Cheating

Fred Harrison, one of the mostinsightful British economists, has produced another landmark work with Cheating:The Human Project and Its Betrayal, which follows his earliergroundbreaking book, The Power in the Land (Harrison, 1983).

Cheating traces theroot cause of our impending collapse as a species to a single issue—thediversion of rent from the commons. Harrison carefully examines therepercussions of this problem and presents a compelling alternative path towarda just ecological political economy. Unfortunately, he argues that neitherscholars nor the general public, positioned to effect change, will heed hiscall because they are both paralysed by and beneficiaries of the very sameproblem: cheating.

- Franklin Obeng-Odoom,University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

Fred Harrison’s Cheating:The Human Project and Its Betrayal is as provocative as it isilluminating—a book that doesn’t let the reader off the hook easily. Withstriking clarity, Harrison shows how mainstream economics has quietly edged theclassical concept of economic rent out of view—conveniently leaving us with asystem that taxes work and productivity, while largely sparing unearned gainsfrom land. He argues, with characteristic sharpness, that this shift lies atthe heart of recurring crises and persistent structural imbalances.

His case is further strengthenedby decades of work on property cycles. Harrison is among the few economists whonot only identified the recurring dynamics of land and real estate markets butalso had the conviction to point to their crisis potential ahead of time. Thefact that this perspective has proven remarkably prescient lends additionalweight to his current analysis.

Yet Cheating isnot merely diagnostic. Harrison sketches a bold and original reformperspective: the systematic capture of land and resource rents—conceived evenat a global level—opens up new ways of thinking about economic stability,distributional justice, and even geopolitical tensions. The economic potentialimplied by such a reordering is substantial, and at the very least challengesdeeply entrenched assumptions.

There is also a palpable sense ofurgency running through the book. Harrison makes it clear that the window formeaningful reform may be limited. His argument that the opportunity forvoluntary adjustment will not remain open indefinitely adds a certain tensionto the reading experience—as if, alongside the analysis, a quiet countdown wereticking in the background.

Cheating is thereforefar more than another contribution to economic debate. It is a thoughtful,incisive, and at times refreshingly uncomfortable intervention into thequestion of why our economies repeatedly falter—and what it might take tofinally set them on a more stable footing.

- Dirk Löhr is aneconomist at Trier University of Applied Sciences and a leading advocate of theland value tax, which he helped to introduce in Baden-Württemberg, Germany.

‘The proposal in this book toshift the bulk of taxation from incomes and profits to a Land Valuation Tax, ormore broadly to a fiscal charge on society’s net income, or rent, as the authorwould put it, is absolutely correct, and has now become necessary in order todeal with the parlous state of fiscal policy. But that leaves open thequestion of how far this reform can of itself lead to a diminution of thepursuit of power and other forms of social ‘Cheating’.’

- Charles Goodhart, EmeritusProfessor of Banking and Finance, London School of Economics

Fred Harrison is right. We havedeveloped a culture of cheating. If people grapple with the questions that FredHarrison addresses, they may realize that the only path to a peaceful andprosperous world lies in sharing the Earth’s rent, so that all people areaccorded equal rights to the natural opportunities provided by the Earth.

-Nicolaus Tideman, Professor ofEconomics, Virginia Tech

Harrison exposes a flaw in oursystem that enables Cheaters to demand tribute for access to the resources weall need to survive. Harrison’s hope is that by spreading awareness of thedifference between the value of socially shared Rent and privatized Rent, wewill be able to prevent the next predicted collapse. In Harrison’s words,nothing less is at stake than assuring “…our place on Planet Earth.”

-Dr Heather Remoff,Anthropologist, Heather Remoff, author, What’s Sex Got to Do with It? Darwin,Love, Lust, and the Anthropocene

Harrison’s wide-ranging booktraces how the evolutionary human project has been periodically interrupted bya culture of cheating opposed to the maxim: “Keep what you make; pay for whatyou take.” This requires trade at prices that reflect relative labour costs.Land qua land, unlike man-made improvements, has no labour cost yet ownerscommand vastly different rents dependent on the surrounding infrastructurelargely financed through the taxation of earned incomes rather than unearnedrents. Harrison explains why radical fiscal reform can expunge the fundamentalinjustice at the heart of global territorial conflicts that today threatencivilisation.

- Roger Sandilands, EmeritusProfessor of Economics, Strathclyde University

Fred Harrison’s Cheating: TheHuman Project and Its Betrayal sets forth a bold claim: that the sharing ofeconomic rents - the surplus, or net income, arising from cooperative activity- distinguished humanity from other hominids and was vital to its evolution asa species. This was our “human project”.

Sharing the rents, oncehumanity’s defining social principle, was fatally undermined millennia ago aselites expropriated society’s net income. The result: vast swathes of peoplecheated out of their common heritage to suffer within cultures of extractionthat have corrupted and brought low every civilisation ever since.

Harrison, long known for hisprescient analysis of boom-and-bust cycles, issues a stark warning: ourcivilisation has now reached a tipping point; continue on the present path andface systemic collapse, or reclaim the human project and chart a fairer andmore prosperous future.

The question is whether wepossess the collective will to act in time.

This ambitious work is theculmination of a lifetime dedicated to advancing the human project. Itsarguments are fertile ground for further scholarship, and its challenge isclear: a new generation must take up and advance the cause so fiercelychampioned by Harrison for so long.

- Akhil Patel, author of TheSecret Wealth Advantage

Students of English history mayremember the survey ordered in 1086 by William the Conqueror to determine thevalue of the kingdom’s land and all castles, homes, barns, crops, livestock,mills and woodlands (excepting London, Winchester and parts of the north). Thefindings were detailed in two volumes eventually referred to as the Doomesday books.William needed revenue to govern the country, and he knew that those who heldproperty were unlikely to honestly self-report the value of their holdings forpurposes of taxation. Well, not much has changed since the eleventh century, asdetailed by author Fred Harrison in his new book, Cheating: The HumanProject and its Betrayal.

I leave it to Fred Harrison toexplain to you what he means by “One World Rent is the binding glue.” Order thebook. Study it closely. Discuss it with friends and colleagues. There is notime to lose.

- Edward J. Dodson, M.L.A.

Harrison masterfully usesinsightful historical analysis to show that the current fiscal system is notonly not “normal” and inevitable, but also why it is not normal: rentseekers have managed to divert socially owned economic Rent to their privatepockets through privatisation.

Since something must and willchange, Harrison’s book is the vehicle through which informed conversations candirect initiatives towards those that are both fair and economically sound. Heexplains how fairness and economic efficiency - Zero Deadweight losses - can beachieved by the simple pricing system of “keep what you create, pay forwhat you receive”.

-Jean-Pierre Zigrand, Co-directorof the Systemic Risk Centre, and Associate Professor of Finance, London Schoolof Economics

Fred Harrison is a British author, journalist, and economist who has led a distinguished dual career for over 50 years.

He first became an investigative journalist, famously securing the prison-cell confession of Moors murderer Ian Brady. This breakthrough, detailed in his book Genesis of the Moors Murders, solved the disappearance of two of Brady’s victims.

Alongside his groundbreaking journalism, he trained as an economist, earning a degree in PPE at Oxford University and then an MSc at the University of London. This led to his second career as a pioneering economic forecaster. He is credited with rediscovering and applying the theory of the 18-year property cycle. He used this to predict the 1992 recession and the 2008 global financial crisis years in advance of anyone else. His influential books, including The Power in the Land and Boom Bust, critique mainstream economics and explore the devastating impact of land speculation.

He edited Rent Unmasked (2016), which received the 2017 People’s Book Prize “Best Achievement Award for outstanding content/topic by an author that would/could or did lead to excellent benefit to the community.” As Director of the Land Research Trust, Harrison continues to advocate for systemic reform to create an entrepreneurial economy that serves everyone.