We can have one without the other
Well, okay. Lots of people. One of the crowning strategies to rouse the rabble is to ream the property tax. Fair enough. But in some states like New Jersey, the property tax is unpopular, likely because the property tax is just as high as the… Read More »Who Says You Can’t Have a State Property Tax?
It’s too easy for a northeastern US observer to have an overbearing and infuriating attitude regarding Mississippi. Unfortunately, Mississippi has a laundry list––or a butcher’s bill if you like, of past sins that stick in the craw of humanists and the respecters of justice alike.… Read More »Mississippi: The Tangled Web of History, Class, Race, and Water
Low-density housing typically refers to residential areas occupied primarily by single-family homes or buildings with a limited number of dwellings. There is no set definition, but one characteristic of such an area is that the inhabitants start complaining about any housing development that is too… Read More »Zoning Has Been Weaponized
To save itself, Los Angeles must return to its original hair color or, as they say, “its roots.” When my great-great-grandfather landed in Los Angeles in 1890, there were commuter trains. Downtown Los Angeles was an actual center city, not simply a name of one… Read More »Saving Los Angeles
Does informality hold back tax progressivity, that is, the capacity to tax the rich at a higher rate than the poor? The optimal (and fair) distribution of the tax burden has long been a key issue in both academic and policy circles. In a new… Read More »The Public Finance Effects of the Italian Ghost Buildings Program
Apparently, cyberattacks do not only involve computer programming. There is a thing called perception hacking, a name for the kind of disinformation campaign that starts online and seeks to sow distrust and division deeply and widely in a society. In the run up to the… Read More »Shared Truth
Land Value Taxation (LVT) would level the playing field between new farmers and established mortgage-free farmers who presently have a huge (‘I was on the island first’) advantage. By untaxing jobs and improvements, LVT would bias towards labor-intensive, structure-intensive, value-added farming; this would mean a… Read More »Green Acres
“Could I begin life again, knowing what I now know, and had money to invest, I would buy every foot of land on the island of Manhattan.” So wrote one of the original robber barons of the early nineteenth century. Yet almost 200 years later,… Read More »Moving the Land to Those Who Will Use It
Imagine speaking to a Mayor and City Council. They accept the idea of a two-rate land value tax (LVT), meaning a higher tax on land assessments and a lower tax on building assessments. They agree LVT is a worthwhile change. However, keep in mind that… Read More »The LVT Playbook: So, How Do You Build a Land Value Tax?
A universal basic income (UBI) is an idea whose time has definitely come, especially considering the devastating COVID-19 related business and job disruptions. As well as covering basic costs for the duration of the pandemic, a UBI can and will help businesses retool, restructure and… Read More »UBI self-defeating unless funded by rental value capture – Point A
