in collaboration with Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity

Create jobs from land policy change

File under: taxes, untax buildings, lower land prices, open job opportunities, jobs

(0 votes)

From: Walter R., Silver Spring, MD

My research shows that America's original full employment policy was based on free or easily affordable land -- rural land for farming, lumbering and hunting, and also town sites for homes, stores and workshops. Easy access to land is again a pro-jobs option. It's been proven so by cities that made a simple change in their property tax: reducing the tax on buildings and leaving it primarily on community-created location values. This greatly eases the cost of acquiring sites, and discourages land speculation that holds prime sites out of use and thus suppresses job opportunities. To learn more, see my forthcoming book in January 2011.

Comments:

Add your own comment on this idea:

* indicates required field

First Name *

Last Name *

City

State

Postal Code *

Country

E-mail *

Phone

Make your best case in support of or opposition to this idea. Please reference personal experiences, expertise or research that helped shape your views. *

If you have a link to a Web site with facts or additional information that support or challenge this idea, share the link (URL) here:

What aspect of poverty is not getting the news media coverage it deserves?

What experience or expertise do you have with this issue, if any, that could help us report on it?