Life in a Geonomic Society

It's fine to know of lofty philosophical considerations, and comforting to know that both social justice and prosperity can be thereby reconciled, but what of ordinary everyday practicalities?

Firstly, in a Geonomic society, the experience of real liberty would pervade everything. For citizens would not be beholden to the government to supply it all sorts of financial and personal information demanded by the tax system. Instead of having to abide by a multitude of tax requirements, the land you occupy would simply be assessed by professional assessors. This would only occur once a year, and the assessors would not even need to step onto your property because it would only be your land and not the improvements that would be assessed.

Gone are the armies of tax accountants, tax lawyers and tax department bureaucrats. Gone are the inefficiencies of speculation, the black economy and its attendant criminal elements. Gone is the pool of unemployed and the cost of supporting it (much more on this later). Gone are many of the social problems arising from unemployment, poverty, despair arising from hopelessness, and resentment resulting from great inequities of wealth. And because of LVT and other eco-taxes apply to all of the Global Commons, we'll live on a much healthier planet - and so will our children.

Instead, in steps an inconceivable prosperity resulting from a dynamic economy that encourages productivity, discourages speculation, is not hampered by high welfare needs, abolishes privilege, and doesn't undersell our natural environment. It is estimated that a typical household will have a true disposable income (after all taxes) often double that of the current system, and that the average business will earn trading profits after tax/rent considerably greater (refer to the section "What's in it for me?").

Will this lead to a Singaporean-style society hell-bent on the accumulation of material wealth? It should be said that there will undoubtedly be some who will strive for affluence, and if they wish to live in big houses, drive big cars and have huge bank accounts then good luck to 'em! Remember, in this free and fair society, anyone this wealthy has become so by their own efforts and not by exploiting others nor the Global Commons.

But might our whole mentality be unimaginably different in this new world? No longer threatened by the dead hand of joblessness and the miserably low wages inflicted on workers "lucky enough" to have a job, a new sense of security might well infuse all. And the energetic productivity of Geonomics would enable all, if they wish, to work far fewer hours to provide their basic needs. What is difficult to imagine is the use to which this sudden availability of leisure time will be put - the arts, travel, exercise, personal & spiritual growth, or maybe just lying around in bed eating junk food?

Things will be a lot different outside the suburbs, too. Gone is the opportunity to loot natural resources, and perhaps the predatory attitude towards nature that went with it. With LVT encouraging land to be put to its best possible use, no longer will cities sprawl over what should be farmland. Similarly, barely-productive farmland won't sprawl over what should remain as forest, national park or wilderness. We deal more fully with environmental benefits in the second kit.

Businesses will truly be unchained by real tax reform. No longer will they have to keep endless financial records to satisfy tax requirements, nor will they be burdened by the huge compliance costs of frequent tax returns. You, the shopper, will see the savings passed on - and, of course, there will be no GST.

With economic policies no longer being so contentious, politics would take on a different dimension. The political issues of the day would rightly return to the great social questions dealing with education, global and personal peace, cultural enrichment, human rights, national goals etc.

LVT and other eco-taxes (perhaps supplemented by a few remaining taxes on damaging social undesirables such as on tobacco and alcohol) will, by many calculations, be more than enough to replace current taxes. This is only one half of the equation - the revenue side - so how should a government spend this revenue? Geonomics doesn't deal with the spending issues, as priorities understandably vary greatly from culture to culture. Each society must decide for itself whether it wants to give spending priorities to education, defence (?!), social welfare, environmental repair, mosques, infrastructure etc. Or perhaps it might decide not to spend everything, and instead to distribute much of it as a Citizens' Dividend.Under the current system, public expenditure enriches private landowners courtesy of unwitting taxpayers. For example, if a government invests $millions in a new railway line, the value of land near the railway line is enormously enhanced. Because the value of this public investment has effectively disappeared into the "Black Hole" of private land values, prohibitive rail fares must be charged. But imagine this: what if we collected some of the boosted land values through Land Value Taxation (LVT) - couldn't we could lower the fares? And if we lowered the fares, this would enhance the land values now that the accessible train service is cheaper to use. Enhanced land values means more LVT to collect which could lead to lower fares and so on and so on.

While these iterations wouldn't need to be done in practice, the above scenario illustrates how enhanced land values (created by the community) are recaptured or recycled back to the community. Whether we build a bridge, a park, a bike track, a community centre or rehabilitate creekside vegetation - all these sort of life-enhancing investments also enhance land values, which can be fully recouped for further projects. This is just one aspect of Geonomics and one more piece of the unemployment puzzle, but let's now take a peek at how this tax shift can improve our neighbourhood and lifestyle. ... Read the entire article

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