Re: What's the way out of poverty?

A relatively unknown economist named Henry George tackled this very issue in his 1879 book Progress and Poverty. In it, he showed how increase in land rent was responsible for continued poverty in the midst of economic progress. His solution was a kind of land reform called land value taxation. When the tax burden is shifted from wages and interest to land rent, the land and natural resources effectively become common property, without causing the "tragedy of the commons" as it is so often called. This prevents landed interests from competing against the interests of capital and labor. It also discourages speculation in land, freeing up good land for the poor. It is effectively a bottom-up solution rather than the top-down solution proposed by Jeff Sachs.