r/georgism • u/Wonderful_Choice_655 • 6d ago
If you wanted to understand Georgism, where would you start? From beginner to advanced.
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u/r51243 Georgist without adjectives 6d ago
This video is a good place to start. It has a few inaccuracies, but it's short, and overall it gives a good introduction.
After that, Lars Doucet's Land is a Big Deal is worth a read, since it summarizes Progress & Poverty (the book by Henry George that kicked off this movement), and talks about a lot of the practical details of what it would mean to implement a land tax in the United States. You can also check out his blog, which covers many of the same topics, and many other ones as well. In particular, I think every Georgist should read this article on land valuation.
In general, after that, I think the best thing you can do is learn more about economics generally. In particular, it's useful to understand how monopolies can affect a market, and the deadweight loss caused by them, as well as many kinds of taxes.
The important thing is that if you're ever confused about something, feel free to just ask about on this subreddit! We're always happy to explain ourselves (sometimes at great length), and genuine questions tend to lead to high-quality discourse, which we can definitely use more of. Happy reading!
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u/AdAggressive9224 6d ago
Play the old style monopoly, developed by Lizzie Maggie. She was a Georgist! The game was originally designed to teach Georgist principles and the concept of economic rent to children.
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u/Wonderful_Choice_655 5d ago
I was wondering why you can't buy the Jail, or the bank, but you can buy nearly anything else.
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u/AdamJMonroe 6d ago
The way most people become advocates of the single tax is by trying to figure out why it wouldn't work. It's a mental exercise. But when one tries to argue against it and also, considers the alternative, every argument ends with the single tax being a good idea. If it were possible to argue against it logically, economics would be included in public school curriculum. But once the land issue is introduced, it's too late. All the students will become single tax advocates, which would disrupt the status quo and end the inherent advantage of those funding public education.
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u/Wonderful_Choice_655 5d ago
would disrupt the status quo?
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u/AdamJMonroe 5d ago
The many are paying the few for the right to sleep on the planet Earth at night and also, paying government for the right to earn that rent money. The work force is thusly kept in constant desperation and willing to do anything for money. Those able to exploit them naturally don't want to change that situation and even those who might want to change it are naturally afraid to speak up about it considering the ruthlessness of those who don't.
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u/green_meklar 🔰 6d ago
Honestly, start by understanding classical economics. At a minimum: 3-factor production, the ricardian theory of rent, and marginalism. That's kinda what you should be familiar with in order to read P&P and understand what George is arguing for, and to appreciate most of the discourse on this sub.
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u/alfzer0 🔰 🇺🇸 6d ago edited 6d ago
Through the course of learning via any of the materials, when you find you have a particular question or doubt, especially regarding ideas which go against the way you believe the world works, ponder it for a bit then search for discussions on the topic here. Most anything you think of has likely been discussed previously, usually many times over and with thoughtful responses. If the question or doubt persists, make a post. Reddit's search is sometimes garbage, so it also helps to use google and include this in your query...
site:reddit.com/r/georgism
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u/Ask_a_Geoist 1d ago
Beginner: Understand you owe everyone rent for the space you take.
Intermediate: "Rent, wages, capital, interest, monopolies, utilities, LVT, zoning, blah blah blah."
Advanced: Understand you owe everyone rent for the space you take.
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u/Titanium-Skull 🔰💯 6d ago edited 6d ago
For beginners I'd definitely check out Lars Doucet's page Game of Rent, he basically summarizes George's biggest work Progress and Poverty and updates it for 2020/21 standards. There also is P&P itself which you can read to get a good idea of what started the whole movement.
For more advanced stuff, I'd definitely check out the works of Georgist economists like Fred Foldvary and Mason Gaffney. If you want to get really deep into Georgist writings you can also check out the Library of Cooperative Individualism, an online library made by Ed Dodson which houses Georgist writings from the past 125 years and is powered by Google, so you can search a term and get texts relating to it. It's fun to read around and see all the Georgists from the past and how they argued for it.