Workshop Sessions are held all over the world now, today, and August 17 to 22, 2008 will be a time for summarizing results. 
Discussion Roundtables have already started. Participate now, today.
Proposed framework for Workshop Sessions, Opening and Closing Ceremonies
(to print table only:  )
Proposed Workshop Sessions at the physical sites all over the world.
Workshop Sessions
Sunday, August 17
9:30 am - 12:15 pm
Registration
1:15 pm - 3:00 pm
Opening Ceremony
Session A: issues #457 to 464
3:15 pm - 5:30 pm
| 457 to 464 |
Session A |
| 457 |
Who owns the Earth? |
| 458 |
The planet-Life-Soul of Humanity symbiotical relationship |
| 459 |
To extend democratic principles down to the ownership and control of the earth. |
| 460 |
The inequitable distribution of land ownership affects our society, our politics, our environment, our communities - and ultimately our sense of well-being as a people. |
| 461 |
Global Economic Model proposed by the Global Community has
first and foremost the well-being of all the people on this planet. It
is based on the triple bottom line of social justice, restoration and
protection of the environment, and the strength and stability to
provide security in basic needs. |
| 462 |
"A global community" is not about a piece of land you acquired by force or otherwise. One could think of a typical community that does not have to be
bounded by a geographical or political border. It can be people living in many different locations all over the world. The Global Community is thus more
fluid and dynamic. We need to let go the archaic ways of seeing a community as the street where we live and contained by a border. |
| 463 |
A typical community may be what a group of people, together, wants it to be. It can be a group of people sharing with the same values. It can be a group
of people with the same cultural background, or the same religious background. Or they can be people with totally different backgrounds and beliefs. The
people making a global community may be living in many different locations on the planet. With today's communications it is easy to group people in this
fashion. It can be a village, or two villages together where people have decided to unite as one community. The two villages may be found in different
parts of the world. It can be a town, a city, or a nation. It can be two or more nations together. |
| 464 |
Following this thinking we see land ownership is no longer a problem. The Earth and all its natural resources belong to all the "global communities"
contained therein. A village, or a city is "a global community" and owns the land around its boundaries. Along with the Global Community, it has
ownership of all natural resources within its boundaries. We will see in the Preview how this new system can work. |
Monday, August 18
Session B: issues #465 to 471
9:30 am - 10:30 am
| 465 to 471 |
Session B |
| 465 |
As mentioned above, land here, by definition, covers all naturally occurring resources like surface land, minerals deposits (gold, oil and gas etc), water,
electromagnetic spectrum, the trees, fish in the seas and rivers. It is unjust to treat land as private property. Land is not a product of labor. Everyone
should therefore be given equal access to such natural resources. |
| 466 |
The Global Economic Model can achieve fairness in distribution, maximum efficiency in wealth production, and securing collective needs. The approach is
based on the equal right of all to the land and to all other natural resources, and the right of the individual to the products of labor. The method requires to
collect for the people the "ground rent" which means the value of land and of other natural resources, and to remove taxes on labor. |
| 467 |
A condition of "ownership" of any particular landsite or natural resource is payment of the ground rent back to the community as a whole. Ground rent is
the proper source of public finance for the collective needs of the community. Alternatively, ground rent can be redistributed by direct payment back to all
individuals, much as a company returns dividends to its stockholders. |
| 468 |
There is no need to forcefully confiscate land titles in order to secure the equal right of all to the Earth. With ground rent as the source of public finance the
people as a whole become the "owner" and a title deed functions as a "lease" agreement. The community "allows" individual private use of sites on the
condition that its fair rental value is paid to the community. If a particular land site is misused or abused, then the community must charge a higher rate to
pay for damages and cost of restoration. Thus there is individual incentive for proper care of the Earth. |
| 469 |
On the global level the Law of the Seas Covenant is an example of a ground rent basis for public needs as it has affirmed that ocean resources are the
common heritage of all and a proper source of funding for global institutions. Water belongs to the earth and all species and is sacred to life therefore, the
world’s water must be conserved, reclaimed and protected for all future generations and its natural patterns respected.
|
| 470 |
Water is a fundamental human right and a public trust to be guarded by all levels of government; therefore, it should not be commodified, privatized or
traded for commercial purposes. These rights must be enshrined at all levels of government. In particular, an international treaty must ensure these
principles are noncontrovertable. |
| 471 |
All the Earth natural resources belong to the Global Community to be used, developed and conserved for the maximum benefit of the people and
of all life. However, the challenges of global warming and non-renewable resource depletion dictates that oil and other non-renewable resource rents
should be invested in socially and environmentally responsible ways and primarily in the needed transition to renewable energy technologies. The tax put
on non-renewable resources in the world should be citizen empowered. |
Session C: issues #472 to 477
10:45 am - 12:15 pm
| 472 to 477 |
Session C |
| 472 |
The Global Economic Model allows for the establishment of micro credit facilities, especially for farmers and women, to promote their access to forms of
land tenure that facilitate access to and ownership of land.The Global Community should set up expert groups and begin the necessary intergovernmental
negotiations towards establishing alternative revenue sources, which could include fees for the commercial use of the oceans, fees for airplane use of the
skies, fees for use of the electromagnetic spectrum, fees levied on foreign exchange transactions, and a tax on carbon content of fuels.
|
| 473 |
The goal of the Global Economic Model policy is to create a model of public finance which offers incentives for
correct allocation of wealth amongst every global citizen. |
| 474 |
The model 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. The Global Economic Model 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. |
| 475 |
Only the Global Community can rightfully claim ownership of the Earth. |
| 476 |
The theme of this Global Dialogue being "The planet-Life-Soul of Humanity symbiotical relationship", we will see how the relationship can help this
generation of young people and the next ones to remain healthy. |
| 477 |
The young people of to-day are interested in all the secret wisdom behind all the existing religions and sifting out the common truths. They seek the best of
the best. They are aware of the Soul of Humanity and have established a spiritual symbiotical relationship with it, and thus with God. They seek the
exaltation and merging of their Souls into one to gain strength, friendship, creativity, love and light. |
Session D: issues #478 to 484
1:15 pm - 3:00 pm
| 478 to 484 |
Session D |
| 478 |
The young people today are educated to understand a broad panorama of human truths ~ all those universal needs and rights every one shares. The Scale of Human and
Earth Rights has become an inner truth and the benchmark of the millennium in how they see all values. The Earth Court of Justice brings security, peace
and justice for all. They no longer fear the unknown as Justice is for everyone and is everywhere, a universal constant. The Global Justice Movement for
all life is now driven by these young people. |
| 479 |
Defining the parameters of sovereignty is a key component of the world order dialogue as it struggles to reach consensus regarding the boundaries and
prerogatives of power. Soveveignty is the status of a person or group of persons having supreme and independent political authority. In dealing with the
concept of sovereignty, we are dealing with the reality of power. It is power over a territory, over land and water, oil and minerals, as well as those life
forms which have miraculously emerged out of the mud of the earth. The United Nations (UN) cannot by the nature of things have normal attributes of
sovereignty, which has been defined around a territory and population, is not the same thing as a sovereign UN. |
| 480 |
The Global Community has in fact been defined around a given territory, that territory being the planet as a whole, as well as a specific population, which
is the Global Community. The issue here is not that of populations and boundary lines, but of the demarcation of power and control over the earth that is
the foremost formal attribute of sovereignty. |
| 481 |
The task of conservation, restoration, and rational use of the earth is vitally linked to the question of "Who owns the Earth?" The ever-widening gap
between rich and poor, both within and among nations is a primary source of conflict and violence, a trigger mechanism for warfare. The root cause of this
local to global maldistribution of wealth problem is the inequitable ownership and control of the planet's land and of all other Earth natural resources. |
| 482 |
The impacts of our democracy are devastating when so few people would come to control so much of the earth, to the exclusion of the vast majority. The
forces of our industrial economy have driven land values to such heights, to the benefit of landowners and bank lenders rather than wage earners. The
property-in-land problem is the root dilemma of today's democracy. Having life and liberty without land rights breeds unhappiness, unemployment, wage
slavery, suffering, militarization and even death. Democratic government as presently constituted, because it is not grounded and embedded in the principle
of equal rights to the earth, cannot build a world of peace and justice. |
| 483 |
Peace is not only the ability to resolve conflicts non-violently but to ascertain
conditions of basic justice and fairness in human interactions. Force has most often predominated over fairness in the long history of human affairs.
Territorial conflict has for millennium been a root cause of war. The price of peace has too often been the cost of continued injustice and conditions of
economic servitude. Only Global Parliament has adequate legislation to overcome this problem.
|
| 484 |
What we are seeing is the emergence of a new geography of conflict - a global landscape in which competition over vital resources is
becoming the governing principle behind the disposition and use of military power.... the result is a new strategic geography in which resource
concentrations rather than political boundaries are the major defining features. |
Session E: issues #485 to 492
3:15 pm - 5:30 pm
| 485 to 492 |
Session E |
| 485 |
The primary social adjustment of the Global Community is a denial of
justice. In allowing anyone to own the land on which and from which other people must live, we have given a person power in a degree which increases as
material progress goes on. This way of doing things turns the blessings of material progress into a curse. We must find better ways of doing things, and
quickly. The forces of concentration of wealth and power have nearly overpowered us. Why should people die of hunger and disease each year when
there is enough to meet the basic needs of everyone? The obvious answer is that wealth is being controlled by a few privileged ones, and they usually are
those whose footsteps regularly punctuate the corridors of power. These groups of people have come to see politics as a pathway to wealth acquisition. |
| 486 |
We need to take a giant step forward to a new form of democracy. We, the Global Community, must now direct the wealth of the world towards the
building of local-to-global economic democracies in order to meet the needs for food, shelter, healthcare, education, and employment for all. The task
before us is that of building a global order based on the full honoring of our common humanity with profound recognition and respect for the dignity of
each and every child, woman and man. |
| 487 |
The Global Community has proposed a new democratic mandate recognizing that the gifts of nature - the land, oil, minerals, all other natural resources and
a substantial amount of the monetary value accruing to their use - rightly belong to the Global Community. The earth is our birthright and our common
heritage. What we make from our mental and physical labor can rightfully be held as individual property but the profit of the earth should be shared by all
and for all.The unjust and inequitable ownership and control of vast amounts of the land and of other natural resource wealth of our planet is also a root
cause of the great majority of local-to-global conflicts and wars. Our current form of democratic governance is severely limited in its capacity to negotiate
peaceful means of resolving resource inequities and disputes, whether over oil and other minerals or over land for housing and livelihoods. |
| 488 |
This criminal maldistribution of wealth must be stopped. We need to make some fundamental changes. We need political and economic systems based
upon the human right to land and other natural resources. We need governance and land titles that can secure tenure and a genuinely free and fair market
system for all. Land values must be delinked from the privatization category, the debt and private banking system delinked from its backing in land, and
labor must be freed from taxation. |
| 489 |
We are on the threshold of a global revolution, and we need to proceed with the non-violent approach. We need to build an economic democracy
based firmly on this most basic principle - the earth belongs equally to everyone as a birthright. The earth is for all people to labor and live on and should
never be the possession of any individual, corporation, society, or unfriendly government, any more than the air or water, or any other earth natural
resources. An individual, company, or enterprise should hold no more than is required for their home and sustenance. All that is not used should be held
for the free use of family to make homesteads, and to hold them as long as they are so occupied. |
| 490 |
When it comes to property ownership it is the value of the improvement only, and not the earth itself, that is individual property...Every proprietor owes to
the community a ground rent for the land which he holds. Landlords grow richer in their sleep without working, risking, or economizing. The increase in the
value of land, arising as it does from the efforts of an entire community, should belong to the community and not to the individual who might hold title. Do
what we may, we can accomplish nothing real and lasting until we secure to all the first of those equal and inalienable rights with which.... man is endowed
by his creator - the equal and inalienable right to the use and benefit of natural opportunities, all Earth natural resources. |
| 491 |
The land problem is the root cause of the wealth gap. The costs to the planet are high when wealth and power spiral into the hands of so few. Loss of
species and topsoil, deteriorated air and water quality, global warming and climate change - the list of catastrophes and potential catastrophes grows each
day. Those with clear vision frequently feel frustrated by lack of power and financing to remedy these problems. |
| 492 |
Roman law developed the ownership concept which legitimized the accumulation of wealth by a few at the expense of the impoverishment of the many.
The concentration of property in private hands began very early in Rome and was indeed based on the foundational and legitimizing idea of absolute and
exclusive individual ownership in land. This was the same idea which would come to form the basis of the slave-owning, the feudal, and the capitalist
economic systems successively. Modern civilization has not yet discarded this antiquated ownership concept, which was originally derived from ancient
Rome. In fact, this is one of the main roots of the present global crisis in which the rich becomes richer and the poor becomes poorer. |
Tuesday, August 19
Session F: issues #493 to 503
9:30 am - 10:30 am
| 493 to 503 |
Session F |
| 493 |
We have at hand a powerful solution and a way to secure a world of peace and plenty. We need to constitute democratic governance on the firm
foundation of equal rights to the land and resources of the earth, a democracy for all people which removes the burden of taxes from the backs of those
who labor and instead directs government to collect the value of our common wealth for the benefit of all. A morally correct form of taxation may not lead
to everlasting life, but it will promote and sustain the conditions for lives worth living on planet earth. |
| 494 |
Democratic systems of governance have not given us equitable land tenure systems. In no instance historically did democratic governments procure the
right to land as a human right. In no instance today do democratic governments affirm the equal rights for all to the land and natural resource base that
sustains all life.This reality is important to keep in mind when considering how to implement truly equitable systems of land tenure today. |
| 495 |
Whoever owns the land exerts power over those who are landless. We have not yet extended democratic principles down to the ownership and control
of the earth. How can the young be expected to defend their homeland when they come home to find they have no stake in the land? The inequitable
distribution of land ownership affects our society, our politics, our environment, our communities - and ultimately our sense of well-being as a people. The
Global Economic Model will have first and foremost the well-being of all the people on this planet. It will be based on the triple bottom line of social
justice, restoration and protection of the environment, and the strength and stability to provide security in basic needs. The ethics of the Global Economic
Model will flow out of a profound perception that the rights of human beings and the rights of the planet are one and the same. |
| 496 |
The Global Economic Model is based on respect and value all life on earth. It recognizes that we as human beings are trustees and caretakers of the many
life forms that dwell here with us. The Global Economic Model extends the democratic mandate to solve the land problem by affirming the equal right of
all people to the earth. It will have a balanced and just relationship of citizenry to government with enlightened public finance policy based on land and land
rent for the people. Money will be issued and circulated as a service for the people as a whole rather than used as a mechanism for the exploitation of the
many by the few. |
| 497 |
The Global Economic Model is global, as people are freed to move beyond borders and boundaries and claim the whole earth as their birthplace. It is
highly decentralized as well, with people living and producing for their basic human needs within the constraints and parameters of local ecological
systems. The Global Economic Model is about a world that works for everyone, with plenty of time to expand our minds and elevate our spirits. |
| 498 |
How the earth should be owned is the major economic question of this time. The world should be owned by the people living in it. The earth itself is the
bottom line. The land is the source of all life and wealth. To survive, we must have somewhere to stand and to rest. But this absolute necessity for our very
existence is nowhere guaranteed in our constitutional laws. Our Bill of Rights did not proclaim the human right to the earth. |
| 499 |
We must grasp the injustice at the core of our present economic system. We need to understand how far we have strayed from reality and how we have
been led into illusionary games of finance. Our treatment of the earth as a market commodity, just like a car or television, is the basic flaw in our economic
ground rules. Treating the earth as simply a capital line item is the root cause of the ever-widening gap between those who have too much and those who
have too little. |
| 500 |
When land became a 'commodity' and lost its status as provider and sustainer of life, Western civilization began its history of subjugation and exploitation
of the earth and earth based cultures. |
| 501 |
Enormous sums are currently accruing as unearned income to a relatively few individuals, families and corporations who are holding large amounts of land,
very valuable and well-located land, and other natural resources as their own exclusive private property. These enormous land values and resource rents
are also accruing as unearned income to banks holding mortgages based on exploitative compound interest rates. Truly, when one must work so many
years of ones life to pay off a mortgage, one productive hand is as if dead in terms of producing for oneself, as the labor of that hand pays the mortgage.
For renters, there is not even equity ownership to look forward to after a life of labor. |
| 502 |
One of the major functions of global governance is to grant clear titles to land and other property. Democratic governance as presently constituted has
unfortunately not been greatly concerned about how the land was obtained in the first place. We need only reflect for a moment on the fact that in Canada,
for example, land was acquired by the colonizers from the native peoples under the old Roman empire land laws of "dominium" - the legalization of land
acquired by conquest and plunder. |
| 503 |
Land tenure in the West, as far back as the Roman Empire, has been rooted in the legalization of title to land originally acquired by conquest and force.
Democratic political rights have not given us democratic economic rights. We can exercise our right to free speech all day long but it in no way guarantees
that we can have a secure place to sleep at night. |
Session G: issues #504 to 511
10:45 am to 12:15 PM
| 504 to 511 |
Session G |
| 504 |
Confiscatory taxes on labor and productive capital should gradually be removed, as the value of earth natural resources becomes the proper source of
funding for the community. |
| 505 |
A significant proportion of the profit that has poured into the global banking system in the past several decades was not a product of honest labor, but was
in fact a pool of funds generated from the ground rent of oil resources. These funds were loaned to numerous developing countries where they were
frequently of benefit to the ruling elite rather than the people as a whole. However, the debt repayments have now fallen upon the middle class and poor
citizens who neither voted for nor gained from the borrowed money. |
| 506 |
Decreasing the tax on buildings gives property owners the incentive to build and to maintain and improve their properties. As the levy on land values is
increased, land speculation and poor land utilization, an example being slum buildings and boarded up buildings, are discouraged. The signal thus sent to
property holders is to either improve their properties or sell them to someone who can do so. Either way, labor and capital gain access to land to improve
and augment the building stock. The tax incentives are harnessed correctly to encourage effort directed to the provisioning of housing and other basic
human needs. |
| 507 |
The high price of land means that the modern food and agriculture system provides no options for those who cannot find a paying job other than
subsistence on charity or government supports. Those with minimum wage incomes are finding it increasingly difficult to afford decent housing. These
social problems and pressures are bound to increase with the cut-off of welfare and other government subsidies to the poor. |
| 508 |
Intensively managed small farms and well-designed ecological villages could produce a diverse range of food, fiber, livestock, and energy products for
local markets. Bio-intensive farming methods depending on renewable energy sources can yield both social and environmental stability. The establishment
of labor and bio-intensive small farming operations can be greatly furthered by land value tax policies which remove taxes on labor and productive capital
while promoting affordable land access. |
| 509 |
This Global Movement for land value taxation and natural resource rent for revenue can provide the basis for worldwide economic democracy. Freedom
to live or work in any part of the globe would also further equality of entitlement to the planet, and provide a basis for the resolution of resource wars and
territorial conflicts. There would be no more private profit as unearned income from earth natural resources. Instead, transparent and accountable
resource agencies would collect resource rents and distribute those funds in public services or as direct citizen dividends. With fundamental democracy in
rights to the earth firmly established through legal means and mandates, basic needs would be secured for all and the militarized national security state and
its bloated budgets could wither away. |
| 510 |
The solution to the problem of land speculation is land value taxation to be used for the benefit of the whole community. When the land speculator sees the
irrationality of paying taxes on land he is not making productive use of, he will be forced to put it on the market for others to use, thus helping to unlock the
economic activity of the unemployed and the economically disempowered. |
| 511 |
Land value taxation can be the sole means of public finance. Under this policy, improvements on land will not be taxed, only the land value would be
taxed. In other words, the financial needs of the community would be adequately taken care of out of the economic rent of land. When people are not
taxed on their wages and the returns to capital, there would be no involuntary unemployment; and incomes would be good enough for everyone, such that
poverty would be a historical curiosity. |
Session H: issues #512 to 519
1:15 pm - 3:00 pm
| 512 to 519 |
Session H |
| 512 |
Land value taxation policies shift taxes off of labor and productive capital and onto land and resources, thus collecting ground rent for the benefit of all
rather than the profit of a few. Freeing labor from taxation assures maximum purchasing capacity. Collecting ground rent through land value recapture and
land value taxation provides an equitable and sufficient source of public funds to finance infrastructure for water and sewage systems, transportation,
education and other community services. Land also maintains affordability when it is freed from speculation and private profiteering. |
| 513 |
Morally and ethically, a vast amount of the funds of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank represent a theft from the global commons.
Under the common heritage principle, these funds would have been used to benefit the people of the world either by direct dividends or as interest free
loans through a revolving loan fund type of system. |
| 514 |
These oil theft loans made by the world financial institutions should be declared illegal and invalid. In the future, any other money loaned to
governments by global financial institutions should be repaid from the ground rent of the indebted nations. Such repayments would therefore fall primarily
upon those who are unjustly reaping the benefits of valuable land holdings rather than further burdening the struggling wage earners, small business owners,
and the oppressed poor. |
| 515 |
A condition of "ownership" of any particular landsite or natural resource is payment of the ground rent back to the community as a whole. Ground rent is
the proper source of public finance for the collective needs of the community. Alternatively, ground rent can be redistributed by direct payment back to all
individuals, much as a company returns dividends to its stockholders. |
| 516 |
The exercise of both common and individual rights in land is essential to a society based on justice. But the rights of individuals in natural resources are
limited by the just rights of the community. Denying the existence of common rights in land creates a condition of society wherein the exercise of individual
rights becomes impossible for the great mass of the people. |
| 517 |
All the Earth natural resources belong to the Global Community to be used, developed and conserved for the maximum benefit of the people and of all
life. However, the challenges of global warming and non-renewable resource depletion dictates that oil and other non-renewable resource rents should be
invested in socially and environmentally responsible ways and primarily in the needed transition to renewable energy technologies. The tax put on
non-renewable resources in the world should be citizen empowered. |
| 518 |
We have reached the deplorable circumstance where in large measure a very powerful few are in
possession of the earth's resources, the land and all its riches, and all the franchises and other privileges
that yield a return. These monopolistic positions are kept by a handful of men who are maintained virtually
without taxation. |
| 519 |
To speak of enforceable global law is to speak of world power. Global Parliament has the power to
make the laws of the land and to make the rules for the territory of the earth. Global Law has been and
continue to be researched and developed for this purpose. |
Session I: issues #520 to 525
3:15 pm - 5:30 pm
| 520 to 525 |
Session I |
| 520 |
The ownership of natural resources ultimately determines the social, the political and consequently the
mental and physical condition of a people. Attaining an ethic of wise and careful stewardship of the Earth
is likewise inseparable from the task of securing the well-being of individuals. The health of a person and
the health of the Earth is interrelated. It is unlikely that environmental degradation will cease until the
exploitation of the people is alleviated. The pressures upon those who are themselves exploited to exploit
in turn each other and the environment is great. |
| 521 |
We now have more national income and national wealth concentrated in fewer hands then we have had
since the beginning of the twentieth century. This causes a fundamental threat to democracy. What will
become of democracy? What will become of "we the people? What kind of life awaits our children and
grandchildren if they have no jobs and no income to buy food or shelter? The primary social adjustment
of the Global Community is a denial of justice. In allowing anyone to own the land on which and from
which other people must live, we have given a person power in a degree which increases as material
progress goes on. This way of doing things turns the blessings of material progress into a curse. We must
find better ways of doing things, and quickly. The forces of concentration of wealth and power have
nearly overpowered us. |
| 522 |
We need to take a giant step forward to a new form of democracy. We, the Global Community, must
now direct the wealth of the world towards the building of local-to-global economic democracies in order
to meet the needs for food, shelter, healthcare, education, and employment for all. The task before us is
that of building a global order based on the full honoring of our common humanity with profound
recognition and respect for the dignity of each and every child, woman and man. |
| 523 |
Global governance has not yet concerned itself with an important global principle question. This question
concerns property rights in land - property rights in the earth itself. The fundamental question is, "Who
Should Own the Earth?" The right to the Earth cannot be vulnerable to the whim of partisan politics. The
right to the Earth must be vested in the people themselves, in a way that can be understood and
monitored by the average individual. The answer is of course that everyone should own the earth on an
equal basis as a birthright. The right to the earth, the right to the land and of all Earth natural resources is
the most fundamental and basic human right - the equal right to earth. |
| 524 |
The land problem has been around for the longest time. Why do people buy up large tracts of land near
large towns and cities and other government projects without developing them? The objective is to wait
for such a time when the land prices would go up so it could be sold at a great profit. This unearned
increment or rise in land value is not as a result of anything the land owner has done. It is a socially
created value and as such rightly belongs to the community. |
| 525 |
Land speculation hampers development as land is held out of use. Those who need land are denied
access. This evil strikes at every form of industrial activity. A manufacturer proposing to start a new
industry will be forced to pay such a high price for land and this will hamper his competitive power in
every market. In addition, in terms of settlement patterns, land speculation creates urban sprawl as people
have to go beyond the land under speculation to acquire land to use or to build. |
Wednesday, August 20
Session J: issues #526 to 530
9:30 am - 10:30 am
| 526 to 530 |
Session J |
| 526 |
One of the major functions of global governance is to grant clear titles to land and other property.
Democratic governance as presently constituted has unfortunately not been greatly concerned about how
the land was obtained in the first place. We need only reflect for a moment on the fact that in Canada, for
example, land was acquired by the colonizers from the native peoples under the old Roman empire land
laws of "dominium" - the legalization of land acquired by conquest and plunder. |
| 527 |
Land tenure in the West, as far back as the Roman Empire, has been rooted in the legalization of title to
land originally acquired by conquest and force. Democratic political rights have not given us democratic
economic rights. We can exercise our right to free speech all day long but it in no way guarantees that we
can have a secure place to sleep at night.
|
| 528 |
We have at hand a powerful solution and a way to secure a world of peace and plenty. We need to
constitute democratic governance on the firm foundation of equal rights to the land and resources of the
earth, a democracy for all people which removes the burden of taxes from the backs of those who labor
and instead directs government to collect the value of our common wealth for the benefit of all. A morally
correct form of taxation may not lead to everlasting life, but it will promote and sustain the conditions for
lives worth living on planet earth. |
| 529 |
Democratic systems of governance have not given us equitable land tenure systems. In no instance
historically did democratic governments procure the right to land as a human right. In no instance today
do democratic governments affirm the equal rights for all to the land and natural resource base that
sustains all life.This reality is important to keep in mind when considering how to implement truly equitable
systems of land tenure today. |
| 530 |
The intensive dimension of the land problem is what we confront as an economy develops under the
current capitalist system. In our system a person makes money from land as a commodity and an
investment. As development proceeds land values rise. Some few people are in positions to collect the
increased land values, while other people have to borrow money from banks. Banks then collect an ever
increasing ground rent - the profit from increased land value - as private profit. Investments are made,
production increases, land speculation continues, and land values increase more rapidly than wages.
Governments then increase taxes on middle class wages in order to pay for welfare programs for the
poor. But soon workers are pressed down again to subsistence levels and the middle class gets angry or
perhaps just depressed - if there is still a middle class remaining. The shining hope of progress has been
dashed to pieces upon the hard rocks of wealth concentration. |
Session K: issues #531 to 537
10:45 am - 12:15 pm
| 531 to 537 |
Session K |
| 531 |
The Global Economic Model is based on respect and value all life on earth. It recognizes that we as
human beings are trustees and caretakers of the many life forms that dwell here with us. The Global
Economic Model extends the democratic mandate to solve the land problem by affirming the equal right
of all people to the earth. It will have a balanced and just relationship of citizenry to government with
enlightened public finance policy based on land and land rent for the people. Money will be issued and
circulated as a service for the people as a whole rather than used as a mechanism for the exploitation of
the many by the few. |
| 532 |
The Global Economic Model is global, as people are freed to move beyond borders and boundaries and
claim the whole earth as their birthplace. It is highly decentralized as well, with people living and
producing for their basic human needs within the constraints and parameters of local ecological systems.
The Global Economic Model is about a world that works for everyone, with plenty of time to expand our
minds and elevate our spirits. |
| 533 |
How the earth should be owned is the major economic question of this time. The world should be owned
by the people living in it. The earth itself is the bottom line. The land is the source of all life and wealth. To
survive, we must have somewhere to stand and to rest. But this absolute necessity for our very existence
is nowhere guaranteed in our constitutional laws. Our Bill of Rights did not proclaim the human right to the
earth. |
| 534 |
We must grasp the injustice at the core of our present economic system. We need to understand how far
we have strayed from reality and how we have been led into illusionary games of finance. Our treatment
of the earth as a market commodity, just like a car or television, is the basic flaw in our economic ground
rules. Treating the earth as simply a capital line item is the root cause of the ever-widening gap between
those who have too much and those who have too little. |
| 535 |
When land became a 'commodity' and lost its status as provider and sustainer of life, Western civilization
began its history of subjugation and exploitation of the earth and earth based cultures. |
| 536 |
The Global Economic Model seeks to eliminate subsidies that are environmentally or socially harmful, unnecessary, or
inequitable. Examples of such subsidies are:
energy production,
resource extraction,
commerce and industry,
agriculture and forestry,
weapons of mass destruction and war industry. |
| 537 |
The Global Economic Model aims to eliminate taxes on
wages and earned income;
productive and sustainable capital;
sales, especially for basic necessities; and
homes and other buildings. |
Session L: issues #538 to 542
1:15 pm - 3:00 pm
| 538 to 542 |
Session L |
| 538 |
The Global Economic Model also allows for an increase of taxes and fees on natural resource rents
emissions into air, water, or soil;
land sites according to land value;
lands used for timber, grazing, mining;
ocean and freshwater resources;
electromagnetic or radio-frequency spectrum;
satellite orbital zones;
oil and minerals; and
hydropower. |
| 539 |
The resolution of the dilemma of democracy can be found in a three-factor (land, labor, capital)
macroeconomic approach. The products resulting from the interaction of land and labor are rightfully held
as individual private property, while land and all other natural resources are recognized as the common
heritage. |
| 540 |
Once the human right to the earth is firmly established in the minds and policies of a democratic majority,
land will no longer be taken by the few from the many either by the force of military might or by the
mechanisms of the market. The market's ability to place value, combined with the efficiency of money as
an exchange medium, results in a range of prices for land sites and natural resources. Those who simply
own earth resources, contribute nothing as such to the productive process. Yet under the current private
property ethic, they are in an advantageous position of power and can extract the ransom of a 'ground
rent' from both labor and productive capital. |
| 541 |
When we apply the common heritage principle to land and all other natural resources, then it follows
that ground rent, which is a measure of natural resource value, must be treated as 'common property'. A
way to affirm the equal right of all to the common heritage is to collect the ground rent for the benefit of
the Global Community, a policy we call 'land value taxation'. |
| 542 |
Confiscatory taxes on labor and productive capital should gradually be removed, as the value of earth
natural resources becomes the proper source of funding for the community. |
Session M: issues #543 to 547
3:15 pm - 5:30 pm
| 543 to 547 |
Session M |
| 543 |
Roman law developed the ownership concept which legitimized the accumulation of wealth by a few at
the expense of the impoverishment of the many. The concentration of property in private hands began
very early in Rome and was indeed based on the foundational and legitimizing idea of absolute and
exclusive individual ownership in land. This was the same idea which would come to form the basis of the
slave-owning, the feudal, and the capitalist economic systems successively. Modern civilization has not yet
discarded this antiquated ownership concept, which was originally derived from ancient Rome. In fact,
this is one of the main roots of the present global crisis in which the rich becomes richer and the poor
becomes poorer. |
| 544 |
When Christianity became the state religion of the Roman empire, the early Christian teachings on land
were overtaken by the Roman land laws of "dominium" - a legalization of property in land originally
obtained by conquest and plunder. A largely corrupted Christianity, uprooted from its early teachings on
land ownership, too often went hand in hand with the exploitation and degradation of centuries of colonial
conquests. |
| 545 |
When it comes to property ownership it is the value of the improvement only, and not the earth itself, that
is individual property...Every proprietor owes to the community a ground rent for the land which he holds.
Landlords grow richer in their sleep without working, risking, or economizing. The increase in the value of
land, arising as it does from the efforts of an entire community, should belong to the community and not to
the individual who might hold title. Do what we may, we can accomplish nothing real and lasting until we
secure to all the first of those equal and inalienable rights with which.... man is endowed by his creator -
the equal and inalienable right to the use and benefit of natural opportunities, all Earth natural resources. |
| 546 |
The planet and all its resources of land, water, forests, minerals, the atmosphere, electro-magnetic
frequencies, and even satellite orbits are the common heritage of all and must no longer be appropriated
for the private profit of a few to the exclusion of the many. The Global Economic Model makes sure that
the profits of the earth will benefit the people and the planet and secure an age of peace and plenty for all. |
| 547 |
The incentive signals of the world's taxation systems currently promote waste, war, environmental
damage, and the concentration of wealth. Approximating the composition of the world's $8 trillion tax pie
reveals that 90% of taxes fall on work while only 5% is collected from environmentally damaging
activities. A mere 3% of global tax revenues is captured from natural resource use and access fees. A
modest global tax shift scenario would collect 20% from environmental damage, 15% from land use and
resource royalties and cut environmentally harmful subsidies by 90%. This would free up an additional
10% of current revenues and permit a nearly one-third reduction on wages and capital to 50% of total
global taxes. |
Thursday, August 21
9:30 am - 10:30 am
The Global Community and GCEG annual meetings
Session N: issues #548 to 552
10:45 am - 12:15 pm
| 548 to 552 |
Session N |
| 548 |
While a clear title to land gives the security of use rights, under current private property regimes it also
permits owners to speculate and profit from land as a market commodity. Thus we have also noted cases
where landless people who have been given secure title sometimes quickly sell their land for immediate
cash benefits. When they are unable to obtain employment to pay rent for housing, the cycle of poverty
and landlessness begins anew. |
| 549 |
Holding land as investment property and a way to accumulate wealth is actually maladaptive to a market
economy. This tenure approach has been identified as a primary cause of the maldistribution of wealth
problem which is rampant in capitalist systems. Land can not respond to supply and demand dynamics.
There can be increasing demand for land but there is never a corresponding increase of supply as the
supply of land was determined aeons ago by whatever unfathomable forces of the universe created it. |
| 550 |
The commodification of land and land speculation inflates land values to the point where those who have
only labor to contribute to the productive process must pay ever higher amounts for access to land for
shelter. Taxation placed upon wage labor further decreases purchasing capacity. |
| 551 |
Those with the most valuable land, and there is always the situation that some land is more valuable than
others, have an advantage over those with less valuable land. Having a more advantageous position, the
holders of the better lands see their wealth increase above and beyond the wealth of those with the
poorer land and those who have no land at all. They then frequently use their greater wealth and power to
acquire additional land.
Soon land values rise more rapidly than wages. Workers must borrow to pay for land. They borrow from
those who already have acquired surplus wealth and have deposited their funds in banks. Now the
landless must pay interest in order to buy land. The people with surplus wealth become even richer. If the
workers lose their jobs and cannot pay the mortgage, they must surrender their land to the banks.
The commodified land tenure and land-backed mortgage banking system is the problem, not the solution.
We see this problem throughout the world now, for instance in the unbridled power of big financial
interests to force people off of lands for so-called development projects, such as big dams which displace
millions of people and supply water and electricity primarily to a few wealthy landholders and businesses
rather than to all on an equitable basis.
Most of the people who are landless squatters around the urban centers in the developing world have
been pushed off of their lands in rural areas, displaced from self-sufficient lives where they had direct
access to land and resources to provide for their basic needs. This is the extensive dimension of the land
problem - the fact that so few now control so much of the land and resources of the world. |
| 552 |
As the taxation of land values, essentially a 'user fee' system, becomes an integral component of Earth
management, several things would have to happen at the same time:
1. land tenure will be based on fairness, not force, thus ameliorating territorial conflict, a root cause of
war;
2. land resources can be equitably allocated;
3. the economic playing field is level;
4. a genuinely free market is encouraged;
5. the gap between the rich and poor narrows; and
6. the necessary collective activities of humanity are properly funded, which include peacekeeping, and
the restoration and protection of the environment. |
| 553 |
The Global Economic Model has put forward a system of finance based on principles of subsidiarity in
terms of implementation. The ground rent of certain specific types of land and other natural resources can
be collected by clearly delineated governing bodies from the local to the global level. Thus, cities and
counties would draw their funding from the ground rent of surface lands; regional authorities would collect
the ground rent of oil and minerals, and of other Earth natural resources, global governing agencies would
be funded by a percentage from these two levels as well as that of deep sea resources, the
electromagnetic spectrum, satellite orbital zones, and other global natural resources. |
Session O: issues #554 to 557
1:15 pm - 3:00 pm
| 554 to 557 |
Session O |
| 554 |
Sufficiently high user fees and pollution permits encourage business and industry to find more efficient and
cost-effective controls. Pollution taxes function as pay-for-use fees for common heritage resources of
land, water and air and make the tax system work for the people and the planet. Taxes also aim to
eliminate numerous subsidies deemed no longer necessary, environmentally or socially harmful, or
inequitable. |
| 555 |
Property tax relief for agricultural land may increase the likelihood that it will attract those looking
primarily for tax shelters and speculative investments. Such nonproductive incentives ultimately inflate land
values overall, making it increasingly difficult for working farmers to access and maintain acreage for
viable agricultural enterprise. |
| 556 |
The high price of land means that the modern food and agriculture system provides no options for those
who cannot find a paying job other than subsistence on charity or government supports. Those with
minimum wage incomes are finding it increasingly difficult to afford decent housing. These social problems
and pressures are bound to increase with the cut-off of welfare and other government subsidies to the
poor. |
| 557 |
This Global Movement for land value taxation and natural resource rent for revenue can provide the basis
for worldwide economic democracy. Freedom to live or work in any part of the globe would also further
equality of entitlement to the planet, and provide a basis for the resolution of resource wars and territorial
conflicts. There would be no more private profit as unearned income from earth natural resources.
Instead, transparent and accountable resource agencies would collect resource rents and distribute those
funds in public services or as direct citizen dividends. With fundamental democracy in rights to the earth
firmly established through legal means and mandates, basic needs would be secured for all and the
militarized national security state and its bloated budgets could wither away. |
Session P: issues #558 to 563
3:15 pm - 5:30 pm
| 558 to 563 |
Session P |
| 558 |
Land value taxation policies shift taxes off of labor and productive capital and onto land and resources,
thus collecting ground rent for the benefit of all rather than the profit of a few. Freeing labor from taxation
assures maximum purchasing capacity. Collecting ground rent through land value recapture and land value
taxation provides an equitable and sufficient source of public funds to finance infrastructure for water and
sewage systems, transportation, education and other community services. Land also maintains
affordability when it is freed from speculation and private profiteering. |
| 559 |
While we are preparing to implement city and country wide land value taxation, we can model this
approach through the Global Community Land Trust leases which secure title and tenure to the poor and
landless while eliminating the problem of the commodification of land.
A Global Community Land Trust (GCLT) is a legal not-for-profit landholding entity with a democratically
elected board and transparent accounting procedures. A GCLT issued land lease clearly demarcates land
boundaries and which individuals or groups are granted secure tenure and use rights to a particular parcel
of land.
Under a GCLT lease, land maintains affordability because there is no capacity for land speculation or
profiteering. The Trust land cannot be sold so it does not have a purchase value for land users but does
have a fair rental value, which in remote rural areas would be extremely low. With no selling price, only a
fair lease fee, there is no need to borrow mortgage money for land purchase. This significantly lowers the
cost of land for housing and other useful activities. |
| 560 |
Nearly half of corporate profits comes from real estate related activities. A tax on land would thus fall
heavily on corporate held lands which cannot escape from taxation via offshore accounts and other tax
shelters. Labor would gain affordable access to land resources and capital. The products of labor on land
would increasingly be owned and controlled by voluntary cooperative organizations. The removal of
federal subsidies for agribusiness combined with affordable land access will give a great impetus to
organic, sustainable agriculture. |
| 561 |
A condition of the permission to extract natural resources or to use water or air would be the advanced
payment of environmental security deposits. While heavy pollution taxes would drastically increase
incentives for clean technologies, the environmental security deposits would only be returned if the land
resource was left in an acceptably healthy condition.
All the Earth natural resources belong to the Global Community to be used, developed and conserved
for the maximum benefit of the people and of all life. However, the challenges of global warming and
non-renewable resource depletion dictates that oil and other non-renewable resource rents should be
invested in socially and environmentally responsible ways and primarily in the needed transition to
renewable energy technologies. The tax put on non-renewable resources in the world should be citizen
empowered. |
| 562 |
Global commons are those universal values, principles, ideas, concepts, beliefs, truths we have
all in common. They may also be symbiotical relationships.
Global commons are the many reasons why humanity get together in times of uncertainty and distress.
Wars and conflicts, environmental disasters, earthquakes and Tsunamis, are a few examples. Other times
we get together in research and development, the exploration of space, development of new technologies,
education, so many reasons for us all to meet and dialogue. The list goes on a long way.
Today we are getting together to find new global commons that can help for the survival of humanity and
all life on Earth. And so you are asked to participate in Global Dialogue 2008. |
| 563 |
Most issues and aspects of global governance and Earth management are already being applied by the
Global Community. But there is no agency powerful enough to protect life on Earth from those who
care not about it. At best what we have is the Global Justice Movement for all life which has found a
process for the establishment of justice amongst us all. What we have not done is the actual governing and
managing of the planet as per the Global Constitution and Global Law. And that is our first priority
now. |
Friday, August 22
Guided tours. Meet at the site at 9:30 am.
‘Caring for Life and Earth’
|
