4 ms·

> his own advice Why the words of rich people are important is beyond me. It's like you guys put these wealthy assholes on a pedestal and then act all shocked

> his own advice Why the words of rich people are important is beyond me. It's like you guys put these wealthy assholes on a pedestal and then act all shocked when they're looking to enrich themselves even more. Take money out of politics. It's that simple.

AlexandrB 4y ago
> Why the words of rich people are important is beyond me. As a culture we value money more than many other things thus financial success is often considered a proxy for virtue, intelligence, or both.
hackerlight 4y ago
> Take money out of politics. It's that simple. I totally agree with this goal, but the core problem is deeper and won't be solved by banning political contributions and so on. Homeowners will still have a financial incentive to vote in NIMBYs, even though that's not directly "money in politics" (albeit it is so indirectly). We need to somehow take negative sum self-interest out of politics through systemic change. I have no idea how one would achieve that, though.
- ItsMonkk 4y ago
  You need to correctly align incentives - anything else won't work. The way you align incentives is through a Land Value Tax. Currently lower supply means higher prices, which benefits existing owners, so they vote for that. Under a LVT, lower supply means higher taxes instead of higher prices. You can resolve this issue through a 100% LVT. A 100% LVT would set land prices to zero. You would still need to pay for the building on top of the land. A good way to transition to this system is by giving everyone land tax credits equal to the value of their land. This is beneficial for everyone right now because the Fed is raising rates, that will yield lower land prices, and thus by zeroing out the risk of lower housing prices as we move into this recession through a one-time credit, everyone is better off. If you want to preserve those bubble prices, you want to quickly vote in a LVT.
wickedsickeune 4y ago
How exactly?
whimsicalism 4y ago
It's not that simple when "money in politics" looks very similar to just "paying for political speech." Good luck making the latter illegal in the US without an amendment.

AlexandrB 4y ago

> Why the words of rich people are important is beyond me. As a culture we value money more than many other things thus financial success is often considered a proxy for virtue, intelligence, or both.

hackerlight 4y ago

> Take money out of politics. It's that simple. I totally agree with this goal, but the core problem is deeper and won't be solved by banning political contributions and so on. Homeowners will still have a financial incentive to vote in NIMBYs, even though that's not directly "money in politics" (albeit it is so indirectly). We need to somehow take negative sum self-interest out of politics through systemic change. I have no idea how one would achieve that, though.

ItsMonkk 4y ago
You need to correctly align incentives - anything else won't work. The way you align incentives is through a Land Value Tax. Currently lower supply means higher prices, which benefits existing owners, so they vote for that. Under a LVT, lower supply means higher taxes instead of higher prices. You can resolve this issue through a 100% LVT. A 100% LVT would set land prices to zero. You would still need to pay for the building on top of the land. A good way to transition to this system is by giving everyone land tax credits equal to the value of their land. This is beneficial for everyone right now because the Fed is raising rates, that will yield lower land prices, and thus by zeroing out the risk of lower housing prices as we move into this recession through a one-time credit, everyone is better off. If you want to preserve those bubble prices, you want to quickly vote in a LVT.

wickedsickeune 4y ago

How exactly?

whimsicalism 4y ago

It's not that simple when "money in politics" looks very similar to just "paying for political speech." Good luck making the latter illegal in the US without an amendment.