| Right. I don’t think we will agree on economics because I have a degree in economics and my thesis paper was on Milton Friedman. Secondly it is not market forces when the govt has to interfere and impose more taxes to make sure homes become affordable to the working class by snatching away the economic net of the non working retired class. In fact, it is the exact opposite of ‘Markets’. It’s a freebie by the govt to the govt educated public school kids who became adults. The kids who grew up in public schools are doing what they were taught to do. Redistribution of common resources and wealth. Socialism sits uneasily with free market forces. An imposition of an INCREASE in taxes is not the same as imposing a tax. Friedman speaks about land value tax on unimproved land. And that the property tax thus collected should be used for public services like law and order, infrastructure and essential services. Almost 85% of the property taxes collected is used for public system. 45% of California state budget goes to provide free public school education for everyone regardless of whether they pay taxes or not to the tune of 10-12k/child per annum. It is also used to cover unfunded pension liabilities of these public school system teachers. I am pretty sure you haven’t understood what Friedman suggested and this was read from some Bay Area real estate sponsored article from a click bait’y rag that has nothing to do with economics or Friedman or libertarian economics. There is zero economic logic is in trying to alleviate housing shortage by taxing retired property owners on fixed incomes except to displace them..aka drive them away to make space for public school educated young people who despite having earning power are not mobile enough to educate their kids in quality schools because California’s educational system is a Ponzi scheme. And no one is paying attention to it because the schools did not do the job of actually educating these kids in..I don’t know..subjects like economics. Current workinh populace can not afford to buy properties from older folks. Because they lack the purchasing power. So the mob wants to increase taxes so old people who don’t gain anything from public school funding will leave. This is exactly what is known as ‘cutting the nose to spite the face’ because what’s good for the goose is good for the gander. The only winner is the govt that gains more taxes from property, income(because only the wealthy can now afford to buy and most of their income is going to income taxes, property taxes, sales tax, gas tax, road tax on top all the other special taxes, parcel taxes, business tax etc). It’s like in the casino..the house always wins. Why anyone with a modicum of understanding of economics cannot see this beggars belief. The problem is relating property taxes to public education budgets. The problem is the speculative nature of real estate and allowing foreign investors to speculate on California real estate. The problem is the lack of TRUE purchasing power of the Silicon Valley grunt workers allegedly making hundreds of thousands of dollars in income but have little to show for it. The govt is taking them for a ride and they can’t see it because the critical knowledge of evaluating a bloated govt’s economics is conveniently left out in the public school system. And I suspect..by design. Density benefits taxes. Taxes are ‘good’. The purpose of a tax increase is to make it unaffordable for retirees to continue living in their homes and to displace them. It doesn’t pay for any services. The govt acts like a henchmen so housing stock is cleared and made available for the highest tax paying demographic. So they can collect more taxes. Let this sink in. I repeat. Let.This.Sink.In. Milton Friedman ..trust me on this...wouldn’t approve. |