This would be great tax policy. Unfortunately the 'conventional wisdom' among the leadership caste in my country (Australia) is that this would be political sui

This would be great tax policy. Unfortunately the 'conventional wisdom' among the leadership caste in my country (Australia) is that this would be political suicide. Pretty much every Prime Minister for the last 15 years has repeated the same mantra like it's some sort of compulsive nervous twitch: 'we would never place a tax on the family home'. Bunch of jelly-backs. One nit to pick: even with imputed rent, without a land rent tax the property market would continue to distort incentives and mis-allocate capital. Meaning we will continue to see 'investors' chasing capital gains instead of yields (the literal definition of 'speculating'), funded almost exclusively with bank debt. Unless our political leaders grow a spine (and, in many cases, a brain), we'll continue to lurch from one financial crisis to the next as a consequence... The next one is shaping up to be epic. Like, "it's time for WWIII" epic...