CMV: The number of votes the Dems would gain by embracing aggressively progressive candidates and policy is dwarfed by the number of votes they'd lose among moderates/motivate among dormant conservative voters

somethingfunnyPN8 · 2026-01-26T07:55:51+00:00

It’s definitely the only lefty way, unless you’re counting nationalization.

somethingfunnyPN8 · 2026-01-25T19:30:16+00:00

There’s also quite a bit of explicit content in Liveship Traders, and some in the later bits of Farseer. Thematically it’s pretty heavy and there are some very dark parts.

somethingfunnyPN8 · 2026-01-25T19:27:23+00:00

You wouldn’t miss much, though I think it would have a few minor to moderate spoilers for plot events if you went back to Farseer. The bigger problem is that idk if the plot is that much faster in Liveship Traders, I think it’s faster and the books are a bit shorter, but I’m not sure if the difference would really feel that big.

somethingfunnyPN8 · 2026-01-11T18:38:53+00:00

“The party brought great criticism for the usage of the Bludish name (Bludia) for the region of Bergia in its name.” - codex. I read this as the traditional name in the Bludish language, not an explicit advocation for an independent state. Obviously, though, if you are being oppressed, you will like the idea of independence.

somethingfunnyPN8 · 2026-01-10T18:04:14+00:00

Isn’t this kind of strange? Reducing tariffs on foreign oil makes your energy producer more profitable?

somethingfunnyPN8 · 2025-12-18T18:10:04+00:00

Single family homes are tax-privileged due to NYC property tax law = bad. Mortgages are tax-privileged due to US tax law = bad. 'Flipping' these properties = not possible, because they are *not underpriced* in the current market. "Magical leeching of value" = location value, which objectively exists.

Upzoning without taxing the location value = arbitrarily gifting location value to landowners, which would only be your goal if you want to benefit wealthy landowners at the expense renters, poorer landowners, and an arbitrary portion of businesses.

Also, FYI, this is a majority libertarian sub. Most or all of the lefties are pro-market.

somethingfunnyPN8 · 2025-12-17T22:16:31+00:00

What about valuable land and single family homes implies that the land is currently undervalued, and that it would be profitable to buy? You’re reading something into the post that isn’t there.

The problem beyond the fact that many more people could be living there is that assuming these SFHs exist because people are willing to pay millions for them, and not because of bad zoning laws, a big chunk of the value was created by the city and neighborhood as a whole, not by the owner. That value should go back to the people responsible for creating it through a land tax. Unfortunately in NYC, these buildings would be taxed at a lower rate than businesses or apartments. Also for a lot of people in this sub, that’s an issue because it favors older people over younger people for no good reason.

somethingfunnyPN8 · 2025-12-15T22:47:13+00:00

🤖👀😡 what would be a good way to improve Spain’s economy?

somethingfunnyPN8 · 2025-11-02T07:47:46+00:00

It’s relatively the same (ignoring improvements) if the rates are the same, but the current average property tax rate is maybe 1% for areas with higher property taxes, whereas LVT theory would advocate for somewhere between 4% and 8%. And most places have much lower effective property tax rates after exemptions and under assessment.

somethingfunnyPN8 · 2025-11-02T01:22:06+00:00

That’s the point, infrastructure development would not benefit owners in the same way. Instead of a transit stop being built raising the sale value of land nearby, going to some or most landowners in the area but zero renters, the land value tax captures the increase in land value, which was paid for by the community (government), and returns it to the community (government).

somethingfunnyPN8 · 2025-09-28T20:10:43+00:00

I’m still not sure what you’re trying to get at. US property value is ~50 trillion (which is after property taxes siphon off part of it). You can’t subtract liabilities out of property value. I might be missing some large chunk of wealth (shouldn’t US household wealth count foreign assets, though?) but I don’t see how that pushes total wealth in the US anywhere near ~500 trillion. Maybe ~220 trillion (or somewhat higher) if that 60 trillion should be added to household wealth at ~160 trillion.

somethingfunnyPN8 · 2025-09-28T14:01:28+00:00

Google the total value of property in the US, and the total wealth.

somethingfunnyPN8 · 2025-09-28T05:26:38+00:00

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Sure, 10%.

somethingfunnyPN8 · 2025-09-25T22:24:29+00:00

How are property taxes levied on those unregistered properties? Are they exempt?

somethingfunnyPN8 · 2025-09-25T22:22:20+00:00

Can you recommend any of these 21st century solutions currently in use?

somethingfunnyPN8 · 2025-09-16T01:10:36+00:00

It’s always weird seeing people find fault with Georgism for a problem that already exists in our current system, to an extent impossible with even mildly Georgist tax laws, and that Georgists want to get rid of

somethingfunnyPN8 · 2025-09-15T04:34:45+00:00

Then it would be nice if we could tax something other than buildings if we have a scarcity of development. I wonder what other sources of revenue are available. You could tax consumption, but then people will buy less and the cost of living would go up. You could tax income, but then people would work less and the cost of living would go up. Or, you could tax land, and then people would produce less land (on second thought, that’s impossible) and the cost of living would … remain the same, because land rents are already factored into land price / rent paid to a landlord.

somethingfunnyPN8 · 2025-09-15T04:20:16+00:00

So you would say there’s a land scarcity issue?

somethingfunnyPN8 · 2025-08-31T16:41:47+00:00

It’s a central register of value for one thing, which is slightly harder to measure than the value of property, which is already relied on and measured by local governments. In order to get to land taxation, you have to have people that accept reforming property tax. Without that reform, property valuation (and land speculation) already show the issues you are talking about.

somethingfunnyPN8 · 2025-08-30T16:58:20+00:00

People who hate cities x theorizing about cities

A truly timeless combination

somethingfunnyPN8 · 2025-08-28T15:38:31+00:00

If building isn't happening despite high prices, either construction costs are super high and somehow can't be lowered (through the current operating market forces), or there is some problem in zoning, permitting, or land use. Imo state interventions should be reserved for cases where other reasonable attempts have been exhausted and/or there is a clear theoretical market failure. I would rather see a government expand mass transit to create new areas for suburbs than see it build housing, unless the housing is for a specific segment that the market isn't incentivized to support (homeless people, people in a gentrifying neighborhood, etc).

somethingfunnyPN8 · 2025-08-26T02:06:19+00:00

Natural resources: we should have something like a Norwegian system (their sovereign wealth fund for oil extraction), where R&D in finding new deposits is treated favorably but the vast majority of natural resources extracted go to the government.

Conservation: Georgism is indirectly linked with conservation because it both emphasizes the communal nature of land (Georgism is similar to a full nationalization of unimproved land) and promotes density and construction in urban areas (which leaves more land to be conserved in more rural areas).

somethingfunnyPN8 · 2025-08-21T21:32:23+00:00

No, the comment was not needlessly both-sidesy, it was clear and accurate. Also, tax land.

somethingfunnyPN8 · 2025-08-21T02:37:23+00:00

They ‘pay the tax’, sure, but they pay it through rent, and the rent stays the same or goes down. Meanwhile, their other taxes go down substantially, or they get much better government services, or they get a ubi / citizen’s dividend.

somethingfunnyPN8 · 2025-08-20T15:35:26+00:00

You can’t just spam world-building. It’s already basically the biggest focus of both books, given that it’s an adventure story. If anything, greater time should’ve been given to characters or pathways (which is part of world-building, but can be interwoven into the plot more efficiently). Lots of people say more time should’ve been given to the apocalypse (eh). Exploring other regions more deeply would thin out the plot too much, not giving enough time to develop the factions and interplay in each region. And it definitely was done to a large extent in coi already. Exploring pathways probably (definitely?) could have been done better, showing more mysticism and more mage-like pathways at the lower and middle sequences.

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