[scarface74]

The land isn’t more valuable because of some inherent virtue of the land.

It’s only more valuable because tech bro’s want it.

[harryh]

You could say the same thing for almost all goods and services which are subject to consumption taxes.

[scarface74]

The cost of police, fire fighters, schools, roads, etc. don’t go up with the value of the home. There is no reason that you couldn’t charge a flat rate to every property owner - including businesses.

[likpok]

The cost of all of these things do increase with the value of the home, because the labor required to do it gets more expensive. The individual house price doesn't contribute to this but overall housing costs do.

SF has had an explosion in property values and thus struggles to find teachers, firefighters and police officers at the salaries it's willing to pay.

[scarface74]

Again why should those taxes be based solely on housing instead of or in addition to other types of wealth?

[harryh]

We could do that, but then it would be more like a poll tax or a head tax instead of a consumption tax.

[scarface74]

How so, taxes are meant to fund the government and services they provide. Everyone who lives in a jurisdiction either consumes those government resources or we as a society have decided that it was in the common good to provide those services (ie education).