Rev Paul Nicolson & Prof Michael Hudson - A common answer to austerity

Rev Paul Nicolson is someone who is getting into hot water on behalf of those who live their lives in a dilemma as to whether to heat their homes or eat. At this stage of his battle he is grappling with the bureaucracy of debt enforcement about his non-payment of council tax. Even though he can pay, he is refusing to, but is making a political point to press the Council to charge higher council tax payers more, so that those on the heat/bread line can be relieved of council tax as they used to be.  

A December 2013 post gives his case and a recent update shows that the bailiffs are getting muddled about where he lives, as the Council failed to inform the Court correctly. 

But he says:

'The long term aim must be to abolish council tax and business rates in favour of land value tax.' Tenants would have no liability for any land value tax (owners would) and the sort of bother Rev Paul gets involved in wouldn't be needed due to their income boost. 

Another advocate of land value tax, particularly relating to financial woes of Ireland is Prof Michael Hudson. 

In a recent interview he says, referring to the abandonment of their native land by many Irish: 

You should establish as a basic legal principle of international law that no country should be obliged to pay foreign debts at the price of driving out 10 – 20% of its population, at the price of austerity, and at the price of committing economic suicide.

Nation states are not supposed to commit suicide. But that is what Ireland is doing.

and: 

'just read Henry George and The Land Question and you’ll get everything you need to know about why Ireland should have had the tax base on the land instead of turning over the rental income to banks – which then lent it to crooks, who stole it.'

Michael Hudson on Latvia and oppressors:

 'There is a basic motto among oppressors: You don’t know when people will begin to fight back until they actually do. So they are just tightening the screws and tightening the screws. Latvia was a cruel experiment to see how far you could reduce living standards. There doesn’t seem to be a limit.'