The hottest Substack posts of Progress and Poverty

And their main takeaways
1270 implied HN points β€’ 03 Mar 25
  1. Land value tax (LVT) is becoming popular in various states in the U.S. as a way to manage property taxes more fairly.
  2. Cities like Baltimore and Spokane are making efforts to adopt LVT to deal with issues like vacant properties and encourage development.
  3. Legislation supporting LVT is being introduced and discussed in places like Minnesota and New York, indicating growing interest in this tax reform.
2655 implied HN points β€’ 24 Feb 25
  1. The Center for Land Economics is a new nonprofit formed to tackle the housing crisis using specific economic principles. They aim to provide data-driven solutions and policy analysis for better land management.
  2. There will now be a weekly blog post schedule to share updates on land value tax and housing policies. This blog will serve as a central place for discussions on these important topics.
  3. An open-source software library for land assessments will be released soon. This tool will help improve the accuracy of property valuations, making it easier for communities to work on land-related issues.
692 implied HN points β€’ 28 Feb 24
  1. The atmosphere is an absolutely scarce resource that commands an economic rent, similar to land, making it crucial to distribute the costs of climate change equitably among present and future generations.
  2. Georgist principles suggest that natural resource rents, like those from emissions rights, should be shared equally among all members of the community, rather than favoring those who first utilized the resource.
  3. Implementing a Georgist cap-and-trade system for emissions rights could achieve a fair distribution globally, ensuring that everyone has equal access to the atmosphere while transitioning to a more sustainable future.
538 implied HN points β€’ 31 Jan 24
  1. Georgists scrutinize speculative investing in land, seeing land rent as unearned income.
  2. Groundly's offer of buying just-the-house and renting the land may seem affordable upfront but comes with hidden costs and responsibilities.
  3. Traditional lenders like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may have challenges financing Groundly-type leasebacks, raising concerns about the viability of the business model.
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