Open letter to Gorbachev

On November 7, 1990, an open letter to then President of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev was published^[1][2] and signed by a rank of thirty Western sources, most of whom were academics.^[3][4] The contents of the letter made the argument to the Soviet head of state that while moving the economy away from a centrally planned system towards a free market mixed economy was a step forward, they warned the leader against following through with the West had done following the end of feudalism; privatising the land itself, instead opting towards a Georgist system of common ownership and the collection of public revenue through land-value taxation.^[3][4] Nobel prize-winners Franco Modigliani, James Tobin, Robert Solow and William Vickrey were among the letter's signees.^[2]