Land owners at Westminster designed the current UK fiscal arrangement by which over one third of our socially produced surplus (the red slice) is reserved for site owners. Not only does this explain our starved public
Continue ReadingAuthor: ikdesign
It really is time for Holyrood to understand Deadweight Losses
Roger Sandilands Emeritus Professor of Economics, University of Strathclyde Last December, finance secretary Derek Mackay admitted he had never heard of the famous Laffer Curve that points to potential loss of fiscal revenues when tax
Continue ReadingECHR Property Rights fatally flawed
The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) suggests the right of ‘property’ (land) is a universal human right. But the logic of this clause is destroyed when it is revealed the ‘universal right’ extends only
Continue ReadingScotland and Scotsmen, Henry George’s speech in Glasgow City Hall
Speech: Scotland and Scotsmen Henry George’s speech in Glasgow City Hall started a process culminating in the 1909 People’s Budget. Lloyd George and Winston Churchill passed a measure through the House of Commons to collect a
Continue ReadingSLRG message on revenue heard at Westminster today
Holyrood should look to what the First Minister names “some form of land value based tax” instead of Income Tax for revenue. Ian Kirkwood delivered the SLRG recipe for increasing state revenue at Portcullis House, Westminster, on
Continue ReadingScotland’s Deadweight Losses (Briefing by economist Fred Harrison)
Fred Harrison here attempts to help us understand the damaging effects of ill-thought-out taxes on Scotland’s economy. What makes it worth getting to grips with is his claim that the massive losses are entirely avoidable by collecting
Continue ReadingOur government chooses to destroy Scottish enterprises
Abandoned high streets are a highly visible cost we all pay for allowing our government to not collect Economic Rent. Less visible are the thousands of enterprises absent from areas away from the economic centres.
Continue ReadingIt’s Government that’s shutting down our High Streets
If society collected the Annual Ground Rent (i.e. LVT) our high streets would be fully occupied, because the site rental value is the amount a business can afford to pay — its full surplus. Arbitrary
Continue ReadingPost-election thoughts for Nicola
The SNP manifesto came out just in time to read before the election. In it are the commitments to sustain and enhance the lives of citizens one expects to find — all competing for limited
Continue ReadingFixing the economy
How to sort it for Scotland. By our own Professor Roger Sandilands in The Times yesterday.
Continue Reading