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Comment by Shivetya | Hacker News Reader

As a libertarian I really dislike any restrictions placed on the use of property I paid for and worse pay taxes on. As long as it does not threaten the health or safety of others/environment the state should not be telling me how I can use my property. If its a residence then I should be able to decide who who can reside there and how long pursuant to that I do not cause them harm or harm others by hosting them.

There is an apartment shortage specifically because regulation so restricts what you can build, where you can build, and worse at times what you can sell for; setting aside "affordable" units and such

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You do as least recognize that under our current system land ownership is a long way away from being a free market path? The government subsidizes and insures a large portion of lending for home ownership. Also large tax breaks are typically given for new large scale construction. On top of that transportation to and from that land is provided by the government as well as government supplied protection for that property. Not to mention government supplied utilities for that property to access resources such as water and electricity.

I definitely not trying to get into a base line discussion about libertarian property rights ideas. But at least to help you understand what we have right now is a long long way from individual free and clear property ownership of land. Maybe before we start letting people do whatever they want with what you feel like is solely their land we need to address the massive amount of government supplied resources that land owner is currently enjoying.

And the property tax is there to pay for that infrastructure, as are the utility bills. The city isn't providing that infrastructure for free. If they want to raise property taxes for those using their property for commercial purposes then they should do that instead. Prohibiting someone from renting out property they have bought and are paying property tax on doesn't seem like the right answer.

No. The problem is that people who currently own houses want their properties values to go up.

The solution to all of this is to build so many houses that rent prices and housing prices are driven into the freaking ground. But the rich people who own all the land and buildings don't want them to happen because it would hurt their profits.

The enemy is not airbnb. The enemy is those who are using the government to protect their investments by preventing the free market from building.

One often sees this argument here. Speaking for myself, well sure, I don't want my property value to plummet so that I had to give it away if I ever wanted to move. But far more important is that I have the continued ability to use and enjoy my property on more or less the terms that existed when I purchased it. Yes, I understand that those terms evolve over time, especially in a city. But it's not just about the money.

And it keeps getting farther away from a free market with regulations like these.

You blame government intervention while welcoming more government involvement

As a Georgist I think the taxes you pay on land you derive immense value from but neither created or made valuable are far, far too low.

One problem is that if you live in an apartment building where someone is renting out their apartment using AirBnB, your safety is now decreased as non-tenants now have access to the building where they wouldn't have had it before.

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