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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   32853 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of October 10, 2022

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The recent Georgist uprising in the rat-sphere seems to be spreading outward, and gathering steam if anything. Lars Doucet, who wrote the original ACX post that blew up, is now releasing a book called Land is a Big Deal which summarizes his writings thus far.

There was also a major takedown of Detroit land assessment practices by a major land parcel data collector, ReGrid that dropped a few days ago. Major takeaways:

  • Property tax assessment is widely variable - some houses have *double* the tax burden of identical houses literally across the street.
  • Landowners tend to have far better valuations (i.e. pay less taxes) than homeowners, probably because they have more time/incentive to protest valuations.
  • Poor taxing and tax foreclosure in Detroit are likely a large part of why the city has fallen on such hard times in recent years.

In addition, some fairly mainstream political candidates such as Chloe Brown who's running for Mayor of Toronto, seem to be gaining steam. Land value tax is a large plank in her platform.

I got interested in land reform through the original series of ACX posts, and frankly I'm surprised how interesting the problem is and how overall neglected the topic seems to be. Even extremely intelligent and well read folks I talk to about it are surprised when they learn that land value is usually just pulled out of thin air - the industry standard is to just take 25% of the purchase price and not give a shit about location or any other factors, which seems bizarre upon a critical review.

I've seen some discussion about Georgism/LVT here, but curious if anyone else has been following this?

Also, what are the arguments against LVT, besides low-effort "taxes are always bad and raising them is evil?" Genuinely curious for well thought out reasons why an LVT would be a bad idea.

Edit: For those new to this idea, a Land Value Tax in it's most basic form simply says we should tax away the value of the land, and only let people who sell land profit off of the 'improvements' they make, such as buildings, restorations, etc. For instance if you bought a piece of land and tried to sell it 1 year later off pure speculation, doing nothing to the land, you would not receive any profit.

This strikes me as rationalists rationalizing their own class self-interest. The same way EA just so happens to only support democrat politicians, rationalism coincidentally just so happens to work out extremely well for the types of people that are rationalists. Easy to be YIMBY when you are 25 and living in a rented apartment in San Francisco.

If you try to find out which thoughts are tainted by speculating about the wishes of the thinkers, you are merely making a fool of yourself. You must first find out on purely logical grounds which of them do, in fact, break down as arguments. Afterwards, if you like, go on and discover the psychological causes of the error.

Is there even a principled defense of nimbyism, or is that sort of accusation all you have? If pressed, nimbys will frequently confess to hypocrisy and naked self-interest. But yimbys don’t need to, because the case for yimby is easy, as you say : If everyone nimbys, nothing ever gets built. Rents and corn should be cheap, their prices should be at open to competition, not controlled by a cartel.

naked self-interest.

Why isn't that good enough? Do you think the YIMBYs expect to be harmed by their policies?

How can it be good enough? Obviously it is in my interest to receive money from the government. Should that be policy?

The public thing is about the common good. If you are harmed by a policy, you have to prove that you are harmed more than others benefit. Nimbys don't seem to 'act only according to that maxim whereby they can, at the same time, will that it should become a universal law'(because nothing would be built), and that's not a good sign. Whether yimbis also have selfish reasons on top of good justifications is irrelevant.

How can it be good enough? Obviously it is in my interest to receive money from the government. Should that be policy?

Because it's good enough for the YIMBYs? Why is it good for them to demand policies that serve their naked self-interest, but bad for other people to do so? The fact that those "other people" have already invested significant effort and capital into their backyards, as it were, seems like a powerful argument for defaulting to their preferences. In any case, this argument seems like a sleight of hand in which we carefully obscure that both factions have a self-interest at play.

The public thing is about the common good. If you are harmed by a policy, you have to prove that you are harmed more than others benefit. Nimbys don't seem to 'act only according to that maxim whereby they can, at the same time, will that it should become a universal law'(because nothing would be built), and that's not a good sign.

I'm sorry, but you don't get to invoke utilitarianism and Kant in the same breath. Kant is anti-utility; his deployment is inherently suspect.

Whether yimbis also have selfish reasons on top of good justifications is irrelevant.

What is the difference between a good justification and a selfish reason except framing and intellectual charity?

If NIMBYs NIMBY at scale then it’s a problem.

What do we do then?

(My solution: NIMBY labor and re-education camps)

I'm sorry, but you don't get to invoke utilitarianism and Kant in the same breath.

They are in sync here. Your position violates not only kant, but utilitarianism, the golden rule, most moral systems known to man.

Why is it good for them to demand policies that serve their naked self-interest, but bad for other people to do so?

Because they have other reasons than naked self-interest (which again, is just a cheap accusation that can be lobbied against anyone). The self-interest of citizens have to be balanced against each other, and we do this by using the good justifications. When one admits to having no other reason than self-interest, one’s cause is deligitimized.

There’s a dispute between two farmers over ownership of a donkey. The village gathers in the square to hear their cases. The first one says witnesses saw him buy it , he can describe it from memory, that he frequently helps other villagers with it, and so on. The second one replies that he doesn’t care about good justifications, it should be given to him because it is in his self-interest, he doesn’t understand why everyone is so naive, it’s also in the other guy’s self-interest to get the donkey.

Because they have other reasons than naked self-interest (which again, is just a cheap accusation that can be lobbied against anyone).

Ok, so what are those reasons? You're just blanket assuming one side in a generic conflict is in the right.

The self-interest of citizens have to be balanced against each other

Yes, because everyone has the right to advocate for their own self-interest. Failing to recognize that is, as Kant might put it, treating people as mere means rather than ends in themselves.

There’s a dispute between two farmers over ownership of a donkey. The village gathers in the square to hear their cases. The first one says witnesses saw him buy it , he can describe it from memory, that he frequently helps other villagers with it, and so on. The second one replies that he doesn’t care about good justifications, it should be given to him because it is in his self-interest, he doesn’t understand why everyone is so naive, it’s also in the other guy’s self-interest to get the donkey.

In this silly scenario you've concocted to try to prove your point, the first guy is the NIMBY, the established interest with existing skin in the game, who doesn't want to lose sunk costs for existing benefits to some second person whose main justification is "but it would be good for me".

And frankly, even if you devise some second scenario where the utility argument could come down in favor of the second person, it's still valid to not want to eat the costs of externalities for things that benefit other people.

Let’s not confuse the two arguments. Argument A is whether there are ‘good justifications’ for nymbyism, and how they stack up against yimbyism ’s good justifications. I originally asked for nymby’s good justifications, and gave some for yimbyism.

You then refused, said B: good justifications don’t matter, it’s all about self-interest, you don’t need any more reason than that. The donkey story was purely aimed at B.

Do you want to go back to A now, with you giving ‘good justifications’ for nimbys for improving the land etc?

And frankly, even if you devise some second scenario where the utility argument could come down in favor of the second person, it's still valid to not want to eat the costs of externalities for things that benefit other people.

Let’s say it’s a very large benefit to the second person and the rest of society, completely dwarfing the first person’s benefits. Is the first person still justified in refusing to eat the cost? Or, the first person seriously harms other people for a very small personal benefit, still okay? It seems to me you’re arguing for extreme selfishness, like people should never go against their self-interest, no matter the circumstances. Note: this is still argument B.

You're just blanket assuming one side in a generic conflict is in the right.

Well, rampant NIMBYism results in enormous transfers of wealth based merely on who got into an area first (primarily a function of age), massively infringes on private property rights, tremendously stifles any sort of economic development or indeed change of any kind, results in huge negative-sum costs paying lawyers, grants lots of power to the kind of sociopathic busybodies who want to control everything around them, makes moving into economically dynamic cities infeasible for the kind of young workers that they need, cripples economic mobility, and generally enshrines into law the kind of development and transportation (sprawl and cars, respectively) with by far the largest externalities and costs (people dying in car crashes and car/bike or car/pedestrian collisions, pollution, noise, congestion, etc.)

In this silly scenario you've concocted to try to prove your point, the first guy is the NIMBY, the established interest with existing skin in the game, who doesn't want to lose sunk costs for existing benefits to some second person whose main justification is "but it would be good for me".

Have you heard of a thing called "property rights"? The NIMBYs are the second guy, they just already took the donkey and the YIMBYs would like it back.

it's still valid to not want to eat the costs of externalities for things that benefit other people.

NIMBYs are already capturing massive positive externalities due to the increase in the value of their land because other people made their city desirable to live in. To then act like a victim because your house will be slightly shaded by a small apartment block is reminiscent of the story that defines the word chutzpah.

But since you're opposed to externalities, you must also be on board with efforts to ban cars from the city? After all, why should pedestrians and cyclists eat the cost of the noise, danger, and pollution caused entirely for the benefit of drivers?

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FWIW, I was glad when an apartment building started going up near the place I owned in my previous city.

That isn't an argument in favour of NIMBYism, it just shows that there are lots of unprincipled people. But being unprincipled doesn't actually make you wrong.

The same way EA just so happens to only support democrat politicians

I know it's not the point of this post, but this is not true. EA does back a number of Republican candidates and works actively to get more, they just keep it quieter out of a mix of unpopularity/strategy.

Like who?

Not a great answer, and not what OP was referring to most likely, but from here

While his biggest spending has been on Democratic primaries, he has also contributed directly to Democratic and Republican campaigns alike.

“There have been a lot of times when I have been a bigger supporter of Democratic candidates than Republican candidates. That’s not — that’s not an immovable fact about the world,” [...] “I am legitimately worried about doing things that will make people view me as partisan when it’s not how I feel

The evidence that Bankman-Fried truly wants to be a bipartisan donor is thin — at least in his publicly disclosed spending. Although Bankman-Fried donated directly to a half-dozen Republicans and gave $105,000 to a super PAC that backed Katie Britt, the Republican Senate nominee who won a contested primary in Alabama, it still pales in comparison to the many tens of millions he’s disclosed giving to Democratic candidates and groups

Guarding Against Pandemic has endorsed 22 Democrats and 15 Republicans, a mix of incumbents and first-time candidates.

Messaged you about this - long story short I talked to someone in person who gave me some info but doesn't look like the candidate list is public.

Well that isn't very transparent of EA

Hah EA is not very transparent.

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