The Land Value Tax Explained

Jeff Stein acknowledges the inadequacies of the current tax system in the United States (i.e., "Income taxes discourage workers from earning money. Investment taxes discourage innovation and savings. Property taxes discourage homeowners from building cool stuff.") before suggesting the land value tax as a preferable alternative.

"With a land value tax," explains Stein, "the government would instead be raising money based on the size of land. That doesn't discourage anything we like: Land itself isn't helping the economy, you can't hide it in offshore accounts, and it's often a form of inherited wealth."

The article is mostly a means by which to introduce a recent episode of the Vox podcast "The Weeds" that addressed the land tax. Matt Yglesias, for instance, talks on the podcast about some of the effects he predicts should the land value tax were adopted around the country.