Ethical Economics | Over 45 Years of Excellence

An Economy in harmony with the Environment

Currently the growth model of economics, as measured by GDP, is on a collision course with environmental limits. The idea of endless growth is incompatible with what Nature can provide. So what is the alternative? Reporting on the 1988 Conservative Party conference The Economist, in an article entitled ‘The Greening of Mrs Thatcher’, quoted her as stating: ‘No generation has a freehold on the earth. All we have is a life tenancy with a full repairing lease.’

The ‘full repairing lease’ implies a duty of care for the environment required of the landowner as argued by Polly Higgins in her Earth is our Business. A ‘life tenancy with a full repairing lease.’ implies a responsible attitude towards the earth rather than something to be plundered for its resources, leaving future generations bereft.

There is no evidence to suggest Mrs Thatcher was hinting at the economic reform advocated by Henry George when she said that ‘No generation has a freehold on the earth’, but if all we have is ‘a life tenancy’, it begs the question: who gets the rent? As the earth has not been made by landowners, giving them a claim of ownership in their product, why should the rent go to them? We are pleased when the value of our house goes up, but in fact it is not the value of the bricks and mortar that has risen but the land on which it stands – any homeowner knows that the house itself requires constant maintenance to keep its value. The value of the site on the other hand is the result of the efforts of society collectively. What could be more reasonable and just than that society should receive the rent? If it were paid to the government, not as owner of the land but as the caretaker of the nation, there would be no need to fund government out of taxation.

Demand for new crime of Ecocide

2020, Jul 18

According to a report in The Times(17/7/20), the campaign to make ‘ecocide’ an international crime at the International Criminal Court begun by Polly Higgins, who died last year, has been picked up by ‘Malala Yousafzai, the Nobel peace prizewinner [who] has joined Greta Thunberg and 150 celebrities and scientists calling on world leaders to make ecocide – the mass damage of nature – a criminal offence … Such a law could make company bosses and government ministers responsible for funding, permitting or causing severe environmental damage.’

BOOK REVIEW: How our Economy really works

2020, Feb 14

The author, is, unusually for a supporter of land value taxation and free trade, a graduate in economics, having gained a first class honours degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics at the University of Oxford. This puts him in the advantageous position of being able to apply a critique of mainstream economics in its own terms, something which most of us are unable to do.

Should the World Economic Forum prioritise Climate Change over Economics?

2020, Jan 24

In their global risks report the World Economic Forum listed five environmental issues as the top risks to the global economy in 2020, overshadowing all other risks, including economic, and called for a new “growth paradigm” that addresses the interconnectedness of socio-economic factors with climate change.

Poverty is not Natural

2020, Jan 2

The first United Nations Sustainable Development Goal is to ‘End poverty in all its forms everywhere’, and yet regardless of whether there is a left wing, right wing or centrist government in power, the gap between rich and poor continues to increase, suggesting some common cause that is being overlooked.

“You can become wealthy by creating wealth or by appropriating the wealth created by other people. When the appropriation of the wealth is illegal it is called theft or fraud. When it is legal economists call it rent-seeking”

John Kay, Financial Times 27th Dec 2009

“If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, they cannot save the few who are rich.”

John F Kennedy, Inaugural Speech, Jan 1961

“If science is defined by its ability to forecast the future, the failure of much of the economics profession to see the crisis coming should be a cause for great concern”

Joseph Stiglitz

“Today we live in a world that is divided. A world in which we have made great progress and advances in science and technology. But it is also a world where millions of children die because they have no access to medicines… It is a world of great promise and hope. It is also a world of despair, disease and hunger”

Nelson Mandela

LATEST BOOK

How Our Economy Really Works

– Why are so many trapped in poverty, when others are grossly well-off?
– Why are house prices continuously rising faster than inflation?
– Why do people so often find themselves in jobs that give them little sense of fulfilment?
– Why is a multi-national coffee shop franchise not actually making its money from coffee?
These questions have confronted the UK economy for decades without resolution by governments of the right or left. It is the failure of economics, the author argues.

ISBN 9780856835292 | Price: £9.95

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