ABSTRACT
New progressive approaches have been devised, most of which turn out on closer inspection to be the same old interventionist mechanisms presented in a different language. Politics in liberal societies is becoming ever more divided and polarized, culminating in the election of a billionaire property tycoon as the new 'leader of the free world'. For many, the idea of land value taxation, and the geo-classical tradition within which the socialization idea developed, are simply aspects of an obscure branch of the left-libertarian tradition, which can have little bearing on mainstream liberal political thought. The real delusion at the core of neo-liberal ideology is the assumption that governments can go a long way towards putting themselves in the back seat and 'rolling back' the state by reducing top rates of income tax, deregulating the financial services sector, and selling off common economic resources.
