu, helping to fund the infrastructure such developments require. It would also go a long way to funding the education and health the community of Santo needs.
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photo credit: Daquella manera

We must reiterate that buyers are on hold because land prices have escalated to such epic proportions. Auction prices now constitute over 7 times the average wage, more than double the long term average.

70 - 80% of each auction price is accounted for by the land component. Any 0.25% increase in interest rates has as big an impact as a 0.5 - 1% increase in interest rates from bygone eras. Why? Because the lump sum amount, read land price, is so much larger than in the past.

Buyers must be watching the 15% reduction in property prices in the US. The UK has had a 10.5% drop in the last year. Australia’s property boom and accompanying credit boom has outstripped both those countries.

Land prices will drop back to their earning capacity, assisting affordability. It is the length of this correction that determines the pain we all feel. Will there be unnecessary government bailouts for those developers that over-invested? This will only keep land prices above their earning capacity.
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Tohm Curtis continues his slightly sarcastic economics 101 series

photo credit: technicolorcavalry

The most common constraint on fulfillment of wants is time. I cannot write this post, and go to the beach and swim. I have to do one or the other in that same portion of time. There are only so many days I am alive, I have to decide what to do with my time, all the time. I want to do more with my life than I ever possibly could. I wouldn’t mind studying 16 university degrees whilst working 8 or 9 different careers while actively participating in at least 10 different sports that I would enjoy dedicating myself to. I can only pick a few of these because I don’t have time.

I also don’t have the resources at my disposal, namely money, so again I can only choose to do what I can afford in both time and money. But what is money worth? It is worth what you can buy with it. So taking the statement relative to wants, resources are limited a step further. The only things we can buy exist. We can’t buy things that don’t exist, things that exist are part of nature, and nature can only provide so much. There is only so much oxygen that we have access to, there is only so much water that we have access to.
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photo credit: ArtBrom

Bill Gates Davos speech on Creative Capitalism has spurred an interesting array of online debate. Gates essentially re-branded Corporate Social Responsibility within the speech, outlining how corporations serve themselves and society best by considering the wider ramifications of their activities.

Speaking as the world economy crashes like Microsoft OS, Gates proclaimed:

I like to call this idea creative capitalism, an approach where governments, businesses, and nonprofits work together to stretch the reach of market forces so that more people can make a profit, or gain recognition, doing work that eases the world’s inequities.

Ironic that a guy who recently left one of the world’s most powerful monopolists is now calling for some of the rent seeking profit to be shared back with the community. Creative Capitalism should not require RED branded product placement by the world’s most powerful monopolists. No matter how much money well intentioned corporates donate to the poor, without deep rooted reform of the monopoly capitalism marketplace we live under, poverty and disease will continue.
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