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http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...-might-bring-liberals-conservatives-together/
How an anti-rentier agenda might bring liberals, conservatives together
Posted by Mike Konczal on March 30, 2013 at 12:08 pm
Throughout the late 19th century, the political economist Henry George argued that a main reason there was so much poverty amidst prosperity was the large presence of people collecting unearned income, or what he called “rents”. His particular focus was on land, and his solution was taxes. It’s difficult to overstate his influence on turn-of-century reform movements, providing both the theoretical basis for those looking at other problems in the new industrial era and a concrete set of solutions for organizers building new mass political movements.
In a recent series of three posts at Salon, Michael Lind of the New America Foundation argues that this threat of rentiers is back and causing mass stagnation in an age of huge wealth. Lind believes that an anti-rentier agenda could unite a broad coalition, including “owners of productive businesses as well as workers, populist conservatives and liberal reformers.”
Meanwhile, conservatives are trying to assemble their own coalition by developing an economic agenda suited to where the country is right now. Tim Carney at the Washington Examiner called for a free-market populism, one that shows that “big government expands the privileges of the privileged class.” Others see a younger generation of conservative activists as harbingers of this approach to economic policy.
How an anti-rentier agenda might bring liberals, conservatives together
Posted by Mike Konczal on March 30, 2013 at 12:08 pm
Throughout the late 19th century, the political economist Henry George argued that a main reason there was so much poverty amidst prosperity was the large presence of people collecting unearned income, or what he called “rents”. His particular focus was on land, and his solution was taxes. It’s difficult to overstate his influence on turn-of-century reform movements, providing both the theoretical basis for those looking at other problems in the new industrial era and a concrete set of solutions for organizers building new mass political movements.
In a recent series of three posts at Salon, Michael Lind of the New America Foundation argues that this threat of rentiers is back and causing mass stagnation in an age of huge wealth. Lind believes that an anti-rentier agenda could unite a broad coalition, including “owners of productive businesses as well as workers, populist conservatives and liberal reformers.”
Meanwhile, conservatives are trying to assemble their own coalition by developing an economic agenda suited to where the country is right now. Tim Carney at the Washington Examiner called for a free-market populism, one that shows that “big government expands the privileges of the privileged class.” Others see a younger generation of conservative activists as harbingers of this approach to economic policy.
