How to introduce a Land Value Tax tactfully

A land or wealth tax is a necessary complement of basic income, lest the law of rent conspire with the iron law of wages to simply transfer any net gains to rentiers.

One frequently-raised objection is how to fairly assess unimproved property values.

Glen Weyl and Eric Posner address this challenge in their book Radical Markets: Uprooting Capitalism and Democracy:

“Weyl and Posner suggest a system of taxation where, in principle, everything is available to buy, all the time. A homeowner or patent holder, for example, must declare the price they would sell their house or patent for – and if someone comes along and offers them that, they will have to sell. Assets are taxed annually on that valuation – they suggest a rate of 7 per cent – with the proceeds distributed evenly among a country’s citizens via a cash ‘dividend’.”