The Henry George Program

Let's head back to the early nineties―Prop 13 was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in an 8-1 decision, and Jack Miller wrote a 66-page barnburner about the injustice in the decision. We have Jack Miller on to talk about the jurisprudence of fair taxes, the importance of Horizontal Equity, and how this all came together in Nordlinger v Hahn.

Victoria Fierce works for (pro-housing) East Bay Forward. Victoria Fierce is a member of (pro-economic-justice) DSA. This has led to an undue amount of drama. Does this have to be so? Why can't socialists and YIMBYs get along?

Katy Tang represents the Sunset on the SF Board of Supervisors, and has led Home-SF, which works to end displacement while still building more units, by tying affordability to upzoning incentives. We talk about ending zero-sum thinking.

James K. Galbraith has produced a deep catalogue of books; in his recent "Inequality: What Everyone Needs to Know", he touches on the land value tax. We talk about that and much more.

Jeff Andrade-Fong works with Tech for Housing to bring attention to tech workers about how housing policy affects them, and what they can do. Josh Vincent advises land policy on a city-by-city basis using open data and more. Changing policy is hard, but we talk about what people can do about it.

We talk to James Howard Kunstler, who has long been a voice railing against the ugliness of modern sprawl and its attendant psychic torment. How does a land tax offer a possible answer to this tragedy?

Last November, Berkeley passed Measure U1, nicknamed the "Landlord Tax." It increased the tax rate for landlords of five or more rental units. Behind the bill was Stephen Barton, who's been working for affordable housing for decades. On the side, he's been writing about the Georgist history of Berkeley's leadership.

Tomas Piketty showed that accumulation of capital was driving modern inequality. But then a young economics student showed how scarcity of housing explains Piketty's phenomenon, not accumulation. We're joined by Professor Nic Tideman of Virginia Tech, to discuss Matthew Rognlie's influential paper.

Kedar is back to talk about mobility. We have depressed economies and cities with excess demand. Why?

Corey Smith of the San Francisco Housing Action Coalition talks about the policies and the politics to get the housing supply up to 5,000 units a year. All your favorites are here: CEQA and Prop 13. Some talk about the limits of empathy: are our land-use policies making us meaner?