James Robertson - It's Our Money Anyway

[welngtn4]

bravo

[sustaincain]

Land Tax! Bring back Disraeli! Its so very invigorating isn't it! But sadly you know I think its day may have passed.

INCOME FROM LAND is already taxed. So isn't this just a question of setting LEVELS of taxation (although the basic coup d'etat of the landowners depicted in RE's Docu #1 is VERY worth knowing!)

FIAT MONEY vs The right to explode population.

There's our basic challenge: who gets to create money or children and under what conditions.

Slimy bin Liner has 52 siblings?

[TreachMarkets]

I'm with you on your criticism of the banks, but as far as your land tax scheme? We have this thing called private property, don't know if you've heard of it. How about free money? Anyone can create any asset-based currency that they want, as long as it's redeemable for a set quantity of a hard asset. And outlaw fractional reserve, it's counterfeiting.

[skeight976]

money as debt is not sustainable

this should be a common fact. studied at grade schools

[HurricaneHeidi]

Excellent video - very well explained. I am an American citizen, and we suffer from the same situation. I am now advocating a citizens' civil disobedience campaign because our Congress is in the banking lobby's pocket. I believe the Civil Disobedience should consist of boycotting the Federal Reserve banking system in protest of these unconscionable billion dollar bailouts.

Let's take back our wealth!

watch?v=GJMQCcFFzak

[mailbox0009]

@ dkleitsch

This change will require that people change consciousness. We need to wake up to reality that we are one people, we are in reality a collective. Only in unconsciousness are we separate. The universe is abundant - all poverty is man made, the current structures are built on unconsciousness. Have a little bit of love for your fellow human beings.

[yawnballsscratch]

Why doesn't he spell out the "impossible contract", that is with 95% of "money" being created as debt by private banks, repayable at interest, there is an absolute requirement for exponential new debt to service the existing as the banks only create the principal of the loans and NOT the interest. The general money supply is ALWAYS constricted therefore, and dependent on new debt inflows.

Bubbles are absolutely inevitable, & absolutely predictable because they are REQUIRED under the system.

[sinitskyd]

seems that London is a very foggy town. Bankers should move to sunny Singapore.

[dkleitsch]

James Roberstson is part of the problem when he advocates a "Citizens' Income", and seems to not have a clue as to how this income comes into existance.

[dsyd2]

dkleitsch, the citizen's income comes from taxing the rent of land.

[willhdavison]

Income comes from not just the Rent of Land, but from the interest of the public money supply, how do think banks make money, its from fractional banking. Large profit are (or were) made from a publicly regulated system of banking system or Ponzi scheme if you like.

[dsyd2]

Yes the central banks earn interest on the money supply which is paid into the treasury. This along with the land tax could be used as a citizen's income.

[dkleitsch]

Total hogwash. You're just redistributing income. There is no way the tax on land can work as it will cost too much for anyone to be able to use it at that point. Public spending is out-of-control, this will only make it worse. People have to add value to the system at some point by their work, otherwise there will be nothing for you land-tax people to re-distribute.

[dsyd2]

Landowners did not make the land, therefore the rent that they collect on it does not properly belong to them. Since the rent is not the landowner's property, it is also not their income. Therefore the land tax does not redistribute income but merely collects what is owed.

The cause of out-of-control public spending is people not getting paid what they are due in land rents. The land tax fixes this and therefore reduces the need for public spending.

[dkleitsch]

You're just proposing another form of collectivism.

A "Citizens' Income" is just another re-distribution of income, from the people that earn it to the people that don't.

The system is breaking down for the simple reason that we are consuming more than we produce. Government consumption is always less efficient than private consumption, so we end up further in the hole.

[dsyd2]

Landowners did not make the land, therefore they do not earn the income from it. You already pay the land tax, the only difference is that at the moment you pay it to landowners who are privileged by the government by the land titles they enforce. The land tax is a corrective measure to remove this unearned privilege. The land tax will reduce government consumption by shifting from income taxation to land taxation, allowing people to keep everything they earn and spend it on what they want.

[uberkshirehunt]

dsyd2, it will never happen. Look at the Crown Estates (from their data). By statute they repay "surplus INCOME" to the Treasury. In 2008 that was £211m (up 40% since 1999). Over the same period, their capital gain in land values has been 221%, or £4.024 BILLION. That rent is theirs to keep, thank you very much.

If you dredge sand in the Bristol Channel that is Crown Land, and they collect the rent for you capital and hard work.

Face it, the system will not change in our lifetimes

[fergus247]

The government didnt make the land either, it didmt make the people living on the land. It owns niether and have no moral right to threaten people living on the land, claiming x amount of money under threat. Government is just another bunch of individuals.

[dsyd2]

Government did not make the land, but government does not have the right to *keep* the land tax revenue any more than anyone else. That is why the revenue should be distributed as a citizen's dividend to everyone. Then, government taxing the landowners to compensate those who are forcefully isolated from the land is no different from police making a thief pay restitution for stealing.

[janosabel]

"...we are consuming more than we produce" ??

My, how deep public misunderstanding can be!

The very source of depressions is that producers cannot sell what they have produced. It used to be called a "glut" in classical economics.

Only after the glut sets in that producers start to cut back, sell off stock cheap or destroy it outright , and lay off workers. So there is even less people with money to buy.

The citizens income would greatly reduce the frequency and severity of recessions.

[dkleitsch]

So I should just run amuck and start destroying things?

That is the 'broken glass fallacy'.

I'm glad that your type doesn't stand a chance of gaining power while I am alive.

[janosabel]

I am suggesting that people should be valued for providing the demand that provides the purpose for production.

Nothing destructive would ensue. Just a healthy stable economy.

[theGreatMistake]

You are right when you say that without work there is no value. However, you are still wrong about land value tax being redistribution. Consider that I own all the land and you do all the work. I can make you pay whatever I want to use my land, since without it you cannot work, even though it is your work that gives value to my land. In a community the value of land is a surplus value that is created by the work of the community as a whole. this value is thus perfect to use as government revenue

[sustaincain]

@dkleitsch You raise an important point: the market value of land an its relation to cost of using land. Rents would go up as the owners felt the pinch and the serfs had more in their pocket. There is a futile-redistribution argument there BUT the landless peasant folks (FKN News uses ruder terminology) would be nearer to being able to buy their own little plot.

[godsakes]

but land is taxed upon the sale of it, to tax rising land values before a transaction has taken place is a bit like taxing supermarkets for goods they haven't yet sold.

[willhdavison]

Godsake Land has a rentable value its that that he is talking about taxing. A super market pays rent regardless if sells any goods at all.

[godsakes]

surely the net effect of such a tax is a collapse in land values and a rise in rents - is society any better off for that?

taxing wealthy land owners IMHO should be done via inheritance tax and closing the various loopholes.

[willhdavison]

It would reduce land values in the short term but ultimately the value of land is decided by its rent. And the rent is decided by the productivity of the economy by workers or entrepreneurs, i.e. supply & demand. The land owner contributes little, often they benefit from tax payers money (workers & entrepreneurs) lavished on infrastructure projects. Taxing land transfers the benefit of rent to the public instead of the land owner. Its a simple tax; difficult to avoid unlike inheritance Tax.

[slishsloppy]

Highly compelling suggestions and enlightening explanation of some fundamental principles.

Good work.

[charlesbazlinton]

Specific and very useful insights. How ever do we get the main media to open forums so that these proposals for truer democracy can be discussed? Thanks for your part.

[rapidset]

all savers withdraw the lot and teach the banks whos boss

[PayChkSlaveRebellion]

This system of Usury has enslaved people the world, and allowed the international bankers to rule the world.

[ball4thegame]

wow. excellent. go austrian economics and sound money!