this post was submitted on 16 Nov 2023
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Fuck Cars

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For those unfamiliar with Georgism and LVT (land value tax):

Georgism, also called in modern times Geoism,[2][3] and known historically as the single tax movement, is an economic ideology holding that, although people should own the value they produce themselves, the economic rent derived from land—including from all natural resources, the commons, and urban locations—should belong equally to all members of society.[4][5][6] Developed from the writings of American economist and social reformer Henry George, the Georgist paradigm seeks solutions to social and ecological problems, based on principles of land rights and public finance which attempt to integrate economic efficiency with social justice.[7][8]

Georgism is concerned with the distribution of economic rent caused by land ownership, natural monopolies, pollution rights, and control of the commons, including title of ownership for natural resources and other contrived privileges (e.g., intellectual property). Any natural resource which is inherently limited in supply can generate economic rent, but the classical and most significant example of land monopoly involves the extraction of common ground rent from valuable urban locations. Georgists argue that taxing economic rent is efficient, fair, and equitable. The main Georgist policy recommendation is a tax assessed on land value, arguing that revenues from a land value tax (LVT) can be used to reduce or eliminate existing taxes (such as on income, trade, or purchases) that are unfair and inefficient. Some Georgists also advocate for the return of surplus public revenue to the people by means of a basic income or citizen's dividend.

And although LVT is the most central proposed policy of Georgism, Georgists also advocate for carbon taxes (and other taxes on negative externalities), severance taxes on finite natural resources like oil or minerals, intellectual property (IP) reform, and eliminating barriers to entry. (It should be noted that Georgists want to replace bad/inefficient taxes like sales, income, and property taxes with LVT, externality (aka Pigouvian), and severance taxes.)

As for why LVT? In short, it's just a really good tax. Progressive, widely regarded by economists as "the perfect tax", incentivizes efficient use of land, discourages speculation and rent-seeking, economically efficient, and hard to evade. Plus, critically regarding landlords, land value taxes can't be passed on to tenants, both in economic theory and in observed practice.

In fact, it's so well-regarded a tax that it's been referred to as the "perfect tax", and is supported by economists of all ideological stripes, from free-market libertarians like Milton Friedman — who famously described it as the "least bad tax" — to social democrats and Keynesians like Joseph Stiglitz. It's simply a really good policy that I don't think is talked about nearly enough.

Even a quite milquetoast land value tax, such as in the Australian Capital Territory, has been shown to reduce speculation and improve affordability:

It reveals that much of the anticipated future tax obligations appear to have been already capitalised into lower land prices. Additionally, the tax transition may have also deterred speculative buyers from the housing market, adding even further to the recent pattern of low and stable property prices in the Territory. Because of the price effect of the land tax, a typical new home buyer in the Territory will save between $1,000 and $2,200 per year on mortgage repayments.

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[–] Taleya@aussie.zone 30 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Eooo, clean sweep

  • except the helmet thing wear your fucking helmets you vain bastards
[–] Jeanschyso@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Ah, but I was scared for my life with or without a helmet when sharing with cars. Now I still am, but they're also scared for me. A couple guys I met told me so. They recognized me at a store and told me "it's dangerous to not wear a helmet. I had to follow you from further out". I realized then that wearing a helmet could encourage not just myself, but others, to do dumbass shit.

I guess it depends on your community. I live in a small exurb that's got solid rural roots. There's like 3 big streets and 2 of them have the same name.

But yeah I wear a helmet in winter cuz ice n'shit. I'm dumb, not stupid

[–] Taleya@aussie.zone 9 points 1 year ago

Oh I'm still wary af wearing a helmet. The purpose of the helmet isn't to make you glibly fearless as a rider.

it's to stop a simple accident becoming a life-altering injury. Plain and simple.

[–] chocoladisco@feddit.de 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

No, never.

Source: grew up in the Netherlands

[–] Taleya@aussie.zone 6 points 1 year ago

the only valid excuse. God damn I wish we had your infrastructure. Or at least drivers who aren't homicidal dickheads towards anything that isn't a v8

[–] Zagorath@aussie.zone 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah seriously. I'm not supportive of mandatory helmet laws because stats say people ride less with it, to the point that it actually has negative overall health benefits.

But the fact is that from an individual decision standpoint, helmets work really well. And they work especially well in the kinda of incidents that you're still likely to get into even with good infrastructure. Lower speed crashes between two cyclists, a wheel sliding out from under you, etc.

So from an individual standpoint, you're a ducjing idiot if you get on a bike without a helmet in anything other than the most extreme of circumstances (like riding a share bike where you didn't expect to be riding one and no helmet is available).

[–] Taleya@aussie.zone 3 points 1 year ago

yeah those stats always strike me as hinky. Mind you, lies, damned lies and statistics.

If someone's going to be put off cycling by a helmet ...then they're gonna use any other excuse they can think of to not ride because the answer is not that they don't like wearing helmets, the reason is they don't want to ride and like the excuse. And it always gets pulled out as "see? more people would ride if you didn't make them wear helmets!!" over much higher % reasons like "Roads are populated with maddened arseholes" or "there's zero amenities that make this a practical regular mode of transport"

[–] kralk@lemm.ee 4 points 1 year ago

The only reason I wear a helmet is so the defence can't use it as an excuse when I'm run over.

[–] sharkfucker420@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] Taleya@aussie.zone 5 points 1 year ago

Pancake skull compels you