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Less taxes are good, but if the taxes are there to help remove negative externalities from the market it will be a net win. I wouldn't mind paying a bit more property taxes if it meant property values weren't sky high and it discouraged land hoarding.

Land tax is good in that it still rewards developers for creating value, but not speculators or people who buy land and don't actually provide value.




This is not a problem Detroit has


40% of all land parcels in downtown are _parking lots_.

Tell me more about how nobody's hoarding land.


Have you tried to park downtown? If you want fewer lots it's gonna need structures.


This is exactly what LVT is supposed to incentivize.


>>> Have you tried to park downtown? If you want fewer lots it's gonna need structures.

>> This is exactly what LVT is supposed to incentivize.

How? If people don't think building a parking structure is going to be more profitable than keeping a parking lot, how is raising their cost going to change their mind?

I suppose some of the lots might be sold as unprofitable which might lead to less parking and higher prices, which might lead to someone building a structure. Is that the logic? It seems pretty flimsy, but I don't otherwise see how LVT would incentivize building parking structures.


If you (where "you" may be a group of businesses) need X parking spaces, and land becomes more expensive, your tradeoffs shift on how you get those spaces. You are incentivized to use less land, so you are more likely to build a parking structure rather than a sprawling parking lot.

I'm not an LVT advocate, but as I understand it, that's the theory.


It rewards people who use land in a way that produces commercial value. If you wanted to speculate on some land while operating it as a private park or a free parking lot you may be out of luck.




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