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Rie
@megu.dev

I strongly believe that the cost of housing is the root cause of many problems faced in modern western society today.

Rie
@megu.dev

The UK has a lot of problems caused by Margaret Thatcher's government selling all the council housing stock, but not allowing councils to use the funds to build new housing, essentially wiping out housebuilding in the UK. Additionally, housebuilders drip-feed into the market to maximise prices.

Rie
@megu.dev

I think we need to have a yearly Land Value Tax based on the undeveloped value of your land, therefore incentivising landowners to develop their land in order to pay off the tax. Closest thing I could find to this is called "Georgism", and it seems based. rationalwiki.org/wiki/Georgism

rationalwiki.orgGeorgismGeorgism (also called geoism) is an economic philosophy developed by American 19th century economist Henry George (1839–1897), the primary focus of which is the "Single Tax" on land values (a 'Land Va...

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Rie
@megu.dev

This prevents people buying land, sitting on it doing nothing, and reaping the rewards when they sell it for a higher value. Since they have to pay the tax, they will be losing out if they don't do *something* with the land. It seems like a great idea and some places like Alaska already do it.

Rie
@megu.dev

This feels more US-focused. As a brit, referring to just britain: heritage is a problem here. but zoning and minimum parking are less of an issue here. Also, the new gov has made it a lot easier to get permission to build. The main issue is that there's no *incentive* to build faster and lower cost

Rie
@megu.dev

But yes in general I agree. I do think people are starting to realise that min. parking and zoning laws are shitty. Lots of countries (incl. US states) are starting to loosen restrictions on such things which is nice to see.