In June 1858, during the second Opium War, Britain and France, in cahoots with the other major European powers and the United States, forced China to sign the Treaty of Tianjin. Britain waged the Opium War so its merchants could flood China with cheap heroin, cultivated by other British merchants in India.
The treaty allowed western trading powers to annex China commercially, emasculate the emperor and carve up the vast wealth of the Middle Kingdom. The Europeans colonised the mainland from the east, while the resurgent US navy, fresh from annexing California from Mexico, moved across the Pacific from the west.
These events were watched with distress in Edo, as Tokyo was then known. In 1860 Japan was isolated, feudal and weak. It was an obvious next commercial target for avaricious westerners. If India and China could be enfeebled by imperialists, what chance had remote Japan?
But Japan didn’t go the way of China. By 1900 Japan had become the most advanced independent nation in Asia. By 1905 it was trouncing the Russians on the battlefield.
Economic Renaissance
In 1868, the Japanese responded to the threat of the West with the Meiji Restoration, a cultural, political and economic revolution that was intellectually and socially on a par with the French Revolution.
At its core was an economic renaissance aimed at moving Japan from a feudal, land-based system, where wealth and power were vested in landowners, to a modern, industrial power based on innovation and trade, where wealth was vested in commerce.
Much has been made of the Japanese strategy of imitating western technology, but central to that extraordinary turnaround was this internal reform. Alone among major countries, the Japanese introduced a substantial land tax.
Planners in Tokyo realised the country couldn’t compete with the West as long as wealth was tied up in land. They also knew their rising population demanded the efficient use of land to fix Japan’s housing crisis.
The land tax reduced the incentive for feudal landlords to “hoard” land. It encouraged owners to either use land more efficiently or sell it to others who would do so. Tax focuses the commercial mind like nothing else.
The Japanese concluded that to get the economy working properly for as many people as possible they had to dramatically reduce the wealth tied up in land. They were right.
Feudal land-based economies, where land, rather than innovation and hard work, is the source of wealth simply enrich a drone class. The drones live off land, push its price up and drive down the quality of life for others, such as renters and first-time buyers.
This week, a report suggested that the top 1 per cent in Ireland owns 33 per cent of the country’s wealth and that 90 per cent of the country’s wealth is held in land and property. Reading this, I couldn’t help thinking of the Japanese and their land tax.
Ireland needs its own Meiji Restoration.
Significant Land Tax
If we really want to fix the housing crisis, to address in a meaningful way wealth inequality in Ireland, to arrest the growth of sprawling suburbia and to create an innovative economy, Ireland needs to introduce a significant land tax.
Such a land tax, levied on land, not property, would eliminate land hoarding and dramatically increase the incentive to use land efficiently. This would make more land available for development and substantially reverse the dereliction that afflicts our cities.
At the moment, Ireland hardly taxes land at all. We raise huge sums from income tax and consumption taxes, but we hardly touch wealth and land.
And, although it sounds paradoxical, to make land use productive you have to tax it. Otherwise there is no incentive to use it efficiently. Land hoarders just sit on land, gouging a growing population that needs a place to live.
Implicit in the Irish societal contract is a huge transfer of wealth from working people to a quasi-feudal land-owning class, increasing wealth inequality. Irish inheritance – still the easiest way to get rich – is based on this.
As wealth inequality rises and the very wealthy get yet wealthier, more and more people feel their stake in society is diminishing, which drives political extremism. Massive wealth inequality and democracy don’t mix.
Land-based inequality and modern capitalism don’t mix either. The Meiji Japanese understood this.
Four Inputs
Ultimately, everything that the capitalist economy produces comes from four inputs: labour, enterprise, capital and land.
Labour and capital are highly productive, while enterprise is the human alchemy – innovation – that makes everything tick. The more you work, the more money you commit to a project or the more human ingenuity you devote to an idea, the more they all grow. You get more wages, products and initiatives. Therefore, society is better off.
Land is different.
When a landlord buys a site for €200,000, does nothing to it, sits back and sells it on for €400, 000, nothing has happened to make society better off. The landlord is better off, but that’s it. Worse still, the costs of the higher land price are passed on to those who will eventually pay more in higher house prices. This applies as much to publicly-held land as it does to private landlords.
A substantial tax on unimproved land held by both the public and private sectors would fix this. If we do nothing to the tax system we will facilitate more money flowing into this most useless of assets, starving the productive economy of liquidity and investment.
It will also enrich a drone class at the expense of working people and keep house prices rising by leaving large sections of essential building land lying fallow. (I’m not joking. For example, if you drive along the M50 northbound, you will see horses grazing within the M50 as if you were on 19th-century American prairies. This is in a country with an acute housing crisis.)
Ultimately the more tax we raise from land the less tax we must levy on income, which will in turn increase the incentive to work. This is how we can regenerate the economy, driven by an ancient concept called the public good.
There is no evidence backing the claim linking land tax in Japan to their policies on planning which facilitated their population growth by building high-density cities on the coast, all linked with high-quality infrastructure. The Meiji tax reforms facilitated the birth of capitalism in Japan in the 19th century. Their population only moved the cities in high number in the latter half of the 2oth century. There is simply no relationship there. If you what a relationship with high-density residential zones in old cities check-out which ones were bombed extensively during ww2 – there is a big correlation there. Land… Read more »
apogolies typo – 2nd para – If you want…
´´When a landlord buys a site for €200,000, does nothing to it, sits back and sells it on for €400, 000, nothing has happened to make society better off.´´ Landlords don´t buy sites to profit from them. Speculative developers do. However, speculative developers on the medium to small-scale were wiped out in the crash and so this does not occur anymore. Small-scale speculative developers were often also builders i.e. they were generating work for themselves while filling in a need in the market. These are gone. What depresses me about this discussion that D McW is trying to have (… Read more »
As usual I always enjoy these articles . The story makes a lot of sense and timely too . A few points : Hugh Gough was the Limerick born British army general to Queen Victoria and who was the precursor to the success of the Opium Wars in China that created Hong Kong as a separate identity .He retired to his private residence now known as the Radison Hotel in South Dublin; and ‘ Unimproved Land’ – this is a new terminology in a new context that needs to be defined to become effective; Meiji Restoration was simply a system… Read more »
Subscribe.
Well, I have already given reasons why I think this is a stupid idea. In fact it is completely counterproductive. However, if one takes the TASC viewpoint – the more that is sucked off the populace for the institutional state, the better for the populace – then this is going to be lauded. Apart from the fact that land already IS taxed rather onerously, via local authority rates. Something that was conveniently left out. Again. I said already, that before one considers increasing tax on what is a necessary asset, and which generates value, one need to consider the impact… Read more »
There would be no problem with regard to real estate in Dublin, were it not for the ridiculous planning laws, the slow transport ( luas being a prime example), the over centralization of investment, the restrictions on height, and the scelping down by locaul authorities and the state when land is being redeveloped.
THE INSTITUTIUONAL STATE IS THE PROBLEM. LETTING THE INSTITUTIONAL STATE GRAB MORE MONEY FROM THE PEOPLE IS DEFINITELU NOT THE ANSWER.
I believe the land where the horses are grazing inside the M50 going northbound is just past junction 5 which would be the old Dunsink Dump. Not much going to be built on that in the near future but there are plenty of lands close by which could be utilised. No political will to build though from teh2 power brokers in FF and FG. Their buddies in Development and Finance sectors will give them the nod when the time is right, maybe?
Good Article, Topical, articulate and provocative… typical of the author. I see what Deco is saying about it, and I’d be inclined to agree with those principles I.e. Taxing productive assets to increase the largesse of the state is gubu stuff. However, the aspect of this proposed policy that I’m inclined to like is the taxing of public land. I.e. Why do we think that public land banks are a good idea?! they’re not. Use it or pay for the luxury of hoarding it back to general taxation. This would then put a spotlight on planning, infrastructure and other hindering… Read more »
I would have gone along with a land tax in Ireland up to a couple of years ago. After all it was one of Crotty’s proposals for addressing the country’s ‘undevelopment’. But I have changed my mind. There is already too much tax going to a useless state that squanders it with little to show. I notice that Deco has written much same further up. I can’t imagine any project that they could ever come up with that I would want taxes towards. Even if it were a good one because they would only take the good out of it.… Read more »
Why is so little of the tax take from property tax (1%)? I am paying over €600 p.a. and that is a large slice of my income and I don’t even live in Dublin. Well at least they haven’t got a water tax in there (yet).
Going through my archives I came upon this from an English commenter called “Howard” and it seems to trump all the bollocks written about Brexit. “The only thing I’m grateful for, Polly, is the chance to have lived through the 60s and 70s. Come to that, any period up to 1997. We could drive a motorbike on the beach. We could walk down the street without being spied on Social life revolved around a wide choice of pubs, each unique, where you could have a riotous evening with your mates, smoking and drinking yourself silly, free of trouble. Friends got… Read more »
Not so long ago, even politicians understood that savings were the engine of the economy. People stored their extra money in banks, which then lent that money out – often to those same customers – to start businesses and buy houses. Now governments are asking small savers to bail out them out by buying growth stocks – at the peak of a multi-year bull market that’s due to end with a bang fairly shortly.
————————————
https://dollarcollapse.com/monetary-policy-2/money-sitting-there-doing-nothing/
Ireland’s government dept per capita is send in the world to Japan. That’s what happens when government and inefficiencies rule the roost.
send = second
I still trying to catch up on the posts ; Thus far, I have been reading from the start until somewhere in the 1st thread of discussion featuring Grzegorz & Sideshow Bob. Ahead of attending to some private matters, I rush to add the following Article + Link from yesterday’s Irish Independent ; And, this I have not had the chance to read yet. Still, the subject matter is very relevant here in that it is it deals particularly with the situation in Irish State currently. As to how correct or wrong the author’s argument[s] is/are is open for debate.… Read more »
ADDENDUM LATER DECIDED WORTHY AS PREAMBLE . . MEANINGFUL CONSTRUCTIVE DISCUSSION ON HOUSING CRISIS IS NOT ALLOWED ON MAIN-STREAM MEDIA IN IRISH STATE & ALSO ON SOME ON WWW ALTERNATIVE MEDIA . A PARTICULAR RESPONSE . >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> ORIGINAL POST Off-Topic . BUT … BUT … BUT . Worth mentioning ; Because, valuable sources for truth from the WWW are being blown to smithereens on pretext that they are sources of Fake News ; . YET … YET … YET The champions of this onslaught are the broadcasters of actual fake news . e.g. RTE BBC CNN Euro News / France… Read more »
.
THE LIKES OF THESE MSHD COMPANIES HAVE BEEN DOING SAME HERE IN IRISH STATE ?
.
I THINK SO …
.
.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6Obc_cJba4
PERMUTATIONS OF 3 LETTERS . ///////////////////////////////////////// . WOW ! Re ; A DE-HOUSING CRISIS & SO MUCH MORE . PROBABLY INSPIRED BY DMW’s “MOMENTOUS EVENTS” REMARK ON TERROR PHONE-CALLS TO EVACUATE UR HOME IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING WHICH SOME THOUSANDS OF INNOCENT CHILDREN, WOMEN, & MEN PALESTINIANS WERE SUMMARY MURDERED BY ISRAELI MISSILES SUPPLIED BY O’BUMMER WHILST CERTAIN FOLKS CELEBRATED THE SPECTACLE NEARBY WITH PICNIC BARBECUES & BEERS, & … CHEERS. . HEADING ; Putin calls on Israel to end occupation of Arab lands, proclaims solidarity with Palestine Russian president Vladimir Putin made the statement in a congratulatory letter marking the International… Read more »
“The key to a fairer system has to be related to and built around Planning Permissions. This consent is granted by Planning Authorities which in effect are ‘We the People’ as represented by Councillors.” – it’s about time to lift the veil of secrecy as to how these planning decisions are really made in Dublin City Council: this is a secret tape from one of the Dublin City Council sessions – warning for DMW blog’s readers: please do not have drink while watching this video lest you choke on your hot tea like I did:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVO6XiTpuGM&t=3s
CONNECTED TO SUBJECT MATTER OF ARTICLE :
.
.
https:
//redice.tv/news/eu-funded-report-tells-journalists-not-to-write-negative-articles-on-migrant-crisis?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
…………………………………………………
.
http:
//www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/11/29/europe-promises-44bn-marshall-plan-africa-migrant-slavery-libya/
.
………………………………………………….
.
http:
//ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/featured-articles/2017/november/27/hypocrisy-us-meddling-in-hungarian-elections/
…………………………………………………
http:
//redpilltimes.com/ben-jerrys-ice-cream-places-refugees-welcome-message-on-product/
And, because we are all subject to being judged agreeable Yes or No or Middling with Hollywood’s dictums Re ;
.
the positions we take
.
how we project ourselves vis-a-vis particular positions
.
.
Including of course, the very issue of fulfilling our housing needs in our own bloody country.
.
.
http://yournewswire.com/mel-gibson-parasites-blood-kids/
‘Bitcoin, Blockchain, and Land Reform: Can an “Incorruptible” Technology Cure Corruption?’
Jeanne Jeong
https://globalanticorruptionblog.com/2016/01/08/bitcoin-blockchain-and-land-reform-can-an-incorruptible-technology-cure-corruption/
EWE WOULD WANT TO SERIOUSLY CONSIDER THE FOLLOWING AS THE RULING FACTOR IN THE CONTRIVED HOUSING CRISIS
.
.
A society is so much easy to fix into being increasingly broken when ewe have it riddled with particular organisation #14 highligthed in the following link ;
And, the links within this article are very interesting too.
.
.
http://aanirfan.blogspot.com/2017/12/secret-societies-and-cults-part-2.html
“If we really want to fix the housing crisis, to address in a meaningful way wealth inequality in Ireland, to arrest the growth of sprawling suburbia and to create an innovative economy, Ireland needs to introduce a significant land tax.” The ultimate in land taxes is to seize the property in the name of the state. So why quit fooling around with rules and regulations to control what can or cannot be done and just take it. Government knows best and the individual interests are too greedy to be relied upon. I’d rather live in a society where the government… Read more »
“Gimme a house ;
And, I’ll be ur “beard”
.
Here is a site housing many luminaries,
incl.
Nicola Sturgeon
Theresa May
Prince Harry
.
Fascinating
.
.
https://twitter.com/Beard_Club
IMPORTANT LIVING ECONOMIST’s LATEST ANALYSIS ; . . VERY USEFUL ; Still, I presently have some mind blocks with understanding some of his point. . . ……………………………………………….. . HEADING ; America’s Monetary Imperialism . By Michael Hudson . December 02, 2017 “Information Clearing House” – . . EXTRACT ; INTRO ; In theory, the global financial system is supposed to help every country gain. Mainstream teaching of international finance, trade and “foreign aid” (defined simply as any government credit) depicts an almost utopian system uplifting all countries, not stripping their assets and imposing austerity. The reality since World War I… Read more »
@ Sideshow Bob … mainly & logically so ; Also, expect Terry Hewitt to have specialist knowledge such that his opinion is also especially valuable, & welcome. Surely the most urgent challenge to overcome with total “effective” & “efficient” & “economic” ablomb is that of multiple storey constructions being totally “off-grid” in terms of the likes of the following ? : For then, one can more than justifiably greatly diminish necessity & / or justification for involvement of the Government in one’s homesteading arrangements. . Electricity Supply to ; e.g.s Wind, Solar, . Cooling & Ventilation ; Passive . Warmth… Read more »
The forces put into play by the bakers creating a monopoly in the supply of the nations, or supra national (EURO), money supply is designed to control the economic and the political outcomes. This system put into place has created organic growth as described in this article and will naturally try to take ove all the functions of statehood, thereby extinguishing individual rights and freedoms. Thus it is pure evil. DMW’s refusal to debate, discuss or even mention this issue is aiding and abetting. It is said that for evil to triumph it is sufficient that good people do nothing… Read more »
A bit late into this debate on property however, a few questions. 1. Why is it so difficult to get a handle on the problem. 2. Why is it so difficult to get a clear and definitive picture as to what groupings own what and what favourable T&Cs have they received so that they are under no pressure to develop undeveloped lands that they own. 3. Re item 2 – How long is this going to go on. 4. Why isn’t the government developing infrastructure elsewhere to lessen the pressure on Dublin. In simplistic term why isn’t the whole property… Read more »
Cryptography. Bitcoin et al are a load cobblers. That doesn’t mean you can’t make money speculating in them. The big risks for these products are evident. I read somewhere that for every physical Euro in circulation there are 9 virtual Euros. Bitcoin et al have 10 virtual and 0 bitetc. Were the ECB to decide to create Biteuros the game would be up for the et als. I’m sure some of you are wondering what is a cryptocurrency. A prine number is a number that can only be divided by itself and 1. EG 1, 3, 11, 23, 29. No… Read more »
“EASIER FOR A CAMEL TO GO THROUGH THE EYE OF A NEEDLE
THAN FOR … ”
.
.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-11-25/mapping-richest-people-world
THE FOLLOWING EXTRACT BELOW INCLUDES INTERESTINGOPINION ON SITUATION OF IRISH STATE. . . EXTRACT “..The Greek economy is flatlined at the moment. It cannot be revived. Why? Because the major statistical fact most people have underestimated or ignored is the fact that Greek households are showing a negative savings rate of between 15 and 20 percent. This means that they’re consuming or paying out 20 percent more than they earn, which in turn means that there is really no domestic capital available for investment. In fact, the major impediment to growth and recovery is not a lack of investment, but… Read more »
Why do people hoard? A question I have not seen addressed. Mostly it is to save for a rainy day. OR to save for a future time . It could be to have a private pension. Will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I’m 64? is still a valid question. Consider what is required to fund a retirement. For arguments case we suggest the an income of 60% of ones working life is adequate to survive. Say a modest 45,000 times 60% = 27,000. In the olden days it was reasonable to think one could buy… Read more »
I THINK THAT GRZEGORZ WOULD VERY MUCH ADMIRE HOW WELL WRITTEN THIS SYNOPSIS OF “The Frankfurt School” IS ;
.
.
http://whale.to/c/frankfurt_school1.html
.
.
AND, BEING THEN WISE TO THE NASTY INTENT OF “The Frankfurt School’s” SHADOW IS ESSENTIAL WHEN ONE GOES ABOUT FIXING THE HOUSING CRISIS.
CHUMP CHANGE Michigan State University economics professor Mark Skidmore made an astounding discovery about the finances and budgets of the U.S. federal government earlier this year. He and a team of graduate students discovered $21 trillion missing in the federal budget going back to 1998. Dr. Skidmore, who specializes in public finance, explains, “We know from official government sources that indicate $21 trillion is, in some way, unaccounted for. Furthermore, if we come back to the Constitution, all spending needs to be authorized by Congress. It looks to me, and I think I can conclude with a high degree of… Read more »
Politicalization of the FBI. It is no longer a dispassionate agency. Bias is for the Clintons and anti Trump.
http://video.foxnews.com/v/5666178630001/?#sp=show-clips
HOW ABOUT WE ASSIGN DMW ON PERMANENT MISSION TO BAMBOOZLE The Rothschilds WITH BS SO THAT WITH THEM DISORIENTATED WE CAN FIND THOSE $21 TRILLIONS & THEN HAVE A JOLLY GOOD TIME ;
.
AND, HEY, GIVE TO THE PALESTINIANS IN GAZA & WEST BANK SOME RESPITE FROM THOSE ONGOING “MOMENTOUS EVENTS” THAT THEY ARE TAXED WITH ON THEIR LAND.
.
.
https://saboteur365.wordpress.com/2017/12/04/reagan-era-soviet-defector-yuri-bezmenov-understood-the-threats-to-the-west-and-warned-us/
@HenryMakow
.
HEADING ;
Trudeau’s feminist social agenda gets bum’s rush from China who demands Canada send over an adult.
.
5:29 pm – 4 Dec 2017
.
.
https://twitter.com/HenryMakow/status/937856423467286528