Re:Don’t Tell Your Friends They’re Lucky
by bufordsharkley on Thursday January 19, 2017 @05:11PM
(#13439916)
As a Georgist, I would say that most unearned wealth ultimately results from private ownership of natural resources (namely land).
When homeowners claim valuable land and hold onto it for decades, without paying the correct market rate for that land (which, of course, they didn't create the value for), they get the benefits of owning this resource without the responsibility.
In short, property taxes are much too high for the actual structures we build, but should be much higher on the underlying land. It's a sane revenue source that would unburden the load placed upon income tax, etc.
When homeowners claim valuable land and hold onto it for decades, without paying the correct market rate for that land (which, of course, they didn't create the value for), they get the benefits of owning this resource without the responsibility.
In short, property taxes are much too high for the actual structures we build, but should be much higher on the underlying land. It's a sane revenue source that would unburden the load placed upon income tax, etc.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgism
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_value_tax
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Proposition_13_(197...