The long history of discrimination (and worse) experienced by persons of color is certainly a crime against humanity, one of many such crimes never fully acknowledged or addressed. One might say that persons of color were prevented from participating in a political and social structure that awarded the legal power of a minority to claim what was produced by the majority. Enslaved persons were certainly the most severely victimized by the systems of property law and taxation brought to North America from Britain, Spain, France and other European countries. The economic value of almost everything they produced was claimed by those who by law were permitted to confiscate this wealth. To a lesser degree, many other groups of later arrivals experienced a similar theft of what they produced. For over four decades I have taught history and have researched how this was allowed to occur. The answer challenges what is taught in our schools and what most Americans accept as a legitimate quest for personal gain. To understand the origins of gross inequality, one must examine the continuum that has existed in human history. From the time of the fall of the Roman empire, the social structure under which most European people lived was feudalism. Implied under feudal relations was reciprocity between the feudal lords and those who worked the land. This relationship broke down after the Crusades stimulated an expanded reliance on gold and silver coinage in the Mediterranean trade. In Britain, the signing of Magna Carta, gave the feudal lords direct control over the land, which they gradually privatized and turned into just another commodity. All across Europe the common lands were subsequently enclosed, the peasants replaced by sheep and cattle. The “surplus” people of Europe made their way to the new colonies established by the European powers. The hunger for land came with them. The “first families” of the new world either came with huge land grants from the king or earned such grants by service in wars against the other European powers in the quest for territorial expansion. The majority of the founders of the new United States of America engaged in land speculation as a primary means of building lasting fortunes. George Washington was one of the most successful in this game. From that time on one of the strategies of America’s landed elite (eventually expanded to corporate enterprises) was to use their influence over the course of politics to make sure that landed wealth was minimally taxed, while income earned producing goods or providing services absorbed the brunt of the cost of paying for public goods and services. Poor White immigrants at least had the opportunity to escape hard lives in the eastern cities by a century-long migration until as the historian Frederick Jackson Turner documented, the land was nearly fully claimed. By the end of the nineteenth century the opportunity to acquire land inexpensively - whether for agriculture, industry or a residence -- had disappeared. Persons of color entered this competition far too late to benefit in any material way, even if the systems of finance and wage employment had been even-handed. This, I conclude, is the reason persons of color have been prevented from accumulating a similar level of individual wealth as whites, although It must be pointed out as well that the concentration of wealth among Whites is also highly concentrated despite the absence of chattel slavery where Whites are concerned. Generations of Whites have worked under near-intolerable conditions in mines, mills, factories and many other occupations. Persons of color eventually joined them, adding to the growing supply of laborers competing with one another for a subsistence living. For most households in the United States (regardless of race or ethnicity) the key to wealth accumulation is the ownership of a residential property in a community where business activity and employment remains stable. The large number of evictions and foreclosure sales just since 2008 speaks to the insecurity of net worth based on equity in a residential property. Seniors and minority property owners comprised the overwhelming majority of those victimized by predatory and sub-prime mortgage debt. To return to the starting point of this story of our economic experience, the problem is and has been the gross under-taxation of the value of whatever land individuals hold, the result of which is that speculation in land has become integral to the economic DNA of Americans, driving up land prices to levels that make housing unaffordable wherever employment opportunities exist. The poorest among our population are left largely trapped, often forced to pay high rents for substandard housing, with little left over to build savings. There are no silver bullets to change the course of history overnight. That said, I believe very strongly that the one essential change in public policy to begin the process is to press local communities and school districts to move toward a land-only property tax base. An annual charge to owners of land equal to the potential annual rental value of whatever land is held will bring down land prices and serve as a strong financial incentive for owners to bring the land they hold to its highest, best use or sell to someone who will. Business enterprise will be rewarded. Jobs will be created, and communities will begin to have sufficient revenue to fund high quality schools and other public goods and services. Absentee land owners will no longer be able to sit and wait for communities to become “gentrified” or for government to subsidize new development with tax credits and abatements. There is a wealth of economic literature expanding on the case I am making here, going all the way back to the great Scottish political economist Adam Smith. The Philadelphia-based Center for the Study of Economics (CSE) is today working with a number of communities around the U.S. to move in the above direction. CSE’s Executive Director is someone any concerned community leader ought to reach out to, none more so than those who are committed to improving the lives of the disfranchised. Edward J. Dodson, M.L.A.
@@nanettematthews2264 Your are welcome. I had no idea my comments appear in such a chopped up fashion. I am happy to respond to any questions that occur to you as you read what I wrote.
It is very easy to say people discriminate you and you do not need to try hard.,but I think different ,if people discriminate me ,I specially need to be better to show I am not a coward.
I fundamentally disagree with the premise that all pain is the same. The thing that they are missing the most in this conversation is the level of contribution in this country. There is no greater contribution than African American contribution. Our problems are a direct result of 246 years of slave labor another hundred years of Jim Crow segregation and the denial and plunder of wealth from our communities. Latin American Or Hispanic suffering is due to the fact that they are poor people coming from poor countries that have been deeply exploited by United States foreign policy and corruption in those countries. The Jewish suffering is not questionable but they have received reparations and are still receiving them.
Here we go.....Now because we are talking reparations in America...Hispanics wanna now participate?/ they're hoping to get reparations for slavery that their ancestors never been through??🤣🤣🤣
Tom is a great panelist. The other two gentlemen want to teach people who have no money how to use what they don't have. Other than Tom, they don't have a clue.
This video is a classic example of the so-called experts displaying their ignorance and bias. They have failed to define the problem before attempting to solve it.
Nathaniel Carreon yeah tell Me when your education doesn’t mean shit when whites have the economy power and will stop anyone from getting wealth do you’re home work that’s why white people press the dollar to countries to enslave them and people who don’t want the dollar means war man that’s why everyone doesn’t want the dollar 😂🙄🤦♂️💀.
gary grine okay go learn history stupid how Europeans have stole trillions of currency threw the ages stupid go learn how they stole from India slaved them and sold opium I’m China for tea and started the opium wars go look at the Americas and look every where whites have colonized brown countries they couldn’t stay in Europe 😂🤦♂️💀🙄.
gary grine yeah I mean I laugh when whites are poor yet they have a 528 year lead then us to be economic efficient and politically motivated stupid while we couldn’t be part of it till now and now whites are upset losing that privilege to us because they will see what it’s like to be a minority 😂🤦♂️💀🙄.
gary grine yeah you are very stupid and uneducated go to history class and learn about the government creating laws for minorities like prisons and jail and state laws to keep them from making any wealth or power.
Google Black Wallstreet, redlining, housing racism stealing 156 BILLION/annually from blacks, voter suppression, and the centuries of brainwashing blacks were subjected to the point the black dollar only spends 6 hours in the black neighborhoods.
The long history of discrimination (and worse)
experienced by persons of color is certainly a crime against humanity, one of
many such crimes never fully acknowledged or addressed.
One might say that persons of color were
prevented from participating in a political and social structure that awarded
the legal power of a minority to claim what was produced by the majority.
Enslaved persons were certainly the most severely victimized by the systems of
property law and taxation brought to North America from Britain, Spain, France
and other European countries. The economic value of almost everything they
produced was claimed by those who by law were permitted to confiscate this
wealth. To a lesser degree, many other groups of later arrivals experienced a
similar theft of what they produced.
For over four decades I have taught history
and have researched how this was allowed to occur. The answer challenges what
is taught in our schools and what most Americans accept as a legitimate quest
for personal gain. To understand the origins of gross inequality, one must
examine the continuum that has existed in human history.
From the time of the fall of the Roman empire,
the social structure under which most European people lived was feudalism.
Implied under feudal relations was reciprocity between the feudal lords and
those who worked the land. This relationship broke down after the Crusades
stimulated an expanded reliance on gold and silver coinage in the Mediterranean
trade. In Britain, the signing of Magna Carta, gave the feudal lords direct
control over the land, which they gradually privatized and turned into just
another commodity. All across Europe the common lands were subsequently
enclosed, the peasants replaced by sheep and cattle. The “surplus” people of
Europe made their way to the new colonies established by the European powers.
The hunger for land came with them. The “first families” of the new world
either came with huge land grants from the king or earned such grants by
service in wars against the other European powers in the quest for territorial
expansion. The majority of the founders of the new United States of America engaged
in land speculation as a primary means of building lasting fortunes. George
Washington was one of the most successful in this game.
From that time on one of the strategies of
America’s landed elite (eventually expanded to corporate enterprises) was to
use their influence over the course of politics to make sure that landed wealth
was minimally taxed, while income earned producing goods or providing services absorbed
the brunt of the cost of paying for public goods and services. Poor White
immigrants at least had the opportunity to escape hard lives in the eastern
cities by a century-long migration until as the historian Frederick Jackson
Turner documented, the land was nearly fully claimed. By the end of the
nineteenth century the opportunity to acquire land inexpensively - whether for
agriculture, industry or a residence -- had disappeared. Persons of color
entered this competition far too late to benefit in any material way, even if
the systems of finance and wage employment had been even-handed. This, I
conclude, is the reason persons of color have been prevented from accumulating
a similar level of individual wealth as whites, although It must be pointed out
as well that the concentration of wealth among Whites is also highly
concentrated despite the absence of chattel slavery where Whites are concerned.
Generations of Whites have worked under near-intolerable conditions in mines,
mills, factories and many other occupations. Persons of color eventually joined
them, adding to the growing supply of laborers competing with one another for a
subsistence living.
For most households in the United States
(regardless of race or ethnicity) the key to wealth accumulation is the
ownership of a residential property in a community where business activity and
employment remains stable. The large number of evictions and foreclosure sales
just since 2008 speaks to the insecurity of net worth based on equity in a
residential property. Seniors and minority property owners comprised the
overwhelming majority of those victimized by predatory and sub-prime mortgage
debt.
To return to the starting point of this story
of our economic experience, the problem is and has been the gross
under-taxation of the value of whatever land individuals hold, the result of
which is that speculation in land has become integral to the economic DNA of
Americans, driving up land prices to levels that make housing unaffordable
wherever employment opportunities exist. The poorest among our population are
left largely trapped, often forced to pay high rents for substandard housing,
with little left over to build savings.
There are no silver bullets to change the
course of history overnight. That said, I believe very strongly that the one
essential change in public policy to begin the process is to press local
communities and school districts to move toward a land-only property tax base.
An annual charge to owners of land equal to the potential annual rental value
of whatever land is held will bring down land prices and serve as a strong
financial incentive for owners to bring the land they hold to its highest, best
use or sell to someone who will. Business enterprise will be rewarded. Jobs
will be created, and communities will begin to have sufficient revenue to fund
high quality schools and other public goods and services. Absentee land owners
will no longer be able to sit and wait for communities to become “gentrified”
or for government to subsidize new development with tax credits and abatements.
There is a wealth of economic literature
expanding on the case I am making here, going all the way back to the great
Scottish political economist Adam Smith. The Philadelphia-based Center for the
Study of Economics (CSE) is today working with a number of communities around
the U.S. to move in the above direction. CSE’s Executive Director is someone
any concerned community leader ought to reach out to, none more so than those
who are committed to improving the lives of the disfranchised.
Edward J. Dodson, M.L.A.
Thank you for this. I want to read through the entire comment and I will as soon as I finish the video. Thank you again.
@@nanettematthews2264 Your are welcome. I had no idea my comments appear in such a chopped up fashion. I am happy to respond to any questions that occur to you as you read what I wrote.
It is very easy to say people discriminate you and you do not need to try hard.,but I think different ,if people discriminate me ,I specially need to be better to show I am not a coward.
This man’s expertise have NOTHING to do with financial matters
Mgtow
I fundamentally disagree with the premise that all pain is the same. The thing that they are missing the most in this conversation is the level of contribution in this country. There is no greater contribution than African American contribution. Our problems are a direct result of 246 years of slave labor another hundred years of Jim Crow segregation and the denial and plunder of wealth from our communities. Latin American Or Hispanic suffering is due to the fact that they are poor people coming from poor countries that have been deeply exploited by United States foreign policy and corruption in those countries. The Jewish suffering is not questionable but they have received reparations and are still receiving them.
Here we go.....Now because we are talking reparations in America...Hispanics wanna now participate?/ they're hoping to get reparations for slavery that their ancestors never been through??🤣🤣🤣
Great conversation
Byron Sutton i
@@joshuawhitaker3952 excuse me
Tom is a great panelist. The other two gentlemen want to teach people who have no money how to use what they don't have. Other than Tom, they don't have a clue.
This video is a classic example of the so-called experts displaying their ignorance and bias. They have failed to define the problem before attempting to solve it.
For us the problem is already defined - we know what it is even if you don’t.
It is about getting an education and hard work makes you succeed. Skin color has nothing to do with it.
Nathaniel Carreon yeah tell
Me when your education doesn’t mean shit when whites have the economy power and will stop anyone from getting wealth do you’re home work that’s why white people press the dollar to countries to enslave them and people who don’t want the dollar means war man that’s why everyone doesn’t want the dollar 😂🙄🤦♂️💀.
gary grine okay go learn history stupid how Europeans have stole trillions of currency threw the ages stupid go learn how they stole from India slaved them and sold opium
I’m China for tea and started the opium wars go look at the Americas and look every where whites have colonized brown countries they couldn’t stay in Europe 😂🤦♂️💀🙄.
gary grine what world do you live in go take a hit of a bong and wake up stupid 🤦♂️🙄😂💀.
gary grine yeah I mean I laugh when whites are poor yet they have a 528 year lead then us to be economic efficient and politically motivated stupid while we couldn’t be part of it till now and now whites are upset losing that privilege to us because they will see what it’s like to be a minority 😂🤦♂️💀🙄.
gary grine yeah you are very stupid and uneducated go to history class and learn about the government creating laws for minorities like prisons and jail and state laws to keep them from making any wealth or power.
And Why would she to to the Spanish guy first????
Your comment didn't make sense. Can you learn to write before you try and participate?
Why black don’t build business in your own neighborhood?
Google Black Wallstreet, redlining, housing racism stealing 156 BILLION/annually from blacks, voter suppression, and the centuries of brainwashing blacks were subjected to the point the black dollar only spends 6 hours in the black neighborhoods.