Maybe.
-I sit on the board of the Robert Schalkenbach Foundation.
-Grant giving non-profit with a multi-million dollar endowment promoting the social, economic, and tax policies of Henry George. A progressive guy credited with starting the modern progressive movement a century ago.
-Famous for the Land Tax where he proposed a shift of taxes off structures and towards the land itself. When this has been implemented in a few Pennsylvania cities and locations around the world it has raised the same or more revenue while cutting taxes for the majority of taxpayers while making the tax code simple, progressive, and efficient while spurring construction and increasing jobs. Also brings affordable housing and has other pro-social effects. Philadelphia is going to be phasing into this form of taxation in 2006 after a lot of great research and advocacy by these guys. You can read about the principles and some successes here. If you need more convincing check out some endorsements of Georgism by lots of noted smart sorts. here and here and here. But Georgism isn't just land.
So what about getting paid? More below
This is a repost, but I am trying to guage interest/ideas/opinions.
Anyway, the main idea of Georgism is that there is a common wealth that we share of things with an inelastic supply that we did not create and are the source of wealth and life on the earth -land, air, eco-systems, electro-magnetic spectrum, and space to name a few. It is possible to monetize the value of some of these things and tax the exploitation of it i.e taxing polluters of air and water heavily, or tax the electromagnetic spectrum that we give away to broadcasters as two possibilities. This being the case Georgism has a lot to say about lack of affordable housing, fairness in taxation, skyrocketing housing costs, decaying inner cities, pollution, the national debt, enviromentalism, corporate behavior, workers rights, efficient rural and urban land use etc.
My fellow board members, respectfully and a bit snarkily, are just getting the hang of putting attachments on their email. They don't quite get blogs or what they can do or be. They are willing to believe me when I say that they are relevant. As a long time Kos reader and participant I have seen them in action and know their value. But as the token young guy on the board who has professional media experience they are letting me take a bit of a lead on the investigation of this subject.
What we are looking into is to start ,in the next couple of months, an as of now unnamed Georgist blog. We would be paying a real living wage to do what Markos himself does/did --
---Technically and structurally establish a blog and its voice and write regularly about issues of the day and how they relate to Georgist thought.
---Build and structure a community of bloggers/readers who are interested in or sympathetic to Georgism in its many incarnations and varying levels of hard-coreness. Similar to the way that Daily Kos and myDD are set up.
---Research and write regularly on a broad number of topical subjects as well as subjects that may not be in the news but should be.
---Cross post original writings at other relevant blogs and start to inject practical Georgists ideas into the political dialogue. Make the blog become a destination.
So what do you think? Is this an interesting idea? Possible? Nothing is fixed about this idea at all. Feel free to brainstorm, critique, ask questions etc...Please contact me for more information by clicking on my handle or use this diary as a place to discuss this idea and/or Georgism.
I really believe that Georgism if implemented in even small ways it would be a boon to the countrys economy