> Though I’d also like to point out that whether the policies are liberal or not is not very important to me, they are just natural reactions people will have…

> Though I’d also like to point out that whether the policies are liberal or not is not very important to me, they are just natural reactions people will have… Maybe it is fair. Maybe it isn’t In my opinion, a liberal society with progressive taxation (including the property tax) tends to provide more opportunities for those who are born without assets than a society that overly protects the privileges of feudal estates (“passing on a home to your kids”), and would be a better society to live in behind a veil of ignorance. > One of the issues here with doing something like building an apartment complex means now you have to live in the apartment or move your family and become a landlord You can also build a condo building and own one of the condos instead of managing rentals. > With respect to rent, I’m not sure. Maybe it makes more sense to tax rental income than the property The problems with the income tax on rent are that 1) it penalizes renting out land while rewarding speculators who leave land vacant, and 2) it punishes renters who bear a higher burden than owner-occupiers who do not pay tax on the imputed rent (incidentally, the fact that imputed rent is excluded is basically a mistake of the original Form 1040; see Lawrence Zelenak, “The Early Income Tax and the Imputed Rental Income of Homeowners” https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108377157.008 https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108377157.008). The property tax is a fairer and less distortionary tax than an income tax on rent. > If you’re a home owner a lot of this just seems like a bad idea. It makes more sense to maintain things how they are. From a Bay Area resident to a Great Lakes resident, I hope people there heed the cautionary tale that is the Bay Area: maintaining the residential housing stock almost unchanged despite strong economic growth and agglomeration effects, and protecting property owners by discriminating against later generations, is an absolute disaster for lower income and even middle income households.