Abstract: Australia’s capital city, Canberra, was founded on a unique social initiative. It was to be located on a greenfield site planned and controlled by the national government, much the same as the United States of America’s capital city, Washington, DC. The significant difference from Washington, however, was that the Australian government would capture Canberra’s annual land rent for its revenue. After two generations, the leasehold system became undermined by: 1. failure to apply follow-up education on the principle of the public capture of land values as the commonwealth; 2. not keeping land rents updated to current market levels, and, most importantly; 3. by the same speculative actions that thwart the efficient use of land everywhere. This article poses the question whether the principle on which Canberra was founded offers a modern solution for the world’s failing economies.
