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Mason Gaffney
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The Mason Gaffney Reader: Essays on Solving the "Unsolvable" Paperback – October 26, 2013

by Mason Gaffney (Author)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 8 ratings
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Mason Gaffney has devoted his career to demonstrating the viability of reconciliation and synthesis in economic policy. In these 21 wide-ranging essays, Prof. Gaffney shows how we can find “win-win-win” solutions to many of society’s seemingly “unsolvable” problems.
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  1. Print length
    244 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publication date
    October 26, 2013
  4. Dimensions
    5.5 x 0.55 x 8.5 inches
  5. ISBN-10
    0974184462
  6. ISBN-13
    978-0974184463
  7. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

Readers who, like Gaffney, deplore the widening gap between the rich and the working poor will most likely find his "Georgist" ideas for tax reform convincing and his optimism contagious.... This showcase of progressive political ideas and historically informed writing [is] a noteworthy book for serious readers that challenges commonly held ideas about taxes. -- Kirkus Reviews

From the Back Cover

One of the most important but underappreciated ideas in economics is the Henry George principle of taxing the economic rent of land, and more generally, natural resources. This wonderful set of essays, written over a long and productive scholarly career, should be compulsory reading. An inveterate optimist, Mason Gaffney makes an excellent case that, by applying the Henry George principle, we can reduce inequality, and raise ample public revenues to be directed at any one of a multitude of society's ills. Gaffney also offers plausible solutions to problems of urban renewal and finance, environmental protection, the cycle of boom and bust, and conflict generated by rent-seeking multinational corporations." -- Joseph Stiglitz

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Henry George Institute (October 26, 2013)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 244 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0974184462
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0974184463
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.55 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.55 x 8.5 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 8 ratings

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Mason Gaffney

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4.5 out of 5 stars
8 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Stephen Meintjes
5.0 out of 5 stars WW11 GI still fighting (the economic war ) for his country
Reviewed in the United States on January 16, 2014
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Mason Gaffney noticed the poverty of the Phillipines as a WW11 GI and tells us in a few strokes what it is all about, how little has changed and what must be done to end it. For those who wondered why America prospered so mightily in the nineteenth century and is battling in the twenty first, why San Francisco recovered so quickly after the 1906 earthquake and New Orleans so slowly after Katrina, Mason Gaffney points to the extent to which America, albeit sometimes unwittingly, heeded, or ignored, Plato's golden chord of reason which, in the realm of public finance, points to collection of community created land and other natural resource rents instead of taxing labour and capital. The same applies to California and Michigan and other regions whose successes and failures are not merely related to the chord but accompanied with a wealth of fascinating historical detail in the process. He moves on from regions to strike the same chord in money, credit and crisis as well as inflation, environmentalism and the hugely obfuscated but potent revenue potential of land. Nor does Europe escape with reminders of Turgot's legacy as well as its current fatal affair with VAT ( the avoidance of which constitutes one of America's unwitting masterstrokes). This is not a multitudinous ramble but a powerful searchlight sweeping far into the past and the future of the U.S. and elswhere. All this with a remarkable economy of verbiage.
7 people found this helpful
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HWBATT
5.0 out of 5 stars If you ever thought economics was the dismal science, read Mason Gaffney!
Reviewed in the United States on December 12, 2013
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This new collection of Professor Mason Gaffney's choices pieces is all of history, economics, politics, and literature. The tidbits he has brought to light are both scholarship and more. Consider just the titles of some of the chapters: Repopulating New Orleans, What's the Matter with Michigan? The Rise and Collapse of an Economic Wonder, Thomas Jefferson and the Dandelion, and my own favorite, Turgot's Legacy: Our Commerce Clause. These selections number among well over a hundred products of his pen, written over the course of his long life. In celebrating his recent 90th birthday, let's hope for even more such gifts from him. Beyond the many dense works of economists, these are all accessible, meaningful, and just plain fun to read.
7 people found this helpful
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Peter Smith
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on October 26, 2014
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Best book on economics I've ever read.
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Mary Cleveland
5.0 out of 5 stars Don't miss these witty and provocative essays!
Reviewed in the United States on December 10, 2013
In 1970, I was an uppity Nader’s Raider, on the trail of giant California land barons. I stumbled on a hilarious account of California’s preposterous irrigation system with its crisscrossing canals. I just had to meet the author, so I tracked Mason down in Washington, DC, where he then worked for Resources for the Future. He invited me and my ex to dinner, fried us up hamburgers with soy sauce, sang Gilbert and Sullivan tunes with his own words, and sent us on our way with reprints and the dictum, “Tax capital and labor and you drive them away; tax land and you drive it into use!” That meeting led me to study economics in Mason’s old department at UC Berkeley, and into a lifetime of learning from him.

Now I am delighted to read and re-read some of Mason's illuminating popular essays, on topics ranging over wealth inequality, urban sprawl, forestry, pollution, tax fairness, boom and bust, and many more--always with a light touch!
6 people found this helpful
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Michael
5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful collection of essays!
Reviewed in the United States on March 29, 2014
Professor Gaffney is a joy to read and a must if one is at all concerned about the current economic trajectory of our species. His lucid, and always well researched perspective, sheds much needed light on a discourse that seldom diverges from the over trodden path of half-truths provided by the two major political parties. These accessible essays address how humans may collectively and justly relate to the world we must share and its natural resources upon which we all depend, without diminishing the incentive of individuals to pursue their own paths. Essays on solving the "Unsolvable" provides exactly that. Bravo!
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Top reviews from other countries

Keith McNeill
5.0 out of 5 stars An important and readable book
Reviewed in Canada on January 26, 2017
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This is an important and readable book that lays out how Henry George's idea of a land tax could be expanded to include a tax on natural resources and other common property.
I have been interested in carbon fee-and-dividend as a way to help control human-caused climate change for some time. This would involved charging a fee on fossil fuels, similar to a carbon tax. Unlike a tax, however, all the money collected would be distributed to the people as equal dividends.
Fossil fuels are natural resources and our atmosphere is common property. It seems to me, therefore, that there is a connection between what Henry George's ideas and carbon fee-and-dividend.
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