Simon's Blog

Henry George was confused when he learned that rapidly growing cities with excessive wealth contain greater poverty than most less-developed places. His take was that too much wealth was going to landowners via rents and that the problem could be solved simply by putting a tax on land value. In "Progress and Poverty", George tried to explain why poverty exists even when there are tremendous amounts of wealth in cities. He saw how technological and social advances increased the value of land and how the amount of wealth demanded by owners increase by way of rent. As an alternative to this problem, he proposed a single tax on land. George argues that a land value tax would give landowners an incentive to use well located land in a productive way, thereby increasing demand for labor and creating wealth. This shift between owners and laborers would raise wages and ensure no one need suffer poverty. According to his theory, land value tax would end urban sprawl and reduce...

The Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) is an American professional basketball league that has 12 teams. Founded in 1996 as the women's equal to the National Basketball Association (NBA) is the only league ever to receive full backing by the NBA. As a competitor to the men’s league for viewership, it has not done very well. Many basketball fans do not show interest in the women’s game, so attendance and viewership lag behind the men’s game.  In the last twenty years, the NBA has spent more than $10 million per year to keep the WNBA financially solvent and individual teams have been losing roughly $1 million to $2 million a year. One of the primary focus and cause for conversation is the inequality of income that exist in the game. Many players such as Brittney Griner, Breanna Stewart, and Maya Moore have been outspoken about the equality of income between the male and female players.   In 2008, a six-year WNBA collective barga...