News
& Views 9:
The latest updates for News & Views can be
seen on: www.the-free-lunch.blogspot.com
(please click on the link)
News
& Views 8:
Why
Architects will welcome this
February
2006: Harrisburg USA - State capital of Pennsylvania.
There has been dramatic economic progress since 198, when
this
'second most distressed city of the nation' started levying
a land value
tax on all sites. There is six times the levy on land compared
with buildings.
The
Mayor, Stephen R Reed, states that this policy rewards the
productive
use of land. The number of empty sites has declined dramatically
since.
Architects all over the world should study the facts and
lobby for change
where they are.
The
Free Lunch investigates such policies and shows how Planning
relates to them.
Land values increase when a whole community is successful
and Harrisburg
is an example of a city that uses this wealth for the further
benefit of all.
Find
out about these benefits in The Free Lunch
News
& Views 7:
Just
when will house prices crash?
- update
August
2005: If you had bought your house in the UK at the
peak in mid-
1989 it took nearly nine
years before the value recovered. The recession that
followed caught many people out with a large mortgage and
no income to
pay for it. Homelessness followed as the loan was called
in forcing a sale
and maybe leaving a huge debt. How will you be affected
the next time?
In a new book economist Fred Harrison suggests that the
next house
price crash and economic depression is not far away:
Boom
Bust House prices, banking and the depression of
2010
Shepheard-Walwyn (ISBN 0856831891).
The
Free Lunch has several solutions that could temper the
erratic behaviour of
the economy and safeguard the financial security of the
poorest. Importantly its
measures would also safeguard the freedom of all.
Discover
what Citizenisation could mean for you and yours in
The Free Lunch.
News
& Views 6:
Just
when will house prices crash?
Winter
2004: An academic from Warwick University England, Professor
Andrew Oswald in early 2003 predicted a house price crash
in
the UK within two years. A year later and his prediction
has not yet
come true, as he admits in The Times (Jan 12).
The
Free Lunch uncovers and explains facts about house
values
that are rarely mentioned on the popular property TV shows
or in
newspaper articles.
They are vital to property developers
and every
homeowner
should know them.
Find
out about the 18 year cycle in house prices
in 'The Free Lunch'.
News
& Views 5:
Building in the countryside?
Autumn 2003:
Dr Keith Porter of English Nature says it would be a positive
benefit to wildlife if we were to build more houses in the
countryside.
Low density housing with larger gardens, would provide better
habitats for
birds, butterflies and other animals than the empty fields
of intensive farming.
His announcement reverses a 50 year policy
which has inhibited the use of
farmland for housing. It has led to cramped new housing
where few would
want to live if they had the choice of a home set in a little
more ground.
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The Free Lunch
promotes this idea - .
. . . . . . . and relates it to planning and development.
It shows how
"covering the countryside in concrete" would
not happen with a less
restrictive policy . . . . but there need to be some
safeguards. The
Free Lunch shows new ways for nature
and people to live in harmony.
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News
& Views 4:
Home-owners in danger?
Summer 2003: A feature
of the house market in the UK is that
the number of first-time buyers entering the market has
dropped
by one third since the same time last year.
If the economy falters and even fewer first-time buyers
join in
this could be the start of a slide in prices.
Or will the market pick up and the boom
continue?
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The Free Lunch
explains - . . . . .
. . . how the housing market works like a pyramid selling
scheme and
as every one knows, these eventually collapse.
To homeowners this can mean negative equity, repossession
and even
homelessness. But there are hopeful alternatives
to such regular horrors. Find
them in The Free Lunch. |
News
& Views 3:
Heh! Its our money you’re spending!
July 2003: Economists
from the European Central Bank reported
that if UK governments were as efficient as Japanese or
US ones
we could have the same public services as we have now AND
save 70bn
each year.
This would mean that every single citizen - including all
children –
could be more than 1000
better off every year!
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The Free Lunch
tells -
. . . . . . . .of a western country whose enlightened
government decided
that it was better to trust the people directly with
some of the country’s
wealth rather than spend it all on grandiose and wasteful
schemes.
For more than 20 years the country has
had a scheme that actually pays
its citizens - even children - an income every year!
Since it started, no
government in that country has dared to meddle with
the idea.
Read about this extraordinary
theme in The Free Lunch. |
News &
Views 2:
Cashing in on your home
-
the Gainers & Losers.
When house prices are climbing it is easy
for homeowners to
cash in some of their gain by re-mortgaging. They can raise
several thousand pounds as long as they can afford slightly
higher monthly payments. And if interest rates are dropping,
the deal can be done at very little extra cost - if any!
But what of those people with no
home of their own?
The renters? Tough - they are out of the game.
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The Free Lunch
clarifies -
. . . . . . just what happens to enable so many people
to do this. The book
explains that these deals can only happen because all
of us (even renters)
are the creators of the new wealth that causes house
prices to rise.
The book points to a much fairer solution that would
bridge the divide
between these ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’. |
News
& Views 1:
More help for the poor
AND
lower taxes?
Increasingly the UK Government, and many
others worldwide,
work out more and more complicated ways of helping the poorest
with welfare payments.
The trouble is, the schemes are so complex that many people
don’t seem to get the cash.
One report about a baby-credit says that only
about one third
of families got the money due to them.
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The Free Lunch
shows –
. . . . . . . . that there is a simple way of dealing
with poverty at the root.
A way that would lift huge numbers of people out of
poverty AND bring more
soundly based wealth to all AND enable taxes to be reduced.
Too hard to believe? |
Just read The Free Lunch
and you’ll wonder why no one told
you these things before!
And don’t forget to listen to the story on the CARTOON
page
and have your eyes opened!
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