170 – By George, The Rent Is Too Damn High!

Eneasz drops a primer on Georgist Land Value Taxes. All increases in productivity will be capture by rising rents for as long as mankind exists, unless we find a way to prevent landlords from capturing all the benefits of rising land value. Henry George found the way to do this.

Source post: Book Review: Progress & Poverty

Follow-ups that we barely touched on, but include a lot more:

Part I – Is Land Really a Big Deal?

Part II – Can Land Value Tax be Passed on to Tenants?

Part III – Can Unimproved Land Value be Accurately Assessed Separately from Buildings?

Also in this episode:

Eliezer supports Dignity Points, a scoring system for humanity.

Afghan soldiers were shocked to learn about taxes in the U.S.

0:00:40 Feedback

0:06:15 Main Topic

1:33:48 LW posts

1:57:34 Thank the Patron

Hey look, we have a discord! What could possibly go wrong?

Also merch!

Rationality: From AI to Zombies, The Podcast, and the other podcast

LessWrong posts Discussed in this Episode:

The American System and Misleading Labels

Stop Voting For Nincompoops

Next Episode’s Sequence Posts:

Rational vs. Scientific Ev-Psych

A Failed Just-So Story