Gavin Kerr’s new book shows that the movement for a Property Owning Democracy has been searching for something the Geo-Liberal movement found long ago: a pre-distributive mechanism that can create a more equal society by changing individual starting points without all of the distortionary effects of more traditional re-distributive measures. Kerr shows how rent and resource taxes can do just that and argues eloquently that they are needed now more than ever. - Karl Widerquist, Georgetown University"Gavin Kerr’s book makes an outstanding contribution to the growing body of literature that challenges the conventionally assumed incompatibility of substantive egalitarianism with classical liberalism’s and libertarianism’s concern for individual liberty." - Hillel Steiner, University of Manchester and University of Arizona The renewed attention to foundational issues concerning inequality in recent political philosophy is the starting point for Gavin Kerr's scholarly and rigorous defense of the "geoclassical" liberalism of Smith, Ricardo and Henry George. Kerr defends an asset based egalitarianism that stabilizes a classic liberal account of justice by socializing the economic rent that accrues to land. Both classical and "high" liberals will learn a great deal from Kerr's persuasive and detailed argument for his innovative conclusions in a book that deserves to be widely read by political philosophers, economists and political scientists. - Alan Thomas, University of York
