>the big one in almost all Western cities is zoning:
Or property taxes that are far, far too low which allows the land value to be captured by landlords rather than the community.
>Contrast this NIMBY approach with, for example, Japan's system
Where people get 100 year multigenerational mortgages...
I guess how you frame the property tax policy debate depends upon how much of the national income you believe should be earned through rent and interest entitlements and how much should be earned by doing actual work...
Currently in most western countries there is a drift from one towards the other driven by targeted tax cuts.
Thanks for mentioning property tax, one issue that is sadly overlooked in practically every discussion. In Germany there's a small initiative of cities and citizens that aim to restructure property taxes to actually incentive productive use of land: http://www.grundsteuerreform.net/ (unfortunately only in German)
Basically it aims to remove all taxes on buildings and _only_ tax the property it's on, at a rate that is propertional to the value that society (the people living in the city around the property) and the city itself (through infrastructure) provide to the property.
The tax would then strongly encourage productive use of the land instead of speculating with it.
Or property taxes that are far, far too low which allows the land value to be captured by landlords rather than the community.
>Contrast this NIMBY approach with, for example, Japan's system
Where people get 100 year multigenerational mortgages...
I guess how you frame the property tax policy debate depends upon how much of the national income you believe should be earned through rent and interest entitlements and how much should be earned by doing actual work...
Currently in most western countries there is a drift from one towards the other driven by targeted tax cuts.