3 ms·

> But it’s not a parody, it’s an obscene reality. Yes and: They're using spiffy tech to further accelerate inequity. aka Pay to play. "Property taxes represen

> But it’s not a parody, it’s an obscene reality. Yes and: They're using spiffy tech to further accelerate inequity. aka Pay to play. "Property taxes represent the single largest source of own-source revenue for America’s local governments. Cities, counties, school districts, and special districts raise roughly $500 billion per year in property taxes, roughly 70 percent of local taxes. Whether residents rent or own, property taxes impact everyone. In many cities, however, property taxes are also inequitable: low-value properties face higher tax assessments, relative to their actual market values, than do high-value properties. This tax regressivity disproportionately burdens lower-income residents. To better understand these issues the Center for Municipal finance has reviewed millions of sales records for properties throughout the country. This site presents the results of these evaluations." https://propertytaxproject.uchicago.edu https://propertytaxproject.uchicago.edu "When’s the last time you thought about property taxes? We mostly accept them as a part of society, and assume that they’re being calculated fairly. But a leading University of Chicago scholar says that assumption is wrong. A breakthrough study from Prof. Christopher Berry has shown that, on average, homeowners in the bottom 10% of a jurisdiction pay an effective tax rate that is double of what’s paid by the top 10%. Essentially, the poorest homeowners are subsidizing the richest, with disproportion effects on people of color who own property. We talk with Berry about why this happening, how it’s affecting communities—and what we can do about it." https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/big-brains/why-youre-likely-paying-an-ezxNujW14E6/ https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/big-brains/why-youre-li... "How Lower-Income Americans Get Cheated on Property Taxes -- Many homeowners are paying a total of billions of dollars extra because of inequities in assessing property values." https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/03/opinion/sunday/property-taxes-housing-assessment-inequality.html https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/03/opinion/sunday/property-t...

Nathanael_M 5y ago
This is a weird stretch, I think. By this definition, all paid services are villainous. Maybe by your metric that's true, but then don't pretend this company is any more special than a taxi company or a baker in their evil. Any citizen of Texas can partake in this process themselves. Their cost is time. If the value of your time is greater than the cost of the service, great! Use the service! If not, take an afternoon and do it yourself. Thus is the nature of services. In fact, these companies only serve to punish governments for poor taxation practices, as they get more people to dispute their taxes than normally would have. Hurray!
- specialist 5y ago
  Automating work that should not be done is immoral. Per the adage that everything taken to its logical extreme becomes its own opposite: the only potential virtue of such work is that gaming the system may expedite reform (cycle of death & rebirth).

Nathanael_M 5y ago

This is a weird stretch, I think. By this definition, all paid services are villainous. Maybe by your metric that's true, but then don't pretend this company is any more special than a taxi company or a baker in their evil. Any citizen of Texas can partake in this process themselves. Their cost is time. If the value of your time is greater than the cost of the service, great! Use the service! If not, take an afternoon and do it yourself. Thus is the nature of services. In fact, these companies only serve to punish governments for poor taxation practices, as they get more people to dispute their taxes than normally would have. Hurray!

specialist 5y ago
Automating work that should not be done is immoral. Per the adage that everything taken to its logical extreme becomes its own opposite: the only potential virtue of such work is that gaming the system may expedite reform (cycle of death & rebirth).