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PaperclipPerfector  9mo ago (text post)   3200 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for July 16, 2023

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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I recently read this article, which seems to have awoken some latent bleeding heart in me. As a result, it’s got me thinking about wealth redistribution, whence the following questions:

  • What are some of the best “utilitarian” arguments against greater wealth redistribution in America? (When I say “utilitarian”, I don’t actually mean calculating out the utils involved— but I do mean arguments other than moral ones like “people ought be able to retain the results of their labor” (which argument I am particularly sympathetic to around tax season).) What are estimates of the argmax of the Laffer curve? Is there an inverse relationship between “innovation” and income tax rate that might explain why America is far more of a tech hub than Sweden? That sort of argument is what I would be looking for.
  • Are there any low-overhead charities out there where you can mostly-directly send money to poorer people? Preferably with options to filter by criteria such as number of kids, marital status, etc.

I understand that this post betrays a real naïveté in both economic knowledge and worldly experience— so I’ll admit that I’m a decent bit embarrassed about making it, but I figure that a Small-Scale Question Sunday thread is the best place to ask this.

"Increase housing stock? I'm afraid not. Best we can do is subsidize lower income renting. Too bad greedy landlords keep increasing rent."

The greedy landlords are the ones that are stopping more housing from being built.

Local politics may vary, but where I live, every zoning commission or planning board argument includes some housing developer trying to build things and alders coming up with increasingly tone-deaf reasons why that's actually bad for people that want housing. Bootlegger and Baptist coalitions may well exist that unite the landlord oligopoly with busybodies that are very concerned about knocking down a building that Al Capone once took a shit in, but I tend to think the primary problem is the presumption that the baseline is that governments should not allow building unless the builder can prove that it's a net positive. Invert the assumption and the problem goes away.

The underlying assumption in so many suburban towns is

"When I bought my house, I was buying the whole community: the farmland I drive by on my way to work, the historic buildings housing businesses I don't actually visit because I shop online, the churches I'm not a member of, the scrap land that houses deer I like to look at. The owners of all those tracts have to submit their projects to my right to have everything exactly how it was when I bought my house."

When I bought my house, I was buying the whole community

Yes.

Except as a town of only around ~4000 we don't have many tracts, and the duplexs that were built are selling for $670k.

The surrounding farmland and greenspace contribute significantly to the rural character, the historic buildings, church and common provides a canvas for the town events and a gathering space for the residents. That town leadership is responsive to residents in protecting the character is an example of democracy in action.

Perhaps if you joined us at church service or patronized our local businesses you'd have a more charitable view of the stewardship many feel for their communities.

The surrounding farmland and greenspace contribute significantly to the rural character

So when someone buys a duplex for $670k, they have a vote in how the landowner gets to use or develop their "greenspace?" If enough people move into the area who want to see my land stay undeveloped, I lose the right to develop it, despite receiving exactly zero benefit from those sales to myself?

Worse, in my area, the farmers who hang on for an extra decade have to live with the loss of the "greenspace" on all the neighboring farms that develop; then when they decide to cash out themselves (often because of the changing neighborhood, traffic, inconveniences caused by development and population growth) those same move-ins show up to meetings to prevent them from developing their land. My family dates back in this town 130 years, I don't appreciate Johny-Come-Lately who just bought a townhouse telling me what I can and can't do on my property.

I attend mass better than weekly, at my church. The rest of the churches aren't my problem, even if I wanted to attend multiple churches for some bizarre reason it wouldn't be exactly helpful. If people aren't attending the mainline protestant churches, they will fail. Restricting their redevelopment won't bring people back to the pews for lukewarm Presbyterianism, it will just create a long-running sore as the church becomes dilapidated.

So when someone buys a duplex for $670k, they have a vote in how the landowner gets to use or develop their "greenspace?

No. They're entitled to vote in town elections and attend and vote at town meetings. They, other abutters and residents may object to the proposed change of use. There are rules to ensure proposed changes in use are not detrimental to the town and residents.

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