Floyd Marinescu

BC's property assessment was designed so we could tax land rents more, and productivity less.

It's the best place to do it with the best available data.

Portrait of Peter Wills beside quote saying land value tax could be the market-oriented solution to housing affordability.

The cost of housing comes mostly from land values, which are shaped by the work society does around it. It's fair for that value to be shared with the larger society that created it.

Bloomberg Tax post saying land value taxes would encourage development and stabilize government revenues.

Bloomberg article makes the case for land value tax.

"LVTs don't punish homeowners for construction, renovation, or improvement...they make underutilized land more expensive than productive land, encouraging development and deterring land speculation."

BREAKING: Canada suffers worst job loss since 2022, when economists were expecting a job GAIN

- Canada lost net 84K jobs in one month, pushing unemployment to 6.7%
- Youth unemployment surges to 14%

When labour is at risk, we should stop taxing work. Tax AI and fund UBI.

[BREAKING:] Andrew Yang says we should stop taxing workers, and tax AI instead. That can fund UBI.

"We should try to stop taxing labor."

"What we've seen in the past decade is the largest transfer of wealth from the public to the private sector since the province was founded."

— Paul Finch, President of BC General Employees' Union

Tax the land.

Jens Stoltenberg beside quote on Norway taxing oil profits, arguing natural resource rents belong in common to the people.

Norway's sovereign wealth fund reflects a shared belief that the value of nature is something owned in common.

It's time Canadians shared this mindset of safeguarding, not squandering, our natural resource wealth.

Toronto Star headline reading “Want real action on housing? Tax the land,” with image of condo construction and cranes.

"By taxing land rather than buildings, we can incentivize much-needed housing development... this approach facilitates a comprehensive solution to restore housing affordability."

https://www.commonwealth.ca/blog/thestar-oped-want-real-action-on-housing-tax-the-land

Post by Ken Yang: Chart shows corporate profits rising since 1980 while labor compensation share declines.

The only real answer is UBI as a dividend to citizens as shareholders

UBI is the collective bargaining of the AI economy.

It’s no longer workers against employers -- it’s humans against machines.

I’d tighten it to: if automation concentrates gains, policy must broaden ownership of those gains (e.g., sovereign wealth fund paying dividends + guaranteed basic income), not just patch harms after the fact.

From a recent Financial Times

We've been talking about basic income as an answer to job automation for years. Now the urgency is clearer than ever.

Humanoids are already in our factories and it's only going to ramp up from here.

In the 90s-2000s, globalization and automation displaced millions in manufacturing, including my dad and uncle whose incomes never recovered. The impact of humanoids is going to be way bigger.

"Wealthy on paper, but poorer as a society. That is the paradox of Canada’s housing market."

www.thestar.com/opinion/cont...

This is why we’re delaying having families, sitting in traffic and stifling our economy Unaffordable housing has a slew of knock-on effects that are making life worse for everyone.

Why have babies when you can pay rent instead

"National Bureau of Economic Research, which found that a $10,000 increase in house prices leads to a 2.4 per cent decrease in the fertility rate of nonhomeowners."

www.thestar.com/opinion/cont...

Screenshot of Globe and Mail article titled “Building more homes alone won’t fix affordability” by Paul Kershaw

One of the few very visible Canadians shedding light on the hard truth about housing.

UBC's Dr. Paul Kershaw, founder of Generation Squeeze

"We cannot reward housing speculation with tax breaks without expecting home values to outpace local earnings."

Vinod Khosla (Stripe, DoorDash, Sun Microsystems) wants to stop taxing workers, in a future where machines do most of the work

More and more wealth will concentrate in land and capital. The best wealth tax is a land tax, because land can't move and it's the #1 cost of living.

He's pro-UBI

Another UBI skeptic flipped because of AI--a contributor to the American Conservative and New York Post

"For years, I opposed Universal Basic Income, firmly and reflexively... That position no longer survives contact with reality."

"There's no shortage of ideas about what to do if AI hollows out large swaths of work: universal basic income, benefits that don't depend on employers, lifelong retraining, a shorter workweek."

UBI is economic infrastructure for technological transition.

This image is clearly doctored with the intent to deceive you.

I have never been outside.

(UBI 🤝 LVT is awesome though)

🔰UBI + LVT = huge societal win

Hard to understate how urgently the housing debate needs to move in this direction!

No amount of building will fix an entire financial and political system geared towards raising land values.

Let's first agree collectively that affordability means lower prices and fewer gains for owners.

Thanks for sharing Floyd! We've got a long list of housing policy solutions. It all starts with a goal for home prices: www.gensqueeze.ca/housing_solu...

"As governments look for revenue to invest in housing, they must also ask older homeowners, like me, who gained the most from price inflation to help fix the affordability crisis now borne by renters and first-time buyers."

@gensqueeze.bsky.social @commonwealthcanada.bsky.social

than Canada’s population since the 1970s — even as affordability deteriorated dramatically over the last half century."

Outstanding:

"If prices and rents can fall while per-capita building is weak in our most expensive markets, then the affordability conversation cannot be reduced to the “Build Canada Homes” construction slogan. That insight is reinforced by long-run data showing housing supply has grown faster...

Building more homes alone won’t fix affordability. Here’s what else is needed National Housing Strategy needs to expand policy to avoid housing speculation by the wealthy

Another great piece by UBC's Dr. Paul Kershaw

One of the few very visible Canadians shedding light on the hard truth about housing.

"We cannot reward housing speculation with tax breaks without expecting home values to outpace local earnings."

www.theglobeandmail.com/investing/pe...

If 'land value tax fixes this' were a Canadian nonprofit