Affordable Housing Insanity
Jun. 13th, 2018 12:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ndrosenThe mayor of Philadelphia, some city councilmen, and other blind fools of that city, want to tax construction in order to pay for affordable housing. The Center for the Study of Economics, which is located in Philadelphia, ought to be able to advise the city’s politicians on a better method.
How could people be that apparently stupid? Part of the answer is likely to be that they don’t understand Georgist economics, never having studied the subject. Another part of the answer is that they’re actually pretty clever. They want to please the voters by supporting a good thing like affordable housing, and this bill lets them do so. They do not want to displease the voters, or some of them, by raising taxes on land values, or stepping on someone’s toes by eliminating wasteful spending. The smart thing to do, therefore, is to pay for “affordable housing” by imposing a tax on construction which most voters will not pay directly.
This may not be the wise or ethical thing to do, but it is, in the short run, the clever thing to do.
How could people be that apparently stupid? Part of the answer is likely to be that they don’t understand Georgist economics, never having studied the subject. Another part of the answer is that they’re actually pretty clever. They want to please the voters by supporting a good thing like affordable housing, and this bill lets them do so. They do not want to displease the voters, or some of them, by raising taxes on land values, or stepping on someone’s toes by eliminating wasteful spending. The smart thing to do, therefore, is to pay for “affordable housing” by imposing a tax on construction which most voters will not pay directly.
This may not be the wise or ethical thing to do, but it is, in the short run, the clever thing to do.
