> though I've never understood the concept of a property tax anyways. Essentially, it's a payment back to society in exchange for monopolising a piece of somet

> though I've never understood the concept of a property tax anyways. Essentially, it's a payment back to society in exchange for monopolising a piece of something that can be useful to society but (to a good approximation) can't be manufactured[1] and doesn't depreciate[2]: planetary surface area. One off value-added taxes don't capture this well as they become "cheaper" the longer you hold the land[3]. Put it another, somewhat hyperbolic, way, it's a HODLing tax, applied to the only known physical space in the universe in which humans can exist. [1]: a few polders and airports not withstanding. [2]: climate change might both create and destroy some land utility, though, which will upset quite a bit of "value" predicated on non-military the utility. [3]: this inhibits land transactions which has effects like chilling workforce mobility