Societies have long grappled with the question of how to share (or not) the wealth derived from natural resources. Some, like the United States, have embraced systems that allow much of that wealth to fall into the hands of a few private citizens. Others, like… Read More »What Henry George (and Norway) Can Teach Us About Governing the Digital Economy
After Amsterdam, Rotterdam is the largest Dutch municipality in terms of population. Since the 1970s, this municipality has given out almost all of its new land under ground lease conditions. One of the goals of the ground lease system was to allow the entire community to benefit from the increase in land value, instead of just the individual land owner.
In 2003, however, this objective was explicitly dismissed in Rotterdam. From then on, the increase in value of the land would no longer be collected by the community, but by the user of the land. So the council of mayor and aldermen judged, and probably not entirely coincidentally the first council since World War II without the social-democratic party PvdA. The idea was that individuals should be able to build up their own capital through land ownership and would thus develop a more intensive bond with their living environment. From that year on, private ownership of land became the new standard in Rotterdam and leasehold the exception.
In Amsterdam, too, a council without the social democrats took office in 2014, after the PvdA had been represented in the municipal council for more than a century. More than 125 years ago, Amsterdam had been the first Dutch municipality in which it was decided to issue all land under ground lease conditions. The municipality nowadays still owns about 80 percent of the land. And since its introduction in 1896, the original goal of allowing the increase in the value of land to benefit the community had never been changed.
“On a Sunday afternoon, the city council of Amsterdam flushed 100 years of progressive policy down the drain,” says journalist Hans de Geus. “Melancholy, disappointment and a fighting spirit” prevail in the green progressive party (GroenLinks). “A historic blunder,” according to Marjolein Moorman, currently alderman for the social-democratic party (PvdA). The reactions to the most recent change in the Amsterdam ground lease system were quite severe. The tenor of these reactions was that in 2016, the system was so fundamentally changed that it was de facto abolished. In contrast, there was a euphoric mood among homeowners and right-wing parties. “It’s done,” tweeted a supporter of the liberal party (VVD) enthusiastically.
The system change had been a fervent wish of the liberals, who traditionally stand up for the interests of homeowners. Remarkable, because it had also been a liberal, alderman Treub, who had stood at the beginning of the Amsterdam ground lease system. By no longer selling municipal land, and instead giving it out on long lease, the municipality at the end of the 19th century wanted to get a grip on the uncontrolled growth of the city, stimulate the construction of houses, fight speculation, and make sure the growing value of the land would benefit the community, instead of the individual land owner.
The stone age didn’t end because we ran out of stones. Don Huberts After the COVID-19 dip, global oil use has rebounded to 100 million barrels per day and is projected to rise to 104 million bpd by 2026 with no peak in sight. Coal… Read More »Leveling the Energy Playing Field
Seventeen years after the publication of Henry George’s Progress and Poverty, the city of Amsterdam decided not to sell any more of its land. Instead they installed a system of municipal ground lease, to ensure the community would benefit from the increased value of the land. The system has been hotly debated ever since, including by Georgists.
An exciting project has been initiated in Canada. After discussions with Georgist economists including Frank Peddle, Karl Fitzgerald, Richard Pereira, and Gary Flomenhoft, an established Canadian organization has released an RFP inviting economists to calculate the available economic rent in Canada. The spearheading organization, UBI… Read More »RFP launched to determine Canada’s rental value
The Robert Schalkenbach Foundation (RSF) is committed to supporting original research that carries the ideas of 19th century economist and social reformer Henry George into the 21st century and beyond. To this end, RSF supports the conduct of original research into topics of social justice,… Read More »Robert Schalkenbach Foundation Progress of Ideas Grant
By: Matthew Downhour and Mihali Felipe Perhaps nothing defines a society more than its ideas on property – that is, things that people possess, indefinitely have control over, and have responsibility over. While what we do and can do with our property are easy to… Read More »An Objective Look at Land and Entropy
Property taxes are the most important revenue source for most cities and towns in the U.S., providing funding for a variety of local services and infrastructure. Unfortunately, traditional property taxes’ emphasis on taxing the value of improvements – like homes and businesses – can produce… Read More »What are the on-the-ground effects of a land value tax? Lessons from the Pennsylvania experience.
This article is part of Uncommonwealth, a series of articles that discuss housing affordability, economic justice, and inequality in the United States. A few weeks ago, I was listening to a podcast on NPRon how homeownership in the United States had now become a luxury. There were… Read More »The Fallacy of Accumulation and Wealth
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