There was an article in Reason earlier this week about Settle making a mess of things, and
having to forgive 200,000 parking tickets. I noticed one paragraph in particular:
“Seattle, like many cities, provides a lot of on-street parking for free. Not charging for these spaces is troublesome from a free market perspective; taxpayers writ large are paying for parking spaces that a smaller subset of drivers use. The rent-free land provided is effectively a subsidy to these drivers.”
To be consistent, one may also write that the low-rent land provided to homeowners, business owners, and speculators in vacant lots is also a subsidy to these landowners, although some of the landowners in question are heavily taxed on their improvements, earned income, and capital investments; and tht this is troublesome from a free market perspective. A consistent free marketer should be a Georgist.
Written on a train headed to Philadelphia, from which I hope to catch another train, and arrive at Princeton t9 attend a Georgist affair.