Comment by ansgri
2 days ago
I read it like “of the land you own, up to x amount is tax exempt”. Which makes perfect sense, and encourages ownership transfer and de-aggregation. Where aggregation of land plots actively increases land use efficiency, that efficiency gain is expected to be large enough to offset the added tax.
I disagree. A major premise of Georgism is efficient use of high demand land. E.g. housing close to high wage workplaces in cities. If we make exemptions for people to sit on land forever - who do not need or want to work in those workplaces - a major structural efficiency is lost. Instead of the land owner building high density housing on that land, they just retire on it forever, locking up productive land which could have housed 10 families. For this to work, all land needs to be taxed proportionate to its value. Yes, it's annoying to have to move because your house is suddenly worth $2M, but that's a pretty great problem to have, all things considered. In most places that tax free money - more than most people will earn in a lifetime.