NOW THAT I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION!
I have asked to be taken off of this list and I see that I am STILL ON.
FYI, there is an approach BEYOND MARXISM AND MONOPOLY CAPITALISM and
BEYOND the MEGA-Intellectualizing about surplus value - WHICH BELONGS TO
EVERYONE!!! - wealth produced by labor as PRIVATE property - take off all
taxes , for wealth produced by NATURE (GOD??? GASP!!!) "natural capital" -
collect natural resource value (land sites oil, mineral, satellite orbital
zones, electromagnetic spectrum, etc. (economic rent) for ALL as common
heritage RIGHT. (Current monopoly capitalism is mega-rent seeking for
private profits.)
Capital can have no monopoly power if access to land and resources is
secured as a natural and democratic right for ALL because labor can say to
capital: TAKE THIS BORING degrading JOB AND SHOVE IT!! MOTHER EARTH PROVIDES
THE RESOURCES OF LIFE, NOT YOU GREEDY PIGS! (Labor on land is primary -
capital secondary - always has been, always will be, even in information
age.)
This advocated by Thomas Paine, Leo Tolstoy, Karl Marx, Adam Smith, Henry
George (the master, buried by NeoLiberals but awakening from the grave), the
Physiocrats before the French Revolution, Sun Yat Sen (Three Principles of
the People), Winston Churchill, Ralph Nader, etc. etc. all have endorsed
this approach - even Helen Keller, who could not see or hear. PLUS SEVEN
Nobel Prize Winners in Economics and letter signed by 22 economists to
Gorbachev recommending this approach.
If you want to work with me/us for this, please be in touch. And PLEASE get
me off this infernal list because I am FEELING quite impatient with you
guys. Something about Rome burning, fiddles playing.
A Green Tax Shift Policy Approach To
Financing Local-To-Global Public Goods
Hector Sandler [EMAIL PROTECTED] Argentina
Rashmi Mayur [EMAIL PROTECTED] India
Tatiana Roskoshnaya [EMAIL PROTECTED] Russia
Alanna Hartzok [EMAIL PROTECTED] USA
There is a troublesome and painful contradiction in the lives of many of us
who are working for peace, justice, poverty eradication, debt cancellation
and sustainable development. While our hearts and minds focus on building a
better world for everyone, each day we hand over fistfuls of dollars to
build weapons of mass destruction, fuel dangerous, dirty and polluting
technologies, and subsidize huge conglomerates which concentrate the wealth
of the world in the control of the few. But together we can end tax tyranny
and align our visions and values with how we finance our governments.
Taxation not only raises money to fund government services, it also reflects
the overall value system of a society. The goal of green tax policy is to
create a system of public finance which strengthens and maximize incentives
for:
* Fair distribution of wealth
* Environmental protection
* Basic needs production
* Provision of adequate government services
* Peaceful resolution of territorial conflicts
Green tax reform makes a clear distinction between private property and
common property. Private property is that which is created by labor. Common
property is that which is provided by nature. Green tax policy removes taxes
from wages and other private property and increases taxes and user fees on
common property. Reducing taxes on labor increases purchasing capacity,
reducing taxes on capital encourages efficiency. Shifting taxes to land and
resources curbs speculation and private profiteering in our common property
and is a practical way to conserve and fairly share the earth.
Captured in brief soundbites, tax waste, not work; tax bads, not goods; pay
for what you take, not what you make; and polluter pays become tax shift
principles readily translated into voter friendly policy recommendations
with broadbased political support.
Green tax policy CUTS taxes on:
* Wages and earned income
* Productive and sustainable capital
* Sales, especially for basic necessities
* Homes and other buildings
Green tax policy INCREASES taxes and fees on:
* Land sites according to land value
* Lands used for timber, grazing, mining
* Emissions into air, water, or soil
* Ocean and freshwater resources
* Electromagnetic spectrum
* Satellite orbital zones
* Oil and minerals
Green tax policy seeks to ELIMINATE subsidies environmentally or socially
harmful, unnecessary, or inequitable. Slated for drastic reduction or
complete removal are subsidies for:
* Energy production
* Resource extraction
* Commerce and industry
* Agriculture and forestry
* Weapons of mass destruction
LOCAL-TO-GLOBAL PUBLIC FINANCE TIERS
Non-governmental organizations like Global Education Associates and others
working for a more peaceful and just world ask us to imagine the shape of
the emerging world as a pyramid with three basic levels: a small tier at the
top for global institutions, a greatly slimmed down second band of national
governments, and a vast sturdy base of local governance.
Green tax reform could become a comprehensive and universally accepted
approach to public finance policy that can readily be integrated into such a
three-tier system of local-to-global governance. Percentages of total
resource revenues collected could be disbursed up or down these tiers based
on criteria of equity, as some nations and regions of the earth are better
endowed with natural resources than others. Freedom to live or work in any
part of the globe would also further equality of entitlement to the planet.
Appropriate tax bases to fund cities, regions, states and global levels can
be delineated as follows:
LOCAL:
Surface land values, such as sites for homes, businesses and industrial
activities, are well-suited to finance cities and towns. Progressively
shifting taxes OFF OF productive efforts such as building homes, working and
organizing businesses, and ON TO land site values prevents land speculation
and monopoly, thus keeping land affordable while at the same time enabling
workers to keep what they have earned. This type of green tax shift also
would be recommended for rural areas where it has potential for non-coercive
land reform which could underpin the transition to organic farming and a
revitalized rural 'eco-village' culture.
REGIONAL:
State, regional, or national bodies may be best constituted to collect user
fees for forestry, mineral, oil and water resources. Precise configurations
for the allocation of resource rentals between state, regional and federal
levels would vary according to the situation of particular nations.
GLOBAL:
Urgently needed is the establishment of a Global Resource Agency to collect
user fees for transnational commons. This would include parking charges for
satellites placed in geostationary orbits, royalties on minerals mined or
fish caught in international waters and use of the electromagnetic spectrum.
Other significant global revenue sources are taxes or fees based on the
polluter-pay principle, such as international flights or aviation fuel,
international shipping, or dumping at sea. A tax on currency speculation has
also been proposed. To be considered is whether international arms trading
should be heavily taxed or completely abolished.
The Global Resource Agency could also be responsible for monitoring the
global commons (e.g., the ozone shield, forest reserves, fish,
biodiversity), determining rules for access, issuing permits and collecting
resource revenues. Such a body could also assume substantial authority for
levying fines and penalties for the abuse of common heritage resources.
Revenues raised from access fees for the use of global commons could fund
sustainable development programs, environmental restoration, peacekeeping
activities, or low interest loans for poverty eradication. Funds are also
needed on the global level to finance justice institutions such as the World
Court and the International Criminal Court and to facilitate policy
convergence in areas such as trade, currency exchange, and human rights.
The Global Resource Agency could be mandated to distribute resource revenues
equitably throughout the world as calculated by formulas based on
population, development criteria and currency purchasing capacity.
THE EARTH BELONGS TO EVERYONE
It is simplistic to view the world as being divided between the rich North
and the poor South. In the North are significant numbers of people living in
poverty and despair, while in the South are those with the riches of
royalty. The systemic problem of the maldistribution of wealth is a global
phenomenon. Taxes structured along the proposed lines would do much to level
the economic playing field worldwide, both within and among nations. A
coherent and integrated local-to-global green public finance system would
fundamentally alter the status quo and give every person a stake in the
planet as a birthright. With basic needs securely met for all, humankind
would be free to advance to a higher dimension of expression and
realization.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
This policy paper is one of many being developed for a Global Peoples
Agenda.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
PLEASE FILL OUT THIS ENDORSEMENTS AND COMMENTS FORM
Name:
Organization:
Address:
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Please mark your response with one of the four choices below:
1. I /we endorse this policy approach and have these comments to make:
2. I/we endorse this policy approach and suggest the following changes:
3. I/we cannot endorse this policy approach unless the following changes
are made:
4. I/we cannot endorse this policy approach for the following reason(s):
Submit Form Clear Form
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note: Contents extracted from...
"Financing Local to Global Public Goods: An Integrated Green Tax Shift
Perspective,"
A policy paper by Alanna Hartzok
Presented at the Global Institute for Taxation Conference
Sponsored by Price Waterhouse Coopers and St. John's University,
New York, September 30, 1999
And published in Taxation Alternatives for the 21st Century.
The policy paper draws from the following:
* The Natural Wealth of Nations, Worldwatch Institute, David Roodman;
* Tax Shift, Northwest Environment Watch, Alan Durning & Yoram Bauman;
* Taxed out of Work and Wealth, Nicolaus Tideman & Florenz Plassman;
* An Inventory of Rent-Yielding Resources, Mason Gaffney;
* The Losses of Nations, Institute for Land Policy, Fred Harrison;
* A Citizens Guide to Environmental Tax Shifting, Friends of the Earth;
* Global Public Goods, edited by Inge Kaul, Isabelle Grunberg, Marc A.
Stern;
* "Brazil: The Meek Want the Earth Now," Bulletin of the Atomic
Scientists, Fabio L.S. Petrarolpha;
* The United Nations: Policy and Financing Alternatives, edited by Harlan
Cleveland, Hazel Henderson, Inge Kaul;
* "UNDP at Crossroads," Earth Times, C. Gerald Fraser;
* Planet Champions, Jack Yost;
* UN Habitat II Action Agenda;
* Third World Intervention: A New Analysis, David Smiley;
* Factor 10 Club Carnoules Declaration, Wuppertal Institute and Overseas
Development Institute, Michael Carley & Philippe Spapens;
* Sharing the World, Anil Agarwal & Sunita Narain;
* Privatizing Nature: Political Struggles for the Global Commons, Michael
Goldman;
* The Pollution Dividend, Peter Barnes;
* How the Other Half Dies, Susan George;
* Ecological Tax Reform, Hanno Beck in Land Value Taxation edited by
Kenneth Wenzer;
* Harnessing the Tax Code for Environmental Protection, State Tax Notes,
J. Andrew Hoerner;
* "Stateless Corporations: Lords of the Global Economy," The Nation,
Richard J. Barnet;
* Tax Reform Follies, Dollars & Sense, Chuck Collins & John Miller;
* "The Eagle Dies on Friday," Utne Reader, David Brauer;
* Tax Waste Not Work, Redefining Progress, M. Jeff Hammond;
* Benefits and Taxes, New Economics Foundation, James Robertson.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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