132. Ian Kirkwood - 2024 Annual Conference - Panel 3: Recalibrating the Advocacy of Georgism

Today’s discussion comes from our most recent annual conference “Existential Crises: Is the Georgist Paradigm Part of the Solution?” and was recorded in July of 2024. For the next seven weeks, our discussions will revolve around the polycrisis afflicting the globe with four subtopics. The first will be the four most important crises, followed by how Georgism can alleviate these crises, which will then be followed by how to make Georgism more politically palatable, and will conclude by discussing different Georgist policy solutions. Today’s panelist is part of our third panel, “Recalibrating the Advocacy of Georgism,” and our speaker is Mr. Ian Kirkwood. Mr. Kirkwood is a freelance graphic designer who has most recently focused his work on land and tax reform in Scotland. He is currently the Director of the Scottish Land Revenue Group, an organization that promotes land value tax as a solution to shrinking public services while also reducing income taxes. In 2020, Ian wrote an article titled, “After the crisis we need to create jobs, not a tax on wealth” which was published in The Times, one of England’s oldest newspapers.  Together, we discussed how traditional forms of taxation disincentivize productivity, how a land value tax can replace other forms of taxes, and how Georgists can improve rhetoric around land value taxes to make them more appealing. To check out more of our content, including our research and policy tools, visit our website: https://www.hgsss.org/