Economics of land #1

Introduction to how I was introduced to the economics of land. The significance of this subject is the link to the financial collapse that threatens to take the real economy with it that was started in large part by turbo charged speculation in housing which is really about betting on and results in driving up the value of land. The housing bubble is/was really a land speculation bubble. Houses do not go up in value, they depreciate as any home owner knows and especially they do not go up in value in the context of a robust construction industry that has been able to increase the supply of houses on demand. Only land goes up in value since it is in fixed supply and new land can only be brought onto the market by sprawl in the absence of an agreeable mechanism to bring already developed land into more efficient use. Based on the ideas first popularized by the 19th century American political economist and social philosopher, Henry George, who proposed the solution for the problem of poverty based on proper taxation of land values that would have worked in his own day and which in face of the current economic collapse is even more relevant.

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Tags: depression, disparity, economics, housing, justice, More…land, landlordism, poverty, recession, sprawl, taxation, wealth
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