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One way to solve this is to lower the supply of labor. This has to be done very aggressively to work though, such as the following: - massively reducing immigra

One way to solve this is to lower the supply of labor. This has to be done very aggressively to work though, such as the following: - massively reducing immigrant intake, especially outside of the top-tier paying fields - legislate dramatically reduced working hours, i.e. 3 8-hour day workweek or similar, providing exceptions only at very high salary ranges Of course, as what we've seen during the past year in the US, this is going to create high inflation. The other method, which I much prefer, would be to lower the cost of living, while only modestly limiting immigration and working hours (still need to be reduced compared to current levels). By far the easiest way to do so would be popping the housing bubble, Japan-style, by building tons of extra housing and bankrupting private equity groups gobbling up houses, which would release further housing on the market. Perhaps a government agency can buy up some properties to rent out at a breakeven price.

markdown 4y ago
> providing exceptions only at very high salary ranges And of course you would fall in this demographic, amirite? Fuck the poor, don't mess with the salaries of the rich. > building tons of extra housing and bankrupting private equity groups They'd just continue to buy up that new housing. This can't change without taxing the land value.
- brigandish 4y ago
  As there's (apparently) such an under-supply of people who earn those high ranges, restricting that demographic only makes everyone poorer because wealth creation is hence lower. Maybe it would reduce those wages somewhat but it's unlikely.
- twblalock 4y ago
  Everyone who advocates a land value tax needs to explain how housing used to be affordable, even in places like California, without land value taxes.
  - matt74827289 4y ago
    There were fewer people and more land that wasn't being used. It's fairly simple, supply was higher, demand was lower. As our population increased and we developed more and more land, the supply shrunk while the demand grew.
    - twblalock 4y ago
      Yes, we all know that -- the point is that affordable housing is possible without a land value tax, and we know that because it actually happened.
      - markdown 4y ago
        So your answer is... "Thanos did nothing wrong"? Shall we all wait for covid20 to wipe out enough people that the housing supply overwhelms demand and prices drop?
        twblalock 4y ago
        No, we should build more housing so that the supply and demand curves intersect in a different place. Land value taxes and Georgism in general are utopian nonsense that have never done any good anywhere at any time. People love to trot them out as solutions to the housing affordability problem but can never show how they would help -- because they can't help! Building more housing is the only solution, everyone knows it, and weird pie-in-the-sky stuff like land value tax are distractions that ought to be ignored.
- jen20 4y ago
  > This can't change without taxing the land value. Yes it can. Bar corporations from owning residential real estate. Taxing land value will just cause an exodus into hellhole suburbs.
saiya-jin 4y ago
These are proper pipe dreams in society like US, attacking on basic freedoms and rights (ie to work yourself to death and be stupid enough to be proud about it). US, nor any other capitalist economy is not run by hippies who are going to do such social experiments. I'd say people on top who actually hold the power are quite happy about the state of things, and complaints of average Joe are not something they bother with. At the end, the core of American dream is that your success is a function of how hard you try, so if you see yourself failing your are just slacking (not that I agree its healthy for individuals nor for a society I would like to live in, but that's another topic). Btw FWIH Japan is mostly screwed up due to long term demographic curve, something knocking on the doors of ie Europe too, with their borderline racist approach to foreigners, even very similar Koreans. If you work 5am-10pm and have to excuse yourself to your boss for each leaving only after 12 hours of rather ineffective bureaucratic work, very few want to add raising kids on top of that.

markdown 4y ago

> providing exceptions only at very high salary ranges And of course you would fall in this demographic, amirite? Fuck the poor, don't mess with the salaries of the rich. > building tons of extra housing and bankrupting private equity groups They'd just continue to buy up that new housing. This can't change without taxing the land value.

brigandish 4y ago
As there's (apparently) such an under-supply of people who earn those high ranges, restricting that demographic only makes everyone poorer because wealth creation is hence lower. Maybe it would reduce those wages somewhat but it's unlikely.
twblalock 4y ago
Everyone who advocates a land value tax needs to explain how housing used to be affordable, even in places like California, without land value taxes.
- matt74827289 4y ago
  There were fewer people and more land that wasn't being used. It's fairly simple, supply was higher, demand was lower. As our population increased and we developed more and more land, the supply shrunk while the demand grew.
  - twblalock 4y ago
    Yes, we all know that -- the point is that affordable housing is possible without a land value tax, and we know that because it actually happened.
    - markdown 4y ago
      So your answer is... "Thanos did nothing wrong"? Shall we all wait for covid20 to wipe out enough people that the housing supply overwhelms demand and prices drop?
      - twblalock 4y ago
        No, we should build more housing so that the supply and demand curves intersect in a different place. Land value taxes and Georgism in general are utopian nonsense that have never done any good anywhere at any time. People love to trot them out as solutions to the housing affordability problem but can never show how they would help -- because they can't help! Building more housing is the only solution, everyone knows it, and weird pie-in-the-sky stuff like land value tax are distractions that ought to be ignored.
jen20 4y ago
> This can't change without taxing the land value. Yes it can. Bar corporations from owning residential real estate. Taxing land value will just cause an exodus into hellhole suburbs.

saiya-jin 4y ago

These are proper pipe dreams in society like US, attacking on basic freedoms and rights (ie to work yourself to death and be stupid enough to be proud about it). US, nor any other capitalist economy is not run by hippies who are going to do such social experiments. I'd say people on top who actually hold the power are quite happy about the state of things, and complaints of average Joe are not something they bother with. At the end, the core of American dream is that your success is a function of how hard you try, so if you see yourself failing your are just slacking (not that I agree its healthy for individuals nor for a society I would like to live in, but that's another topic). Btw FWIH Japan is mostly screwed up due to long term demographic curve, something knocking on the doors of ie Europe too, with their borderline racist approach to foreigners, even very similar Koreans. If you work 5am-10pm and have to excuse yourself to your boss for each leaving only after 12 hours of rather ineffective bureaucratic work, very few want to add raising kids on top of that.