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RE: What Can Make Social Democracy "Libertarian"?
My only worry would be that the land tax could be passed down from the landlords onto the tenants. Rents would rise and there would be no net difference for those who don’t own land. Theoretically this would put a higher demand for home ownership, but that would, in turn, increase the value of homes. My thought was that having a sliding scale of taxation based on total land owned by a single entity would essentially subsidize smaller and decentralized land ownership.
If the owner tried to push the costs of the taxes on to the tenants, then he'd do it by raising the price of his land. The rent would go up, higher price. The consequence would be higher taxes, so the increase would just be re-confiscated via land value tax. You wouldn't be able to push the costs on to tenants very easily. If prices and rent rise, the taxes increase too.
Ah, I see. Then the only way rents would naturally rise would be through the demand. With less people working full time jobs and incentive to own some land with net 0 taxation, the demand for rentals would be leveled out. Especially if populations begin to disperse more through the freedom provided by basic income.