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naraburns  nihil supernum  2yr ago (text post)   33194 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of October 10, 2022

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Why not? Oh yes, because this will bump the property tax beyond what I can afford

So your real disagreement is really with the tax rate it sounds like.

Advocate for the tax to be brought down to, say 0.0001% of the property's value and it ceases to be a problem.

We just have to fiddle with the dials a bit to solve your objection.

If your problem is with taxes as a concept then just say that! Its a fine position!

On the other hand, if I bring it down to what I can afford, bots will no longer leave me alone. Point is, you’re trying to pull a fast one here.

I'm trying to explain how this system can be made fair, rather than depending on the government to set accurate values by fiat, which is how almost everywhere does it currently.

So your real disagreement is really with the tax rate it sounds like.

Advocate for the tax to be brought down to, say 0.0001% of the property's value and it ceases to be a problem.

We just have to fiddle with the dials a bit to solve your objection.

Fine, we set it to 0.000001%, I set the value of my table to $999999.00, pay a cent a year tax and we are back to where we are now, no change in anyone's behaviour. Except that's not what's being lined up. The whole point of this system is to change people's behaviour, no? So the tax rate will necessarily be raised to the point where the choice becomes difficult, where accepting a low offer or paying a high tax are equally painful.

This is like a pro-gun advocate saying

"So your real disagreement is really with the calibre it sounds like. Don't worry, once I have power to set gun laws I could just set a calibre limit of .01, that would barely hurt a fly! Just let me set the laws and we can sort that out!"

Except that's not what's being lined up. The whole point of this system is to change people's behaviour, no? So the tax rate will necessarily be raised to the point where the choice becomes difficult, where accepting a low offer or paying a high tax are equally painful.

Presumably it's the same people who own the land being taxed who are voting on the proposals for setting the tax rate.

In which case, again, this is the fairest possible way to do it.

That's the other neat feature of the land value tax: the people impacted by the tax are incentivized, by nature of being property-owners, to try to find the tax rate that isn't exorbitant and burdensome, but still enough to pay for the services that they rely on as property-owners.

So again, are you objecting to the tax being imposed at all, or to some other aspect of the process?

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