Cityscape
The ownership of land is the great fundamental fact which ultimately determines the social, the political, and consequently the intellectual and moral condition of a people.
By Frank de Jong, 4 December, 2013

Harnessing Monopoly to Finance Government

Total Resource Rents of Australia

The Total Resource Rents of Australia report finds the complete removal of income, company and sales tax is possible by replacement with a tax on monopolies such as water trading, cyber squatting, taxi licenses and land.

“Economists have for hundreds of years pointed to a more efficient system by harnessing the naturally rising value of scarce resources as the tax base. Few reports have calculated if this is actually possible” said report author Karl Fitzgerald.

- Press Release: http://www.prosper.org.au/2013/12/03/harnessing-monopoly-to-finance-gov…

By Frank de Jong, 15 March, 2013

Pure Geoism

by Fred E. Foldvary, Senior Editor, 4 February 2013

Geoism is the social philosophy and theory of absolute human equality, with the belief that each person is properly and fully a self-owner and an equal owner of the surplus from nature and from communities.
Human equality is the proposition that all human beings have an equal moral worth, because there is in human nature no inherent master/slave or superior/inferior relationship. Geoism takes equality to its complete logical conclusion.

By Frank de Jong, 10 July, 2012

CD Howe Institute endorses Toronto LVT plan

Toronto City Hall

CD Howe Institute endorses Toronto City Councillors plan to capture land value capture to finance transit. Jeff Dean
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Increase taxes along transit lines: National Post · Jul. 6, 2012 http://www.canada.com/business/Increase+taxes+along+transit+lines/68916…

Toronto's "OneCity" plan, which city councillors will debate on July 11, could be a move in the right direction. OneCity's proponents propose a new transit network, financed by equal federal, provincial and municipal contributions.

By Frank de Jong, 28 April, 2012

A housing crisis of global proportions

Globe and Mail columnist calls for Land Value Taxation.

Doug Saunders: "If we really wanted housing to be profitable and plentiful, we’d tax owners on the annual rise in value of their property – a Land Value Tax. This has two benefits: First, you’re taxing a non-productive source of wealth, whereas income and corporate taxes can stifle innovation and risk-taking."

Globe and Mail, Published Saturday, Apr. 28, 2012
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/doug-saunders/a-housing-crisi…

By Frank de Jong, 26 April, 2012

Real Estate 4 Ransom

I want to live here!

Who is property speculation really good for? With global economies stressing as property values plunge and banks write down their books, this film gives an alternative to the push for austerity.

http://realestate4ransom.com/

Real Estate 4 Ransom is a documentary about global property speculation and its impact on the economy. Real Estate 4 Ransom considers the changing motivations behind property investment and challenges the notion that the Global Financial Crisis was caused by bank lending alone.

By Frank de Jong, 26 February, 2012

OECD to Northern Europe: Raise Your Property Taxes!

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development is calling on Germany to raise its property taxes dramatically and reduce taxes on labor. The group, whose membership is made up of 34 of the world's leading market economies, also made similar recommendations for Denmark, Norway, and the UK over the past month.

Transit

The best way of paying for infrastructure like transit, is through "tax increment financing."

All warranted infrastructure (hospitals, transit, parks,...) will pay for itself if the rise in local land values generated by that infrastructure was collected by government for this purpose.

However, under the current municipal tax structure, most of the increase in land value is capitalized into the land, and therefore doesn't go back to the public purse which created it, but instead into the pockets of local land owners when they rent or sell their land.