I think you’re right, Georgism doesn’t get passed because it goes against the interests of landowners who have overwhelming political influence. But if the actual problem we’re trying to solve is high rents, maybe that doesn’t require full Georgism? Maybe we just need to make construction legally easier. There’s strong opposition to that too, but not as strong as literally all landowners.
Wait! Is the actual problem we’re trying to solve “high rents”? From everything I’ve read, it’s “inefficient use of land”, in other words, failure to maximize land-rents collected, which are now taxed at a high percentage of theoretical value.
In some sense, bulldozing 10 single-family houses to build a 30-unit apartment does “reduce rent” on a per-unit basis, but it increases it on the land. As designed, as far as I can tell. It’s unclear what bulldozing them to build a datacenter does to rents, but that may be necessary if the powers-that-be decide that’s the income level needed to pay the taxes.
I think you’re right, Georgism doesn’t get passed because it goes against the interests of landowners who have overwhelming political influence. But if the actual problem we’re trying to solve is high rents, maybe that doesn’t require full Georgism? Maybe we just need to make construction legally easier. There’s strong opposition to that too, but not as strong as literally all landowners.
Wait! Is the actual problem we’re trying to solve “high rents”? From everything I’ve read, it’s “inefficient use of land”, in other words, failure to maximize land-rents collected, which are now taxed at a high percentage of theoretical value.
In some sense, bulldozing 10 single-family houses to build a 30-unit apartment does “reduce rent” on a per-unit basis, but it increases it on the land. As designed, as far as I can tell. It’s unclear what bulldozing them to build a datacenter does to rents, but that may be necessary if the powers-that-be decide that’s the income level needed to pay the taxes.