Comments on: Stiglitz on America’s Economic Dystopia

By: fred auld

fred auld — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 02:09:45 +0000

If the government is to claim the economic rent of an oil or mining site what is the incentive for prospectors to locate such sites?
Or does the government create a Department of Prospecting to deal with the problem?

By: Karl Fitzgerald

Karl Fitzgerald — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 23:29:13 +0000

Well said Sue! Feel free to write a blog post for us any time !

By: Sue Honsl

Sue Honsl — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 18:17:47 +0000

I don’t agree with Mr. Stiglitz re buying large landholdings and then reselling or distributing them. I would go with a more purely Georgist approach of charging the full economic rent for all rural and urban landholders. If this were done, the sharecropppers might have to put up with the 50% payment to the landlords for awhile but it would not be long before other employment opportunities would open up so they could be able to refuse such arrangements. Forced redistribution of any sort opens up too many risks and pitfalls because it is not based on sound principles. It is crucial to realize that resource rent is a shift in thinking from expediency (however well-meaning) to principle, not just another economic tool to put in one’s toolbox. Many common economic tools rely on priviledge-shifting, forcibly redistributing wealth or assets from one group to another to “create” justice according to someone’s idea of what justice is. Resource rent is a principle-based measure that frees up the economy to become just naturally via the operation of the market without interference with or manipulation of the rights of individuals,

By: Karl Fitzgerald

Karl Fitzgerald — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 02:35:14 +0000

You should check the Law of Rent too in terms of deciding wage rates. If people can earn more from working at home then they will do so. The high price of land acts as a barrier to this freedom. "Even the capitalist is subservient to the Landlord" - K Marx

By: Mike B)

Mike B) — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 03:15:16 +0000

We don’t enjoy a classless democracy thus, our democracy leads in directions which serve the ruling capitalist and landlord classes. Class ruled democracy is inadequate to the task; but it is to be preferred over outright dictatorship with no civil rights to speak and criticise.

Wage-labour is the unequal trade which Capital is based on. Under this system, producers are paid what their skills sell for on the market in exchange for giving up control and ownership over the collective product of labour. So, while Stiglitz is right in pointing out the various corruptions of Empire, he is still pussy footing around the core issue, the social relation of wage-labour and capital.