Great piece. Our national mythology on taxes is not entirely healthy, but tied up in our founding, associated with the tyranny of Kings. It could use some adjustment.
Henry George had some great ideas on this topic in the last Gilded Age. He proposed ALL taxes should be land/property taxes. Because land is inelastic, there can be none of the deadweight inefficiency caused by taxing other goods /services. So it is a suggestion to maximize both fairness and efficiency
Spot-on about the national mythology bit. Even during the Revolutionary Period, it was misunderstood. The British taxed tea was cheaper than the American untaxed tea, but the merchant class used it to whip up public support for the Revolution.
George was a true visionary. I've had his works on my to-read list for a while. I was unaware of his one-tax proposal. Definitely something I'll look into!
Do you have any suggestions on what works of his I should read first?
Property taxes, as they exist now, are extremely regressive. Our taxes went up by almost a third, and I’m on a fixed income. I do see your point about the land, but somehow these taxes should be made fairer.
I agree with the core of this argument, but this is really an argument for land taxes (a la Georgism), not for property taxes as they are currently constructed.
I understand current property taxes and the concept of land taxes to be a distinction without a difference. It's true property taxes take the full property into account, but given that a house or a business built on land increases its value, property taxes are a way to recoup the potential value of the land.
That's why property taxes for identical homes and land plots are higher closer to the cities than in rural counties: location, location, location!
Just my view of it. Also, Georgism is such a cool philosophy.
That's an excellent point that I hadn't considered. Perhaps a blanket policy of "residential property taxes can't increase by more than X percent per year" would be better.
“You are undone if you once forget that the fruits of the earth belong to us all, and the earth itself to nobody.”
— Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Wow, that's an amazing quote.
Great piece. Our national mythology on taxes is not entirely healthy, but tied up in our founding, associated with the tyranny of Kings. It could use some adjustment.
Henry George had some great ideas on this topic in the last Gilded Age. He proposed ALL taxes should be land/property taxes. Because land is inelastic, there can be none of the deadweight inefficiency caused by taxing other goods /services. So it is a suggestion to maximize both fairness and efficiency
Spot-on about the national mythology bit. Even during the Revolutionary Period, it was misunderstood. The British taxed tea was cheaper than the American untaxed tea, but the merchant class used it to whip up public support for the Revolution.
George was a true visionary. I've had his works on my to-read list for a while. I was unaware of his one-tax proposal. Definitely something I'll look into!
Do you have any suggestions on what works of his I should read first?
Property taxes, as they exist now, are extremely regressive. Our taxes went up by almost a third, and I’m on a fixed income. I do see your point about the land, but somehow these taxes should be made fairer.
I agree. The Colorado spike is untenable and tied to inflated housing prices, which are subjective and do not measure a property's true value.
Do you live somewhere that had a population boom?
Not a huge one, I don’t think. It seems though, that condos in our development have become more desirable after becoming less desirable.
Ahh, I see. Yeah, that rapid shifts in demand certainly need targeted solutions. With regards to both home prices and taxation.
I agree with the core of this argument, but this is really an argument for land taxes (a la Georgism), not for property taxes as they are currently constructed.
I understand current property taxes and the concept of land taxes to be a distinction without a difference. It's true property taxes take the full property into account, but given that a house or a business built on land increases its value, property taxes are a way to recoup the potential value of the land.
That's why property taxes for identical homes and land plots are higher closer to the cities than in rural counties: location, location, location!
Just my view of it. Also, Georgism is such a cool philosophy.
That's an excellent point that I hadn't considered. Perhaps a blanket policy of "residential property taxes can't increase by more than X percent per year" would be better.