LAND FOR THE POOR IN THE FACE OF RAPID URBAN GROWTH(1)

The problem is not so much the shortage of land or the number of poor urbanites, but rather their restricted access to serviced land and housing because of distorted land markets.

Servicing already settled areas costs more than pro viding serviced land on unoccupied sites. Yet public authorities, pleading insufficient funds, seem to find smaller investments in ex post facto programmes more appealing than well-planned proactive policies. Much could be done to improve the situation, for instance, by enacting special legislation for the provision of adequately serviced land for low-income groups. Cities could finance urban development by taxing increases in land value resulting either from public investment in local urban infrastructure or services, or from the redefinition of land uses towards more profitable ones, such as changes from rural to urban or from residential to commercial uses.

The urban poor tend to be treated as if they were passive in the production and consumption of land, yet they have some capacity to pay for land, despite their low and unstable incomes. Indeed, the poor already pay very high prices for the housing they find through the informal market. This capacity to pay could be better mobilized through formal regulation and provision of plots of land.

Scarcity of land or financial resources is thus not the only obstacle to the implementation of sustainable policies. In a sense, poor people have to be protected from the abusive practices of developers who capitalize on services provided by the local communities or by the public sector. Political will, as well as managerial and technical capacities, are needed to identify, capture and properly invest available resources—including the resources of poor people themselves—into more equitable urban development.

http://www.unfpa.org/swp/2007/english/chapter_3/land_markets.html

labor

In the past few years, the Department of Labor has become synonymous with high performance, results, and accountability in the federal government. We are doing more and doing better for America’s workers. And we are being more responsible stewards of taxpayers’ dollars.

http://www.dol.gov/dol/pma/accomplishments2007.htm

choices

The Job Choices magazines are available in three editions:

Job Choices for Business & Liberal Arts Students highlights career opportunities with employers in the nontechnical fields, including accounting, insurance, retail, finance, and more, and provides career planning and job-search advice for students pursuing degrees in the nontechnical disciplines.

Job Choices for Science, Engineering, & Technology Students highlights career opportunities with employers in the technical fields, including engineering, science, computer science, and healthcare, and features career planning and job-search information tailored to the student pursuing a degree in a technical field.

Job Choices: Diversity Edition highlights career opportunities with employers in a variety of industries and fields, features career planning and job-search information, and addresses issues relevant to students of diverse backgrounds.

http://naceweb.org/press/jc2007email.htm

trade-offs and opportunity cost

Opportunity cost, opportunity lost, the choices and trade offs faced by everyone with a life threatening disease.

Life is so simple when you can get someone else to do your work.

David Arenson, a fellow blogger with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), does just that in what I consider a brilliant post, on the choices and trade offs encountered when trying to decide how and when to treat cancer.

While David has CLL, that doesn’t mean his thoughts are only pertinent to those with CLL. The same choices, problems and trade offs are encountered by everyone facing a life threatening disease. Just the names [of the drugs] have been changed to protect the innocent.

http://trusted.md/blog/marc/2006/08/14/opportunity_cost_opportunity_lost

go to the links for the full article

2. http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/8425/

3. ?

4. http://www.netmba.com/econ/micro/cost/opportunity/