By Marty Rowland

Mr. Jones says: “As we grapple with the growing dangers of climate change, we can create fresh models and write different stories. That may mean returning to the field’s origins: a time when ideas of growth and the natural world were intertwined.”  Bravo!  (Economic) growth and the natural world are intertwined in all my philosophic and economic works (from 120-140 years ago), and Jones hits the nail on the head with the conflating of land as capital, but that did not begin with Solow in the 1950s!  That, unfortunately, began in the 1870s with the invention of neoclassical economics, an overturning of classical thought that some say was created to counter my clear thinking on the subject.  What Jones and climate warrior Thunberg do not acknowledge is that our purpose on Earth is to progress toward human fulfillment and the end of poverty – yes, totally possible but not without returning resource and locational land rents back to society to make those needed adjustments to how we manage our homes, cities, States, nations, and international affairs.