Cut and paste in its entirety from www.obamaers.com on a take-it-or-leave-it basis:
Land value taxation is free market taxation. Under a land value taxation system, individuals choose how much government they want, and correspondingly, how much they wish to pay in taxes. How do they choose? Simply by moving closer or further away from areas where governments provide services.
Do you want government in your life? Do you want asphalt roads, do you want your ditches mowed, do you want snow plows to clear the road in the winter? If you do, move to a location where government provides those services; beware that others also want to be near these services, you will have to compete with them, which will result in a tax liability.
Do you want to be left alone? Are you content to live without government services? Move to a location where government provides little or no services, your taxes will be little or nothing; if you settle on land which nobody else wants, you need pay nothing in taxes, regardless of your level of production or consumption.
Do you want the government to educate your child? Do you want access to health care? Do you want the government to provide health care? Move to locations where those services are provided, just understand that those services are likely to increase the demand for land in the areas where they are available, competition for that land will result in an increased tax liability.
Under a land value taxation system, you pay for what you get in a competitive market. Competition between governments leaves little room for corruption, and government has no incentive to grow beyond its role as a service and infrastructure provider.
What have we wrought in the UK?
3 hours ago
8 comments:
And it's so easy moving house.
Just like moving your job and all your friends and family.
Anon, meanwhile, in real life, everybody makes an estimate of his future income and chooses somewhere where he thinks he can afford the rent or mortgage. If his income falls, he has to either move house or take in a lodger or something.
WIth LVT, you make an estimate of you future income etc. and work out where you can afford to live. The LVT pushes down the cost of house, so the total outlay is the same (but enables other taxes, like Council Tax or Stamp Duty to be scrapped).
And who says you have to change jobs and friends? You can move home in the same area, can't you? My wife and I moved home twice in the last two years and we didn't change jobs or the kids' schools or anything.
Interesting idea but I don't see how it can be applied in population dense countries ... is there enough space to actually be able to get 'outside' of the area of influence of government in the UK? Or am I missing something?
Do you want to be left alone? Are you content to live without government services? Move to a location where government provides little or no services, your taxes will be little or nothing; if you settle on land which nobody else wants, you need pay nothing in taxes, regardless of your level of production or consumption.
Ah, now it begins to make sense.
CM, yes of course.
Within the UK, a square yard of prime central London goes for £78,000,000 per acre, whereas an acre of grouse moor or marshland in the middle of nowhere will set you back about £1,000.
JH, see above.
Makes sense, Mark. We all move sometime and when we do, it's a BIG choice. On the face of it, LVT is worth investigating.
I'd like to know what an acre in the North Wales countryside would cost. A friend is checking that out.
JH, the land itself costs next to nothing. It's the planning permission that costs money. Either because you have to bribe the local council into giving you it or because if you buy land that already has planning, you pay an extra £50k per unit of housing that you can build.
Post a Comment