The case for taxing land
The case for taxing land has been raised in a number of articles recently. For example, The Economist leader (4th April) argued that ‘governments should impose higher taxes on the value of land’, pointing out that ‘land taxes are efficient’ and ‘difficult to dodge’. It also noted the important distinction between property taxes, such as the Council Tax,
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Land Reform through Taxation in South Africa
“How do 52 million South Africans share equitably in their 122 million hectares, especially when those hectares vary so enormously in value?” asks the Johannesburg Star. The danger of not getting the answer right was revealed in the Mail and Guardian in an open letter to Richard Branson from Andile Mngxitama, the Economic Freedom Fighters’
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Missing the Land
A recent article (4th April) in The Economist stated that ‘The history of economics has been, among other things, a story of learning to care less about land’. Though not intended as such, this exposes a blind spot among current economists which accounts for the instability and inequitable distribution of income and wealth in the
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Land speculation causes depression?
It was a pleasant surprise to find the first title in our Ethical Economics list being praised in a newspaper article in Malaysia over thirty years after its publication. The article in the Malaysian Daily Express was reporting on a presentation in Kota Kinabalu by an estate agent on investing in Australian property. The speaker
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Church Times 100 Best Christian Books
The Church Times in London have made a selection of the 100 Best Christian Books. The editor writes: ‘Human progress involves assimilating the wisdom of past generations, and building on it.’ One of Shepheard-Walwyn’s titles, Christianity and Social Order, has been ranked 35th. This classic, published as a Penguin Special in 1942 and republished by
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Further thoughts on Tax Reform
On 25th September 2014 the Financial Times carried a leader, entitled ‘A British property tax that is fit for purpose’, commenting on the proposal for a ‘mansion tax’ proposed at the party conferences of both the Liberal and Labour Parties. It suggests ‘a more comprehensive solution would be to replace all these taxes with a
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Tax reform in the air?
On 4th August The Daily Telegraph carried an article by Andrew Sentance, a senior economic adviser to PwC and a former member of the Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee, arguing for a reform because ‘businesses and individuals are struggling to deal with an increasingly anachronistic and disjointed tax system’. The article concludes with a
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Rethinking Economics
Over the weekend 28th-29th June a conference on ‘Rethinking Economics’ is being held at University College London. Rethinking Economics is an international network of students campaigning for pluralism within economics, particularly the economics curriculum, which is, at present, heavily biased towards the methods of the neoclassical school. Rethinking Economics was launched with the 2013 conference,
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