Cheating (The Human Project and its Betrayal)

Five thousand years ago, humanity made a huge mistake. The income generated from shared land, known as economic rent, was taken by chiefs and priests instead of being used for everyone's benefit. Every unfair tax, every preventable death from poverty, and every financial crash since can be traced back to this original betrayal. Drawing on evolutionary science and years of accurate economic predictions, including the 2008 financial crisis, Fred Harrison reveals the "culture of cheating" built into the foundations of modern society. He explains how mainstream economics deliberately removed the idea of rent and how governments choose to tax wages instead of land, harming prosperity and shortening lives. With five major crises: political gridlock, environmental collapse, mass migration, authoritarianism, and uncontrolled artificial intelligence, set to clash around 2028, Harrison makes an evidence-based case for tax reform: replacing taxes on labour with Annual Ground Rents and sharing rents between nations to resolve conflicts from Gaza to the global climate crisis. Thought-provoking and rigorous, this book confronts why civilisations fail and offers a plan to prevent the next collaps