[pydry]

>The first is that real estate is more the exception than the rule in being subject to property tax to begin with. If foreign investors want a store of value that minimizes "property tax" then they could just buy stocks or bonds etc

This is exactly the point. If property taxes were higher that flow of capital wouldn't seek store-of-value assets which monopolize valuable land and deprive ordinary people of somewhere to live.

>foreign investors" are a red herring that pundits keep bringing up because it's clickbait or because they want a scapegoat

More like the reverse is ardent defense of the interests of the super wealthy.

They channel their media networks towards scapegoating immigrants instead. Or AI. Or selfish boomers. Or any number of other things which aren't really the problem and most importantly aren't them.

>The second is that if you have a place where taxes are lower than other places, that's the place people should be lobbying to build things

People want to build things because they are useful. People will NIMBY the fuck out of that if it affects the value of their property which it does, disproportionately if property taxes are low.

This is how San Francisco ruined itself - with precisely that attitude of "lower taxes = better"

[AnthonyMouse]

> If property taxes were higher that flow of capital wouldn't seek store-of-value assets which monopolize valuable land and deprive ordinary people of somewhere to live.

Only they still would, because the higher property taxes would deter new construction until scarcity increases rents to the level that investment gets back over the threshold of profitability. And then investors are still there and what you've really done is cause rents to increase to the level that allows landlords to use it to pay the higher property tax.

> They channel their media networks towards scapegoating immigrants instead. Or AI. Or selfish boomers. Or any number of other things which aren't really the problem and most importantly aren't them.

Are "selfish boomers" not the problem in this case? Who are the ones lobbying for NIMBY zoning rules?

> This is how San Francisco ruined itself - with precisely that attitude of "lower taxes = better"

The big problem with prop 13 isn't that it lowers taxes, it's that it disproportionately raises them if you build anything new on your land or sell it to anyone who wants to.