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A decent intro is the first chapter of Radical Markets, available here: http://assets.press.princeton.edu/chapters/s11222.pdf http://assets.press.princeton.edu/

A decent intro is the first chapter of Radical Markets, available here: http://assets.press.princeton.edu/chapters/s11222.pdf http://assets.press.princeton.edu/chapters/s11222.pdf but it also isn't short. Also a video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uj186urDU8c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uj186urDU8c Neither of these is particularly short and still don't address all (or even many) of the practical issues. As with most real policy and law, I don't think something can be both short and cover all the real world cases. There's unfortunately a reason most laws are really long. I believe the chapter of the book addresses the issue of how will people know what values to set. In addition to the solution proposed in the book, another alternative (of mine), is to allow people to pay some amount of retroactive tax. Let's say someone tries to buy the asset from you for your set price, but you don't want to sell. You can raise the price to some amount the buyer no longer wants to pay, but since you were underpaying taxes on the asset, you need to make them up. Would such a proposal probably mean people set lower prices than are correct -- yes; would it still make sense for things like homes -- yes.

cableshaft 5y ago
I'll at least check out the video. I can put that on in the background while I'm doing dishes later. Thanks for the links. Also specifically for houses, at what point are you expected to make such a declaration? You don't really own the house until you've completely paid off the mortgage on it. Until then it really belongs to the bank or mortgage lender. So does that mean you're free to not make such a declaration until your 30 year mortgage is up? And what if you take out a second mortgage on the property during that time?
- ekelsen 5y ago
  We're designing the system, so I think we can choose what makes the most sense. I think regardless of whether or not you have taken out a loan (collateralized or not), you would still need to declare a value right away. In a case where you have a collateralized loan to purchase the asset, I imagine the lender could require the value you set to be at least the value left on the loan. (But the lender probably shouldn't be allowed to set the value beyond that stipulation.) I also want to say that I definitely do not have all the answers for all the possible policy issues that might or will come up. I enjoy trying to think them through, so the first attempt might have problems and the cycle of finding those problems and fixing them will eventually lead to something that hopefully works well.

cableshaft 5y ago

I'll at least check out the video. I can put that on in the background while I'm doing dishes later. Thanks for the links. Also specifically for houses, at what point are you expected to make such a declaration? You don't really own the house until you've completely paid off the mortgage on it. Until then it really belongs to the bank or mortgage lender. So does that mean you're free to not make such a declaration until your 30 year mortgage is up? And what if you take out a second mortgage on the property during that time?

ekelsen 5y ago
We're designing the system, so I think we can choose what makes the most sense. I think regardless of whether or not you have taken out a loan (collateralized or not), you would still need to declare a value right away. In a case where you have a collateralized loan to purchase the asset, I imagine the lender could require the value you set to be at least the value left on the loan. (But the lender probably shouldn't be allowed to set the value beyond that stipulation.) I also want to say that I definitely do not have all the answers for all the possible policy issues that might or will come up. I enjoy trying to think them through, so the first attempt might have problems and the cycle of finding those problems and fixing them will eventually lead to something that hopefully works well.