Off at the Georgist Conference

No blogging to speak of this week; I’m attending the annual conference of the Council of Georgist Organizations at Scranton.  

I’m not going to try blogging the conference, titled “Two Views of Social Justice: A Catholic/Georgist Dialogue.”   Probably the most striking thing I’ve learned today: Theologian Brian Benestad said that Catholic doctrine neither requires nor prohibits the single tax.  If the laity thinks the single tax is a good thing, let them put it into effect.  However, he said the single tax cannot solve all the problems of poverty and human misery, because those are caused by Original Sin, and the single tax cannot overcome Original Sin.

Can’t reply to that one.

Nic Rosen is doing some updates.

2 thoughts on “Off at the Georgist Conference”

  1. I’m not equipped to analyse original sin. Certainly not to argue it with a priest or licensed theologian. It makes no sense to me, but obviously they see it differently.

    As for what happened at the conference, I think you need to be Catholic to fully appreciate it. Given that Catholics so outnumber Georgists, we really should make some effort to communicate with them. At least some of us should, there’s plenty else for the rest to do.

    One or two of the conference papers has appeared in Groundswell, with more to come I imagine. I am told that there will be videos, but I was told the same about last year’s conference and it never happened. I am also told there will be a book coming out in 2008.

    The food was decent, the beer was excellent, coffee mediocre (but there was a fine coffeehouse five blocks away). We toured a coal mine, and a couple of us snuck away to ride the electric trolley. Of course it’s always important to socialise. All in all a pretty good time.

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