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The land should be what breaks this loop. Land is required, nobody created the land, it is the common wealth. If we taxed land we would see living costs suppre
by branchless 10y ago
The land should be what breaks this loop. Land is required, nobody created the land, it is the common wealth.
If we taxed land we would see living costs suppressed and a return back to the days when we could choose if we wanted to work rather than being a wage slave, forced to work by high rent costs due to land speculation and infinitely elastic fiat money supply. We've seen what happens when we near-double labour supply (women working), bankers extend twice the credit and house prices double, allowing them to cream off the labour of both parents where before women's value was not available for seizure by the bankers.
The current system forces labourers to sell the one thing they have: themselves. And they are bidding into an oversupplied market.
It's a complete disaster that begins at the door of the goverbankment. If we don't have reform the west is going down. We can surely see that from the precipitous drop in real living standards over the past 30 years. Now we have both parents slaving all hours for the banks.
Think of the yawning gap between wages and value produced, which has widened. This is because labour has less power to push back. Traditionally this was unions, but I'd like to see that power distributed to the bottom level: the worker. By being able to refuse to work like a dog and handed back subsistence wages.
We need land value tax to fund universal basic income. Companies need to be forced to hand over most of the value labour adds, so there is an equilibrium. And by forced I don't mean by the state I mean because workers have a choice and won't work for peanuts. Right now the decks are stacked against the worker and banks are extending credit / selling off the country to keep the plates spinning.
- smallnamespace 10y agoTaxing land only works if the distribution of land is equitable, except that value-generating uses of land (factories, cities, and farms) aren't distributed uniformly throughout the country. If you wanted to make that equitable, then you'd need small slices of land to be uniformly distributed to people, but that becomes more or less equivalent to just redistributing equity in companies. And then you'd have to redistribute the equity from time to time, or else you'd need to prevent people from buying and selling equity. Otherwise, the rich will just buy up all the equity again.
- branchless 10y ago> Taxing land only works if the distribution of land is equitable Why? I don't see why land value tax cannot exist within the modern world we have of "capitalism" (it's corpratism right now!). Nor do many, many economists. Never ever heard anyone say this before. The whole point of LVT is to stop unproductive hoarding and to capture the rentier aspect for the common wealth. Have a read up.
- lordnacho 10y agoNo, taxing land would cause redistribution. If you're sitting on land that suddenly costs you money, you will try to sell it. The guy who buys it will be someone with an idea of how to use it to generate enough wealth to pay the tax.
- branchless 10y agoExactly. When land is taxed correctly you can no longer sit on it and demand rent from others for access. Unlike our current insane system.
- AstralStorm 10y agoWhat would prevent you from building a skyscraper then renting it out? Tax is still suppressed. And only rich can afford such an investment.
- branchless 10y agoYou build the skyscraper and capture the value you add. You made efficient use of land therefore you win. That's the point. It's about stopping people doing no work and deriving economic value. It's not about stopping economic progress, nor is it about stopping people retaining the value they add. Quite the opposite.
- lordnacho 10y agoThat's right, and economically efficient. Interesting question though. What about land that is reclaimed from the sea, or land that requires investment in order to not fall into the sea? Such land cannot be said to exist independent of someone's efforts, and we could not make such arguments.