6 ms·

I legitimately wanted to evaluate the argument here but there’s so much backstory and political contextualization I gave up reading this without ever having fou

I legitimately wanted to evaluate the argument here but there’s so much backstory and political contextualization I gave up reading this without ever having found out what the Viennese did.

chrischen 6y ago
> If we don’t want Vancouver to go down this path, then perhaps we should heed Henry George’s advice: tax land and use the proceeds to build the housing we need.
- giantg2 6y ago
  Isn't that the solution to all - tax those who have (or are not part of our tribe) to pay for "us".
  - arcticbull 6y ago
    It's a great way to reduce inequality, sure. It's one way to reduce housing prices, but generally just increasing supply is simpler and more palatable.
    - giantg2 6y ago
      I guess it addresses it on the effect side more than the cause side (inequality). This is the way they are increasing supply.
      - arcticbull 6y ago
        This is an unpopular opinion to be sure, but I believe in wealth inequality and income inequality, so long as the standard of living at the bottom is reasonable - and there exists meaningful social mobility. I'd rather tax it on the backend than impede the front end. This is just a matter of opinion of course.
        giantg2 6y ago
        I think that's probably a fairly popular opinion - I agree with it. I just don't see property tax as making any meaningful impact on the wealthy (in my area).
ch4s3 6y ago
They have a steeply progressive land value tax and further escalate taxes on vacant land. They also slashed taxes on development and construction. This encouraged productive use and efforts to keep assessments low which also drives down housing costs.
- giantg2 6y ago
  Considering the article mentioned that the city was left leaning and also referenced Marx, I guess it's not surprise that they opted to tax people out of their property so that the city could acquire it.
  - ch4s3 6y ago
    Is that what they did? If by that you mean that they used the tax system to discourage the development of investment properties and undeveloped land as well, then yes I guess. However land value taxes aren't a marxist idea, in fact LVT has been advocated for by Smith, Ricardo, Friedman, Stiglitz, and so on. Even a lot of libertarians like LVT.
    - giantg2 6y ago
      It said they had a highly progressive land tax and additional tax on vacant land. This incentivizes utilization of land, but also makes it economically unfeasible to create apartments if you must pay the tax and compete with the government housing. I'd love to see the data for Libertarians promoting land tax.
      - ch4s3 6y ago
        > I'd love to see the data for Libertarians promoting land tax. You can Google this. There’s a lot of disagreement but some of them are for it. I would imagine that the LVT would make it hard to compete with government housing at some price points, but I don’t know too much about Vienna in particular. My understanding was they they were trying to write tax policy to maximize the private market production of housing affordable at some percentage of AMI (or rather however the measure median income). But I don’t have a sophisticated understanding.

I legitimately wanted to evaluate the argument here but there’s so much backstory and political contextualization I gave up reading this without ever having found out what the Viennese did.

chrischen 6y ago

> If we don’t want Vancouver to go down this path, then perhaps we should heed Henry George’s advice: tax land and use the proceeds to build the housing we need.

giantg2 6y ago
Isn't that the solution to all - tax those who have (or are not part of our tribe) to pay for "us".
- arcticbull 6y ago
  It's a great way to reduce inequality, sure. It's one way to reduce housing prices, but generally just increasing supply is simpler and more palatable.
  - giantg2 6y ago
    I guess it addresses it on the effect side more than the cause side (inequality). This is the way they are increasing supply.
    - arcticbull 6y ago
      This is an unpopular opinion to be sure, but I believe in wealth inequality and income inequality, so long as the standard of living at the bottom is reasonable - and there exists meaningful social mobility. I'd rather tax it on the backend than impede the front end. This is just a matter of opinion of course.
      - giantg2 6y ago
        I think that's probably a fairly popular opinion - I agree with it. I just don't see property tax as making any meaningful impact on the wealthy (in my area).

ch4s3 6y ago

They have a steeply progressive land value tax and further escalate taxes on vacant land. They also slashed taxes on development and construction. This encouraged productive use and efforts to keep assessments low which also drives down housing costs.

giantg2 6y ago
Considering the article mentioned that the city was left leaning and also referenced Marx, I guess it's not surprise that they opted to tax people out of their property so that the city could acquire it.
- ch4s3 6y ago
  Is that what they did? If by that you mean that they used the tax system to discourage the development of investment properties and undeveloped land as well, then yes I guess. However land value taxes aren't a marxist idea, in fact LVT has been advocated for by Smith, Ricardo, Friedman, Stiglitz, and so on. Even a lot of libertarians like LVT.
  - giantg2 6y ago
    It said they had a highly progressive land tax and additional tax on vacant land. This incentivizes utilization of land, but also makes it economically unfeasible to create apartments if you must pay the tax and compete with the government housing. I'd love to see the data for Libertarians promoting land tax.
    - ch4s3 6y ago
      > I'd love to see the data for Libertarians promoting land tax. You can Google this. There’s a lot of disagreement but some of them are for it. I would imagine that the LVT would make it hard to compete with government housing at some price points, but I don’t know too much about Vienna in particular. My understanding was they they were trying to write tax policy to maximize the private market production of housing affordable at some percentage of AMI (or rather however the measure median income). But I don’t have a sophisticated understanding.