The vast majority of B.C.’s residential property wealth — $1.5 trillion — is in the value of the land rather than in the buildings on it. Unlike the value created by constructing or improving a building, increases in land values are not the result of any effort or expense by property owners. Rather, the land value is a social creation in that it reflects what makes the use of a particular location attractive to people.
Alex Hemingway has a great post on one part of our housing puzzle, how to fairly tax people on their unearned land wealth. Our property tax and incentives are setup to reward already wealthy land owners at the expense of everyone else. Given how unaffordable and unreachable housing is for many in BC and rest of Canada, every policy lever needs to be pulled. I have little faith that our landowner-heavy governments will act with the level of urgency and scale needed though 🙁
An occasional roundup of news I found interesting, with even less occasional commentary!
How a mere 12% of Americans eat half the nation’s beef, creating significant health and environmental impacts
A new study has found that 12% of Americans are responsible for eating half of all beef consumed on a given day, a finding that may help consumer groups and government agencies craft educational messaging around the negative health and environmental impacts of bee
Particularly important due to the enormous climate change and land use consequences of beef production and consumption
Who Needs Meta or Google for News? Use ‘Really Simple Syndication’
Meta is ramping up its blocking of news in Canada in resistance to a passed bill requiring news outlets be compensated for links shared on Facebook and Instagram.
Back to the golden age of blogs and 2005 we go with RSS!
The true cost of climate pollution? 44% of corporate profits.
What if companies had to pay for the problems their carbon emissions cause? Their profits would plunge, according to new estimates, possibly wiping out trillions in financial gains.
Profits: Primarily uncompensated takings from the future and everyone else to benefit a few
New data on forest fires confirms what we’ve long feared: Forest fires are becoming more widespread, burning nearly twice as much tree cover today as they did 20 years ago.
More people than expected are dying in Canada in 2023 for reasons that are not yet clear
COVID-19 case counts are down dramatically from a year ago, according to federal data. Hospitalizations are higher than during the first two pandemic summers, but are hovering around their lowest point since December, 2021.
Is this excess death really a mystery or a result of covid revisionism?
This N.L. man spent 20 years addicted to opiates — and says forced treatment laws would have killed him
Keith Fitzpatrick’s addiction story starts like so many others: with a prescription for painkillers. It would be two full decades, and several brushes with death, before he was ready to detox.
Why oh why aren’t punitive treatments for people who have issues with substance use treated with the disdain they deserve?
Canada issues travel advisory for LGBTQ+ residents visiting US
LGBTQ+ citizens are at risk when traveling to the US due to numerous discriminatory laws passed at state level, the Canadian government has warned. “Some states have enacted laws and policies that may affect 2SLGBTQI+ persons.
Canada has underestimated non-permanent resident count by almost one million
A gross underestimating of Canada’s population growth, specifically the number of non-permanent residents in the country, is having immense ramifications on the housing affordability and supply crisis.
I mean, we’d have a housing crisis without this counting crisis, but it makes things worse
