• BlameThePeacock@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    We could achieve the same thing by just jacking up taxes until the land is worth almost nothing (and everyone is essentially just renting land from the government at prices the government sets based on desirability of that area)

    All the profit from simply holding land disappears from the market, and all that money instead of going to private pockets now goes to government coffers. The amount would likely be high enough we could get rid of income taxes almost completely (which makes working a more lucrative choice for people)

    It’s not politically feasible until home ownership rates drop more significantly though, it would hurt far too many voters right now to pass.

    • Rocket@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      which makes working a more lucrative choice for people

      Why would the landowners sacrifice profit for the workers?

      Let’s say, for the sake of discussion, a parcel of land generates $1,000,000 in revenue. Assume $500,000 is kept by the landowner as profit and $500,000 is distributed as wages to the workers who utilized the land to produce value. You proposed a plan to see property taxes rise to claw the $500,000 away from the landowner and into government coffers. That leaves the $500,000 that was previously paid out to workers.

      Why wouldn’t the landowner then, say, keep $250,000 of the remaining $500,000 as profit and squeeze the workers into accepting only $250,000 in aggregate wages, leaving the workers in a much less lucrative position, even if that income is tax free?

      • BlameThePeacock@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        You don’t tax land based on how much revenue it generates, you tax it based on its value.

        Those aren’t even close to similar things, which makes your example completely useless since that’s not how any of this works.

        The goal is for the land owner to not make any profit off the land going up in value over time. They can still make money other ways (like running a company)

        It’s the appreciation that needs to go away, otherwise all you have is the current pyramid scheme.