Human civilization finds itself at a terrifying crossroads. The list of dangers is appallingly long. Would it make things a little less scary to group our challenges into main categories?
3) Environmental Crisis (including the ideas of "overpopulation and necessary "limits to growth") 2) Economic Stagnation (a chronic problem that takes many forms, including recessions, arrested development and debt crises).1) What's number one? We might forget it sometimes, amid the shouting over the Next Big Calamity, but it is at the root of all the others: Poverty.
Until we solve that problem, all the other ones will keep getting worse. Until we solve the problem of poverty, we can only place band-aids over ever-deepening wounds and, somehow, hope for the best.
But is there a solution? Various programs have been tried. The solution of a planned economy which would banish competition failed, spectacularly. The "liberal mixed economy" under various guises of "social democracy" aided by "labor unions" has led to today's "race to the bottom." The ideology of "laissez faire" -- a market free of regulation, if not actually a free market -- is causing suffering and havoc around the world. That's what we're told, anyway. But in truth: when abundant labor is compelled to seek scarce employment, there will always be a race to the bottom. Technological progress, free trade and improved education simply steepen the slope.
Henry George claimed, very persuasively, to have identified the root cause of poverty, and the fundamental solution. Perhaps he was wrong. But if he was right? Then we shouldn't waste another minute, should we? Let's briefly examine what Georgist theory says about the fundamental cause of poverty.
Standard Explanations for Poverty
Henry George begins by evaluating the standard explanations for the persistence of poverty amid increasing progress and plenty. Could it be a lack of capital? Does the need to pay wages cut into our ability to store up the tools and equipment we need to move the economy forward? This is a pressing question for development policy: nation after nation has gone into unpayable debt in the attempt to "build a manufacturing base" and "develop export industries" -- only to wind up poorer and deeper in debt.
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