LAND and LIBERTY SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER. 1987 UK 80p. USA $1 50 PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.—JANUARY 26, 1884. W -y- y >. , • * ' rWr Li #»r i LT| , | wt M p •• i j',, i. , •iii'j Jp-^iV/l. v! M Wiry • THE PUNCH VIEW OF HENRY GEORGE'S INFLUENCE LAND and LIBERTY Site value tax Established June 1894 Editor: Fred Harrison Editorial Consultant: V. H. Blundell to the rescue! Picture Editor: Keith Hammett Editorial Offices: THE QUEEN, apeaking for the falls equally on land and build- 177 Vauxhall Bridge Road, British government, has decreed inga, which haa been subjected to London SWIV 1EU Tel: 01 834 4266 that legislation will now be intro- a great deal of criticiam. It is true that some of that criti- 5 East 44th Street, duced toabolish the tax on homes. New York, N Y. I0017 Let battle be enjoined I cism has been pathetic, and fo- Tel: 212 697 9880 Premier Margaret Thatcher cuses mainly on the alleged plight ISS No. 0023 7574 rushed the legislation through for of the "little old widow" living Vol. XC1II Scotland in time for the June 11 alone in a big house: she has to Nos. 1,120 & 1,121 General Election, on the assump- pay the same tax as the man next Annual subscription: tion that this would win votes for door whose two strapping sons U.K. & Sterling area: £5 are earning wagea. USA J10, Canada $11 the Tories. It was a bad miscel- culation: the Conservative Party THE WIDOW enjoys the sama north of the border was deci- amount of police and fire protec- mated. tion for her property as her neigh- The same will probably happen bour; and her sewage system is in England and Walea in four years no cheaper to service just because time, for the introduction of the she lives alone. And what of the poll tax — in place of the property locally-financed health services? tax — will make low-income As an elderly widow, she is likely to use them more then the young, The Battling Professor 67 families suffer. healthy family. • A study in the county of Fertile Farm Thoughts There might be legitimate dif- Cleveland showed that 64% of Duncan Pickard 68 ferences of opinion over the cost households will pay more under of education. The widow does not Disappointing "Cavalier" the poll tax; and they contain 65% go to school — but unless she is Peter Poole 69 of the electorate. e spinster, her children once upon Hooray for Harry • Another study revealed that e time did do so. at no extra cost 39 constituencies — all but seven to her family budget at thet timel Robert Clancy 70 of them Conservative-controlled But to overcome the argument on Syndicated Shame — face increases of more than this point, why not transfer the 70 16%. and in all cases over 66% of cost of State education to the the electorate will be worae off. central exchequer? Sun Yat Sen Sense! The poll tax will unite the Ken Grigg 72 Labour, Uberal and Social Demo- THE GOVERNMENT - this one. George and the Scots crat parties. The public will soon or the next — will probably capi- realise that they are being sold an John D. Wood 74 tulate and bring back the property anti-social change to the tax tax. That ia why reform era must Poll Tax Sizzle system. devote ell their energies to pub- Robert Miller 77 And like the peasants of 1380 licising the virtues of a tax that — they revolted, and Richard II falls exclusively on site velues. Common Law Roots chopped off the heada of some of There is little need to attack the Edgar Buck 78 his ministers for brewing the poll tax. except in passing: every- trouble which disturbed his king- one else will do that. Nor is then Agriculture Aggro dom —the voters are likelyto turn need to attack proposals like the Roy Douglas 80 away from the Toriea in droves. local income tax (advocated by the Liberals) which will be dis- missed as just as unacceptable. COVER STORY SO WHAT is the alternative? A clear case for site value taxa- • HENRY GEORGE'S Progress and Poverty Whitehall bureaucrats cannot bridged the intellectual and class divides when tion must be defined in attractive propose an effective substitute. it was published in 1879. His tour of the British form, so that politicians of aH Isles had an enormous political impact. Early But the Opposition will have to hues, including Tory backbench- commentators were not sure how to classify advocate a coherent reform of the ers — end the profession el in- his philosophy — outright socialism (which way in which local authoritieacan George rejected as a waste-of-time solution to stitutions. which ere the problems of industrial society) or un- finance their services from their wholly geinst the poll tax — < ashamed free marketeer (which he was — but own revenue. So they must be with relief grasp a practical sub- he insisted on the need to socialise rental persuaded to advocate a rational stitute to the policies thet ere income for the equal benefit of all citizens). reform of the property tax. now on offer, and which threaten Punch satirised the debate on its front page in to turn local finance into a 1884 ... the wolf keeps his copy of Henry The politiciana will certainly not George's Progress and Poverty tuckcd away in suggest a return to the tax which shambles. his pocket. 66 LAND A LIBERTY" Free-market Gaffney ACADEMIC freedom is at slake in a battle between Pro- fessor Mason Gaffney and the corporate interests linked to the University of California at Riverside. Professor GafTney teaches economics. He labels himself fights for as a Jeffersonian free marketeer whose strictures against monopolists has brought him into conflict with the major vested interests — and particularly those who own land and rake in fortunes from public subsidies. Two years ago attempts were made to deprive Professor GafTney of one of his platforms: he was offered a shortened two-year term — instead of the usual four-year term — on freedom the influential Public Utilities Board. His opponents claimed that he had a poor attendance record. Professor GafTney countered by bluntly saying the charge was a lie. The head of the local Chamber of on all fronts Commerce, Art Pick, attacked by claiming that "Everyone around here knows that Gaffney does not under- way in which agri-business used the stand economics". university for its commercial ends. His backers, including an econ- "The agri-business giants get their omics professor from California way in these parts," he says. "They State University at Fullerton, say try to paint themselves as self-reliant that Gaffney's alleged absences were frontiersmen, but a more accurate a "red herring" designed to discredit depiction would be a welfare-taker. him because of his straight talk. "Agricultural people see this place Professor Gaffney is an authority as a big industrial laboratory to serve on the economics of natural re- agriculture. The university has be- sources. He has testified to Con- come an attachment to the industry, gressional committees, and pub- and it shares its viewpoints and lished many authoritative papers on vested interests." the subject. He was hired 10 years • Professor Getfney Now Professor Gaffney has been ago to strengthen the university's barred from teaching resource econ- economics department. omics — the result, he believes, of his That was when he stirred up a retaliated and was quoted as charac- outspoken views about local water hornets' nest. He outspokenly em- terising small businesses as "para- and land policies. ployed a radical analysis of private sites". The economics department has property rights in land, which was • Gaffney attacked the local poli- acquired a reputation over the years originally articulated by Henry ticians who, working with the Metro- for its Marxist bias. And this has George in Progress and Poverty. politan Water District Board, forced Professor GafTney to fight on Professor GafTney commended the borrowed heavily to finance irri- a second front: against the lecturers free market in which the small entre- gation systems which push up rural who want to turn the department preneur could flourish without land prices. into "a monolithic, intolerant bas- governmental interference. He advocated free-market water tion for a single ideology". And that was bound to lead to a pricing, to conserve water. Lois But it seems that, when it comes to clash. For, as Peter Asmus, writing in Krieger, a member of the MWD a choice between marketeers and The Orange County Register, noted: board, retaliated by claiming that Marxists, the tax-subsidised entre- "It was these beliefs that threaten the Gaffney's free-market concepts did preneurs know where their interests very fabric of life here in the 'Inland not belong "in the real world". lie. After investigating the row, Peter Empire', where things like huge Krieger is also a member of the Asmus concluded that Professor governmental subsidies for big cor- University of California Riverside Gaffney's days at the university are porate and agricultural outfits have Foundation, a group of wealthy numbered. become institutionalized practices." university patrons who cncourage "Riverside's university and busi- • GafTney attacked the low utility the university to undertake research ness community would, it seems, rates paid by Rohr Industries, the on behalf of commercial and indus- prefer to work with Marxists whose giant aeroplane engine manufactur- trial enterprises. Professors share in teachings are delegated to the ivory ers and the largest employer in the the profits of their inventions. towers of the classroom, than a free- area.