“Some arguments against a land value tax” by Matthew Barnett
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To many people, the land value tax (LVT) has earned the reputation of being the "perfect tax." In theory, it achieves a rare trifecta: generating government revenue without causing deadweight loss, incentivizing the productive development of land by discouraging unproductive speculation, and disproportionately taxing the wealthy, who tend to own the most valuable land. That said, I personally think the land value tax is overrated. While I'm not entirely against it—and I think that several of the arguments in favor of it are theoretically valid—I think the merits of the LVT have mostly been exaggerated, and its downsides have largely been ignored or dismissed for terrible reasons. In my view the LVT is at best a useful but highly limited tool ("the worst tax policy ever, except for all the others that have been tried"); at worst, it is a naive proposal that creates many more problems than it [...]

Outline:

(02:21) Core problems with the LVT

(03:18) An LVT discourages searching for new uses of land

(05:36) An LVT implicitly taxes improvements to nearby land

(08:48) Cant the LVT simply be patched to address these issues?

(13:31) The government has incentives to inflate their estimates of the value of unimproved land

(15:44) An LVT is unlikely to replace many existing taxes

(17:07) Disruptions under the LVT

(17:11) The precedent set by a full LVT

(20:41) An LVT would massively disrupt millions of peoples long-term plans

(23:08) The purported effect of an LVT on unproductive land speculation seems exaggerated

(26:32) Final words

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First published: December 29th, 2024

Source: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/CCuJotfcaoXf8FYcy/some-arguments-against-a-land-value-tax)

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