4 ms·

> But any preference for renting here collides with a stark financial reality: National surveys show that in recent decades, Swiss homeowners have been better o

> But any preference for renting here collides with a stark financial reality: National surveys show that in recent decades, Swiss homeowners have been better off, at least in terms of wealth. This is poor reasoning. Land ownership wealth is ill-gotten zero-sum. More homeownership won't build more wealth, it will just distribute the land rents differently. Taxation can also redistribute land rent, and far more fairly than "mass homeownership" which isn't really a sustainable system anywhere. > which is advantageous from a tax perspective because mortgage interest is tax deductible. Not good! Especially given the high VAT.

gottorf 3y ago
> Taxation can also redistribute land rent, and far more fairly than "mass homeownership" which isn't really a sustainable system anywhere. A Georgist land value tax would do that job admirably, though it will probably never happen in any jurisdiction, since it would hurt wealthy landowners the most. That could be why "mass home ownership" is a more politically palatable flavor of the same base concept; both will spread land rents among more people.
- Ericson2314 3y ago
  Mass homeownership works for like 2 generations, maybe more with 0 immigration and no population growth. That's a bad bet.
coldtea 3y ago
>More homeownership won't build more wealth, it will just distribute the land rents differently. That's fine. We'd rather have better distribution of the land and social wealth in general, than "building more wealth".
- Ericson2314 3y ago
  I agree that is a good goal. But the most robust realization of goal is less homeownership, and boxing in landowners. Looks like Switzerland is doing a good job of the former. The rent control is more important to make renting lower risk (avoiding rent increase risk and building land wealth are two different goals of homeownership, the first is much more laudable). Curtailing rental incoming is similar to an LVT, except it doesn't have the incentives for densification. Europe could probably use a bit more of the latter so there is less immigration vs cheap housing going on.

gottorf 3y ago

> Taxation can also redistribute land rent, and far more fairly than "mass homeownership" which isn't really a sustainable system anywhere. A Georgist land value tax would do that job admirably, though it will probably never happen in any jurisdiction, since it would hurt wealthy landowners the most. That could be why "mass home ownership" is a more politically palatable flavor of the same base concept; both will spread land rents among more people.

Ericson2314 3y ago
Mass homeownership works for like 2 generations, maybe more with 0 immigration and no population growth. That's a bad bet.

coldtea 3y ago

>More homeownership won't build more wealth, it will just distribute the land rents differently. That's fine. We'd rather have better distribution of the land and social wealth in general, than "building more wealth".

Ericson2314 3y ago
I agree that is a good goal. But the most robust realization of goal is less homeownership, and boxing in landowners. Looks like Switzerland is doing a good job of the former. The rent control is more important to make renting lower risk (avoiding rent increase risk and building land wealth are two different goals of homeownership, the first is much more laudable). Curtailing rental incoming is similar to an LVT, except it doesn't have the incentives for densification. Europe could probably use a bit more of the latter so there is less immigration vs cheap housing going on.