
Mason Gaffney: A Tribute [pdf] - LVTfan
https://schalkenbach.org/file-12/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Robert-Schalkenbach-Fdn-Tribute-to-Mason-Gaffney-FINAL.pdf
======
LVTfan
Dr. Mason Gaffney, the remarkable economics professor at UC Riverside whose
work was inspired by the insights of Henry George, has died, at 96. A tribute
at [https://schalkenbach.org/file-12/wp-
content/uploads/2020/07/...](https://schalkenbach.org/file-12/wp-
content/uploads/2020/07/Robert-Schalkenbach-Fdn-tribute-to-Mason-Gaffney.pdf)
provides a sense of the scope of his writings over the course of 75 years. It
has links and commentary on many of his writings.

This ties to a discussion a few months ago at
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?p=2&id=23210804](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?p=2&id=23210804)
on Georgism.

It starts with Henry George's central philosophical principle:

"The equal right of all men to the use of land is as clear as their equal
right to breathe the air—it is a right proclaimed by the fact of their
existence. For we cannot suppose that some men have a right to be in this
world and others no right.

If we are all here by the equal permission of the Creator, we are all here
with an equal title to the enjoyment of his bounty— with an equal right to the
use of all that nature so impartially offers. This is a right which is natural
and inalienable; it is a right which vests in every human being as he enters
the world, and which during his continuance in the world can be limited only
by the equal rights of others." source:
[http://progressandpoverty.org/files/george.henry/pp071.html#...](http://progressandpoverty.org/files/george.henry/pp071.html#p-16)

The corresponding economic principle is that we ought to recognize our equal
rights to the earth by collecting all the rental value of land and other
natural opportunities as shared public revenue.

Gaffney's work, like Henry George's thought, shows that economics is not a
dismal science.

His writing is erudite, witty and hopeful, and provides a perspective most
economics majors never get exposed to.

