Comments on: Housing sees the British at their most innumerate and irrational http://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2007/09/19/housing-sees-the-british-at-their-most-innumerate-and-irrational/ Richard Murphy on tax and corporate accountability Fri, 21 Nov 2008 18:44:42 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6 By: Charlie Marks http://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2007/09/19/housing-sees-the-british-at-their-most-innumerate-and-irrational/#comment-181311 Charlie Marks Thu, 20 Sep 2007 02:18:47 +0000 http://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2007/09/19/housing-sees-the-british-at-their-most-innumerate-and-irrational/#comment-181311 Ah, but Richard, Simon is wrong there is a numberate and rational attitude - that of the capitalist class. Home ownership - or rather the process of buying a house which involves getting into debt and then paying it off, plus interest - ties workers hands with regard to prolonged industrial action, encourages them to view themselves as owning property (though of course, it is not the same kind or on the same scale as that owned by capitalists). The problem is: how to keep it going. Right now, King's trying to restart the banking system and Brown is trying to keep the "fourth option" off the agenda. Ah, but Richard, Simon is wrong there is a numberate and rational attitude - that of the capitalist class.

Home ownership - or rather the process of buying a house which involves getting into debt and then paying it off, plus interest - ties workers hands with regard to prolonged industrial action, encourages them to view themselves as owning property (though of course, it is not the same kind or on the same scale as that owned by capitalists).

The problem is: how to keep it going. Right now, King’s trying to restart the banking system and Brown is trying to keep the “fourth option” off the agenda.

]]> By: Carol Wilcox http://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2007/09/19/housing-sees-the-british-at-their-most-innumerate-and-irrational/#comment-180592 Carol Wilcox Wed, 19 Sep 2007 13:16:34 +0000 http://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2007/09/19/housing-sees-the-british-at-their-most-innumerate-and-irrational/#comment-180592 The blindness re housing is because this is a land issue, nothing to do with bricks and mortar. Neoclassical economists have removed the concept of land and natural resources from their analytical toolkit. If they talk about land at all it is only with regard to agriculture. Land(location) is in fixed supply and speculators perceive that the price will always go up (given the long 18 year cycle). At the right time in the cycle speculators make a killing, but those in it for the long term (e.g. the British aristocracy) can afford to sit on their huge landholdings and see their wealth grow over the decades. The solution is, of course, a 100% tax on rental value of all land, equivalent to land nationalisation. At the moment all the increase in land value goes to the speculator, the elderly home owner and the banks. It could be, should be, recycled through the tax system to benefit us all, reducing the burden on the creators of wealth. The blindness re housing is because this is a land issue, nothing to do with bricks and mortar. Neoclassical economists have removed the concept of land and natural resources from their analytical toolkit. If they talk about land at all it is only with regard to agriculture.

Land(location) is in fixed supply and speculators perceive that the price will always go up (given the long 18 year cycle). At the right time in the cycle speculators make a killing, but those in it for the long term (e.g. the British aristocracy) can afford to sit on their huge landholdings and see their wealth grow over the decades.

The solution is, of course, a 100% tax on rental value of all land, equivalent to land nationalisation. At the moment all the increase in land value goes to the speculator, the elderly home owner and the banks. It could be, should be, recycled through the tax system to benefit us all, reducing the burden on the creators of wealth.

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