Alanna, I understand your sense of frustration. Yet, it is only by
being willing to discuss the many / varied views / points that we
may stumble upon a way that MIGHT guide us to some degree of
societal sanity. Thank you.
Alanna Hartzok wrote:
> 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.
RE:!!!! "Weapons of Mass Destruction" !! I ask that everyone adopt
the term "Weapons Of Mass Murder". That small act will help the vast
majority to develop the now lacking insight with regard to the reason
why those who pursue power insist that they possess such weapons.
> 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:
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>
> 4. I/we cannot endorse this policy approach for the following reason(s):
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> 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.
***********************************************************************
The serendipity of dichotamous juxtapositioning strikes again!!
The majority of sheepish and lamentably inert tax twiddling
"Government As Is!" buffoons will be unable to decipher the
relationship of the post to the greed driven quandary they
face! - Delicieux! - .... ;-)
To a safer, saner and more caring world. To Duty.
. . . Daniel J. Lavigne . . .
Demand that your politicians practice "Principles Before Politics" and
accept the fact that "Birth Condemns No One To Heed The Will Of Evil";
Join the Tax Refusal: http://www.taxrefusal.com
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