Natural Rights: Henry George and the Economic Fruits of a Good Society

This article examines Henry George's understanding of how natural rights grow out of a just society. His views were influenced by the 17^th‐century proponents of natural rights, but cannot be subsumed under them. The connection of freedom to obligation affirmed by George's classical Protestantism allowed him to overcome tension between theories of natural law and natural rights. Rights and responsibilities were not abstractions for George. His practical solution for restructuring society offers a modern path to a more just society in which rights would abound.     

A Bid-Price Model for 'Non-Western' Cities: Revised Specification and Empirical Test

A bstract . A significant portion of the literature concerning intra-urban residential location has involved the development of a utility maximization bid-price model which relates income and distance to work. When distance-overcoming costs are monetary, a positive income-distance function is predicted, and studies in several Anglo-American cities have provided some confirmation. If expenses are made to be temporal, the model forecasts a negative relationship because the opportunity cost of commuting is directly variable with income. A study was conducted in Piracicaba (pop. 125,000), Brazil, and neither positive nor negative income-distance functions were encountered for any of the transportation differentiated groups. The findings indicate that the prevalence of walking, bicycling and other commuting modes which consume large amounts of time does not adequately explain the "non-western" residential pattern (negative income-distance to the Central Business District function) which is common in many Latin American cities. The results also suggest that hypotheses which consider spatial relationships between residences and sites other than the place of work may prove to be more fruitful (1).