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comment by realusername
realusername  ·  2726 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Shake it up. Offer up one somewhat unpopular opinion that you hold.

    * The main source of government revenue should be a tax on the unimproved land value of all privately owned land

Could you elaborate ? it's a new one for me.





rthomas6  ·  2726 days ago  ·  link  ·  

It's called a land value tax. It's the only tax that does not decrease economic efficiency. It's progressive. Unlike corporate taxes and other similar taxes, it doesn't get passed on to the consumer (i. e. renter). It's relatively straightforward. It's hard to evade. And it encourages efficient land use.

Generally speaking, taxes act as an incentive to decrease whatever is being taxed. Therefore we should probably tax things that we want less of: carbon emissions, use of finite resources like land, etc.