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  • Income Distribution in the US
    How is our income distributed? Well, it is pretty concentrated. How concentrated? Take a look.
  • Progress and Poverty, by Henry George
    Here are links to online editions of George's landmark book, Progress & Poverty, including audio and a number of abridgments -- the shortest is 30 words! I commend this book to your attention, if you are concerned about economic justice, poverty, sprawl, energy use, pollution, wages, housing affordability. Its observations will change how you approach all these problems. A mind-opening experience!
  • Wealth Concentration Tables from 2004 SCF: Bottom 90%, Next 9% and Top 1%
    Aggregated data by net worth quantile, for various kinds of wealth. With calculations you won't find anywhere else!
  • Wealth Concentration Tables from 2004 SCF: 50-40-5-4-1
    These tables show how concentrated the ownership of various kinds of assets are. With calculations you won't find anywhere else! This version is less aggregated: Bottom 50%, Next 40%, Next 5%, Next 4% and Top 1%.

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  • Henry George: Progress and Poverty: An inquiry into the cause of industrial depressions and of increase of want with increase of wealth ... The Remedy
    This is perhaps the most important book ever written on the subjects of poverty, political economy, how we might live together in a society dedicated to the ideals Americans claim to believe are self-evident. It will provide you new lenses through which to view many of our most serious problems and how we might go about solving them: poverty, sprawl, long commutes, despoilation of the environment, housing affordability, wealth concentration, income concentration, concentration of power, low wages, etc. Read it online, or in hardcopy.
  • Bob Drake's abridgement of Henry George's original: Progress and Poverty: Why There Are Recessions and Poverty Amid Plenty -- And What To Do About It!
    This is a very readable thought-by-thought updating of Henry George's longer book, written in the language of a newsweekly. A fine way to get to know Henry George's ideas. Available online at progressandpoverty.org and http://www.henrygeorge.org/pcontents.htm

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« The Earth-for-All Calendar: May 5 -- Winstanley | Main | The Earth-for-All Calendar: May 7 -- Spencer »

May 06, 2012

Collecting our economic rent

Collecting our economic rent.
Edmonton Journal April 15, 2012 T

he Alberta public used to recover 40 per cent of all resource revenue when Peter Lougheed was in power.

Why do we give our resource revenue away now?

Once the oil and gas companies have recovered their costs and made their standard profit, the rest of the revenue - the "economic rent" as Norway calls it - is up for grabs in Alberta. Why do we collect anything less than 100 per cent of that revenue? If we give it to the oil and gas sector, it is a subsidy. Why do we need or want to subsidize the richest corporations in Alberta?

Some Albertans claim that the oil and gas companies will leave Alberta if we charge higher royalty rates.

What nonsense. Alberta is a safe, pleasant place to live and work and has resources readily available.

The U.S. will need our resources for many years to come.

Our oil and gas will not go bad if we leave them in the ground for a few more years or extract them more slowly. Let's stop subsidizing the oil and gas companies and start collecting fair royalties for all Albertans.

Elizabeth Reid, Edmonton
© Copyright (c) The Edmonton Journal

Posted on May 06, 2012 at 10:57 AM in natural resource revenues |

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