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As someone who aggressively believes UBI is terrible idea it seems like a good choice for tourism based economies. A big tax on, say, restaurants for non citize
by jncfhnb 2y ago
As someone who aggressively believes UBI is terrible idea it seems like a good choice for tourism based economies. A big tax on, say, restaurants for non citizen ID holders would help raise prices in a collusive way and reduce the volume of tourists in a way that free market competition makes very difficult.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- harha 2y agoKind of exists already as tourist traps and is preferable to me than another tax.
- skhunted 2y agoThis is not correct. In, say, Aspen locals are priced out. If there was a two tiered pricing system this could alleviate some major concerns. Haven’t thought about unintended consequences of this. Just wanted to point out that what you said is not correct in my opinion.
- harha 2y agoHaven’t been to Aspen, what I’ve seen in Europe though is that the locals either own the establishments, work there or are friends with owners and typically either earn in line with the high prices or get preferential treatment from the owners. No need for the complexity of a tax and intervention when people can figure it out themselves.
- DemocracyFTW2 2y agoUnfortunately this is neither true for the island of Sylt and it's not true for the city of Berlin, either. Locals do get priced out, apart from the lucky few who—most of the time—own property that they can either survive in or profit from (your own apartment w/o rent hikes and/or your 2nd apartment that you do hike the rent of). The workforce is mostly sourced from younger, cheaper, more mobile folks who can better put up with more work, more shared living spaces that are further away or more expensive and so on. When owners get old and property prices are constantly rising they will likely sell at some point to start over somewhere else or retire, and when that happens, it's as a matter of course, more or less over for the local folks because then the egregious property price as to be amortized by driving up rents no matter what. After WW2 the population of Sylt was predominantly 'indigenous' (families who've been living there forever). Today, almost nobody who was born on the island still lives there, and nobody who lives there (for a few weeks per year) as any relation to the island (except using it to hang out every now and then). In Berlin it's not quite that bad but the satirical person in me wants to add, in an optimistic fashion, "we're getting there!"
- rangestransform 2y agoThis would only work for the biggest tourist destinations. I much prefer the race to the bottom with things like tax free shopping for tourists.
- jncfhnb 2y agoWhat you prefer as a tourist is not much a concern “Biggest” is not particularly relevant either. The question is simply whether it’s overcrowded by tourists or not.
- pc86 2y agoThe answer to it being overcrowded is for prices to increase, which happens naturally over time. Things get less crowded and more profitable, more places can open up which pushes prices back down, which increases tourism, etc. etc. Eventually you find an equilibrium.
- jgeada 2y agoGreat for the rich tourists for which the destination is a choice, not so great for the people that actually live there. It is exactly this dynamic that causes so many locals to be anti-tourists.
- jncfhnb 2y agoRaising prices in a competitive market with many players is a prisoners dilemma and is not easy to do. The market has little pressure to solve for overcrowding.
- hackeraccount 2y agoThis is not unlike saying people in the country would be better off if we taxed exports. That might well be the case or it might not but as a general matter the only countries that do that are both rich and willing to concede that it's not doing much good.
- jncfhnb 2y agoI can’t parse what you’re trying to say
- hackeraccount 2y agoTaxing tourists is equivalent to taxing exports.
- grecy 2y agoA few countries do this kind of thing already. In Bolivia, for example, if you have foreign plates on your car you pay more than double for gas and diesel.
- hxriv 2y agoCan’t tell if that’s a good thing or a bad thing for Bolivia.
- tryptophan 2y agoOr you know do what lots of places already do and charge hotels/rentals a nightly fee for each tourist.
- jncfhnb 2y agoI mean, sure, that’s another example of a tourist tax. But the spending side was the bit I was interested in