How Henry George Would Design a National

Broadband NetworkAssociation for Good Government & Georgist Education Association

Belmont, Western Australia19 July 2011

What is the NBN?

• NBN Co was established by the Federal Government to design, build and operate a wholesale-only, open access National Broadband Network– Government Monopoly– Accessible by Telcos– Retailed to Home, School & Workplace

What Does It Offer?

• Leading edge phone, internet and video services

• Speeds of up to 100 Megabits per second to 90 per cent of Australian premises through optical fibre and

• Up to 12 Megabits per second to the remaining 10 per cent

• With a combination of copper, wireless and satellite technologies.

How Does it Work?

What Do Speeds Mean?

Sample file Est Download Speed (MBps)

.056 1.5 8.0 20 100

4MB (Ave MP3 song) 9M 30 s

21s 4.2s 1.8s <1s

350MB (Ave 1 hr SDTV episode)

13h 53m

30m 23s

5m 50s

2m 20s

28s

1000MB (Ave 2 hr movie in SD)

30h 53m

1h 26m

16m 40s

6m 40s

1m 20s

10000MB (Ave 2 hr movie in HD)

17d 14h 49m

2h 47m

1h 7m

13m 20s

These estimated speeds are theoretical maximum speeds. Actual speeds depend on a number of factors such as distance from the local telephone exchange, quality of phone line, volume and nature of services used in local area, and hardware and software set up of computer.

Just the Beginning

• Holographic Imagery: 250 Gbps

• Human Eye Capacity: 1Tbps

Benefits

• Health & Medicine• Education &

Research• Business &

Commerce• Entertainment

• Massive Volumes• Higher Speeds• Connectivity• Quality Imagery

Australia & NBN Plans

What Will It Cost?

• Est. $35.9 billion, less than the government’s original $43 billion estimate.

• Government equity $27.5 billion for roll out

• 5-10c a week per Australian over the life of the network throughout the infrastructure’s lifespan

• World-class broadband on a financially viable basis at affordable prices.

Who Is Henry George?

• American writer, politician and political economist, who was the most influential proponent of the land value tax, also known as the "single tax" on land.

• September 2, 1839 – October 29, 1897, married an Australian

• Endorsed by intellectuals like Leo Tolstoy, George Bernard Shaw, Albert Einstein

• Criticized by Neo-Classical/Liberal Economists

Bibliography• Progress and Poverty (1912, first

published 1879. Definitive, free, searchable on Econlib.)

• The Land Question 1881• Social Problems 1883• Protection or Free Trade 1886• George, Henry (July 1887). "The

New Party". The North American review (University of Northern Iowa) 145 (368): 1–8. ISBN 085315726X.

• Protection or Free Trade (1905, first published 1886. Definitive, free, searchable on Econlib.)

• A Perplexed Philosopher 1892• The Science of Political

Economy 1898• Our Land and Land Policy" 1871• The Condition of Labor" 1891

Prelude to Life and Times

• Europe– Land Enclosure Movement– Turnpike Trusts– Political

• Democratic Revolutions• Cooperative Movements

– Economic• Industrial Revolution• Great Wealth, Great Poverty

Enclosure Movement

Turnpike Trusts

Clash of Value Systems

Common Wealth• Generating,

Harnessing Productive Power of the Commons for All

• Government for the Equal Protection of Rights & Economic Freedoms

Public Good• Maximising Profit for

Firms & Utility for Consumers

• Government to Maximize Consumer Welfare & Enable Profit Maximization

Prelude to Life and Times

• USA• Political Revolution

– War of Independence– Civil War

• Economic Shifts– Urban & Pioneer Expansion– Railway & Telegraph– Great Wealth & Great Poverty

Economic Shifts

• Pioneers Had Freedoms over Overcrowded City Slums & Ghettos

• Increased Physical & Informational Accessibility to Land– Won the Civil War– Pioneers Built New Communities– Equitable Access & Equitable

Distribution

How the USA Looked Then

Fundamental Principles

• All Men Are Endowed with Inalienable Rights Limited by Each Other’s Equality– Life, Liberty, Pursuit of Happiness

• Individuals Have the Right to the Fruits of Their Labour, Hard-Earned

• People Need Land/the Earth to Work & Live and Add Value

• Cooperation Raises that Value Further

Principle of the Single Tax

• Compatible with Equal Rights of Man Extended to Equal Rights to Land

• Give Unto the Individual What Is the Individual’s

• Return to the Earth What is the Earth’s in the Service of All Who Need It & Generated its Values (Governance, Infrastructure & Public Services)

Questions HG Would Ask

• Does It Enhance Human Rights & Abilities?

• Does It Equalize Rights?• Does It Raise Land Values?• How Should the NBN Be Designed So It

Accomplishes All These?– Taming the NBN’s Monopoly Nature– Economic vs. Commercial Return on the

Margin– Integration of the NBN with the Land &

Labour Question

Vast Marginal Lands

USA Broadband

Comparative Sizes

Current State of Transportation

Compare with China’s Target

One Hundred Year History Gap

• Serving the Unserved & Under-Served• Seamless Connectivity without the

Tyranny of a Monopoly• Autobahn/Interstate Highways Act• Raiffeisen & Rochdale/Rural Utilities

Service – Electric Co-ops– Telephone Co-ops

In Henry George’s Words

• The march of invention has clothed mankind with powers of which a century ago the boldest imagination could not have dreamt. 

In Henry George’s Words

• What has destroyed every previous civilization has been the tendency to the unequal distribution of wealth and power.

Concurrent Issues

• Labour– Ageing Population & Refugee Situation

• Energy– Depletable Fossil Fuels to Renewables

• Service Delivery– Privatisation vs. State Monopoly

• Financial Market Volatility– Speculation & Global Intensification

Henry George’s Considerations

• Labour Needs to Be Responsive & Entitled to their fruits

• Environment is a Global Commons• Enhancement, not a limitation, of

rights• To generate progress and a just

sharing in its fruits

In Henry George’s Words

• There is danger in reckless change, but greater danger in blind conservatism. 

My Guess: An Ambitious Vision

• Internet telephony co-ops to the unserved & underserved

• Solar & Wind Farms in remote areas with abundant sunshine & wind

• High-speed railway networks for individual travel & improvements of existing ones for freights & cargo

• Infrastructure & utilities to be paid from the fair share in higher land values.

Current State of Transportation

A New Civilisation?

• Georgist communities in lands whose values will increase

• Only site revenues will be charged for people working on projects & eventually settling in the new communities

• Free public transportation & basic services paid by economic rents that would have gone to private pockets

In Henry George’s Words

• Let no man imagine that he has no influence. Whoever he may be, and wherever he may be placed, the man who thinks becomes a light and a power. 

In the Meantime ...

• Learn to build communities on the worldwide web through social networking– Precursor SMS

• Never grow tired talking about the ideas – agree or disagree

• Study & learn – philosophy (principles) & political economy (concrete applications to society)

History of Drastic Change

• C20– Gandhi’s Salt March– Martin Luther King’s Bus Convoy– Philippines’s Radyo Bandido– Eastern Europe’s Photocopiers

• C21– Philippines’s SMS & Netaktibistas– Arab Spring’s Twitter, Facebook

• Time to Use it to Educate, not Agitate

Thank You Very Much!

Progressive societies outgrow institutions as

children outgrow clothes.