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Astral Codex Ten ·Future-gazing

Does Georgism Work? Five Years Later

by Scott Alexander

Published 2026-09-24 03:16:49+00:00

What happens when the dirt beneath a house becomes more valuable than the house itself?

0:00 / 53:27 · Narrator Algieba

Context

City councils rarely take their cues from internet economics blogs. Yet in this piece published on 24 September 2026, a nineteenth-century tax philosophy is moving from online forums straight into modern state legislatures. The story bypasses the usual shouting matches over zoning and gentrification to look at the quiet, unglamorous mechanics of actual policy change. It pauses on a highly practical question about the housing crisis: what does it really take to rewrite a city's tax code, and who is doing the boring math required to make it happen?

Show notes

A five-year update on the political and technical progress of the land value tax. Revisits three common economic objections to the policy, revising previous conclusions about land assessment methods and whether landlords pass tax costs to renters. Outlines a practical strategy for passing local tax reform by providing data models directly to city officials.

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