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What is called for is something we might call pinpoint socialism where public resources are put to use injecting support for tool-making in precise contexts. In the case of IT upgrades and telecom network equipment, the needs are "shovel ready." They have been planned and budgeted. Suppliers are at hand. Only a vicious cycle of "free market cash implosion" has trickled down. If active and sensible agents of public trust were to get busy in these areas, putting our debt bubble to productive use--instead of taking August recesses--jobs could still be "saved or created" in the near term.
As a preliminary parameter for public injections of funds to make new tools, there could be a simple baseline requirement that qualifying companies must state the need in their SEC filings. If the companies are caught lying about their capital investment needs, theoretically there is an agency that could send in the Cambridge Police.
Along a second line of analysis offered by Henry George, successful experiments are taking place in Pennsylvania and Michigan regarding a different approach to land policy. Wikipedia has a good orientation to Land Value Tax (LVT) that gives brief credit to Henry George. The basic idea is to shift the burden of taxation away from capital (capital gains) and labor (income tax) -- both of which we need more of -- and place the taxation onto land (which is ever in fixed supply).
According to reports archived at earthrights.net the experiment with LVT has been underway in Pennsylvania since the 90s. The process begins with a "split tax" that separates property improvements from land itself, and then gradually shifts the tax burden away from improvements and onto land itself. What the land tax is supposed to do is discourage land accumulation beyond the capacity to put it directly to productive use. Land at the margins will therefore be ready for the next person who can actually make it pay.
In a paper titled, "Can the Land Tax Help Curb Urban Sprawl? Evidence from Growth Patterns in Pennsylvania," H. Spencer Banzhaf from the Georgia State University Department of Economics and Nathan Lavery argue that, yes, the land tax can effectively counteract the nefarious magnates of sprawl, too.
In Genesee County Michigan, home of the legendary city of Flint, alternative land use practices have also been developed. If you live next to an abandoned property you adopt it from the County Land Bank (LBA) for $25. All you have to do is promise to take care of it. Now here's what the executive director says to any of you non-Genesee residents:
"Any non-GeneseeCounty residents may acquire LBA property only with an enforceable plan to place the property into immediate productive use (meaning the property is to be occupied immediately or with the immediate commencement of some form of development project that fits our stated mission). This applies to vacant lots as well as properties with structures, residential and commercial properties."
The LBA principle of land liberation is right out of "Progress and Poverty" by Henry George, which argues at length that labor and capital will keep each other more productive if all unused land is set free. Need we remind ourselves there will never be a cheaper time in our lives to liberate the land monopolists?
Finally, while we're at it, may I venture to suggest, that wherever today you find people complaining about "Mexican illegals" -- tomorrow--with fresh tools and liberated land--everybody will marvel at the rise of cities of gold.
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