this post was submitted on 15 May 2025
334 points (89.6% liked)
A Boring Dystopia
12157 readers
1103 users here now
Pictures, Videos, Articles showing just how boring it is to live in a dystopic society, or with signs of a dystopic society.
Rules (Subject to Change)
--Be a Decent Human Being
--Posting news articles: include the source name and exact title from article in your post title
--If a picture is just a screenshot of an article, link the article
--If a video's content isn't clear from title, write a short summary so people know what it's about.
--Posts must have something to do with the topic
--Zero tolerance for Racism/Sexism/Ableism/etc.
--No NSFW content
--Abide by the rules of lemmy.world
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Like almost every issue, property taxes aren't a binary issue - it's not a matter of either having them or not having them. There's the sub-issue of how the rates are set. Simply tying property taxes to home value isn't fair, because the burden a person puts on city services doesn't increase just because the perceived value of their home rises. You don't actually receive any of that value until you sell your house and leave, but you're taxed on it anyway. Being taxed when you sell the house would make perfect sense to me, because that's when you actually reap the benefits.
The argument that people in high-priced neighborhoods are rich and can afford or deserve to pay higher property taxes is unrealistic. Recent newcomers, yes, but not people who bought homes when they were still cheap because the area wasn't so desirable. Those people are no different from people who buy cheap houses today, they just did it a long time ago. But they get charged premium rates because the perceived value of their home increased. That way of assessing property taxes isn't fair, it's just bureaucratically easy.
I think property tax should be heavily weighted by the original price you paid for your house, and should go up with inflation and the cost of services. It should not be flatly tied to the price you would get for your house if you hypothetically sold it.
That is how you end up with California, where the old generations get wealthy, and the young generations are driven out of the state completely.
Yes, the economic conditions in a state with 40 million people are probably due to one specific factor. Classic meme-level thinking!
Prop 13 is real, yo
So are about a million other things that have happened in the 40 years since prop 13, yo.
They are actually rich. They have earned in many cases more money in real estate than many people have earned working
Uhhh no... when your house goes up in value, that's how much somebody might pay to buy it IF YOU SOLD IT. Until you sell it, you don't get any money. And as I said, if you do sell it it would make sense to me to tax you at that point - but not until you get the money. Srsly what grade are you in?
Now it's true that you can borrow against your home value - this is known as a home equity loan or a line of credit. So you potentially have that - but again, not until you actually do it (if ever). And that's not even really your money, it's a debt you have to pay back.