It’s not arbitrary; it’s based off of the Jubilee principal and is meant as a way of keeping men out of debt slavery.
I don’t like the culture of huge debt either, but pretending solutions like this aren’t arbitrary is ridiculous. We have bankruptcy to prevent debt slavery (except for student loans in the US). We have LVT to prevent speculative bubbles, we just need to implement it.
Bankruptcy screws the lender whereas a land value tax continues a tax on land which the poorest who inherit land can’t pay.
If your debt was going to be cancelled after 7 years you’d of course not make a loan longer than that.
I agree no one would make a loan longer than 7 years under that policy, but I don’t think that would be good for anyone but the richest in society.
If their father gives them a piece of land, now they have to “pay to own” it, what about the recipients who are barely making it?
Agreed that income tax is bad, but not just for the poor; but also land tax is bad. Tariffs or some sort of luxury sales tax would be better. Also reducing the size and scope of govt, but that’s another can of worms. In any case, it’s been nice but I’ll leave the last word to you.
If you can’t afford the LVT, you can either rent the land or sell the land. Both are better for the economy than people sitting on idle land doing nothing of value. In this case I would focus on those barely making it who have no property, and whos taxes effectively make landholder’s assets more valuable through gov infrastructure spending.
Tariffs and luxury taxes have the same problems: they distort markets and in the case of tariffs, make goods more expensive which makes life harder for poorer people. Luxury taxes aren’t significant enough to be very useful, but could be useful in addition to LVT.
This is below the poverty level of $14,580. No-one should be taxed on income anywhere near that level. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/fpl.asp#:~:text=Key%20T....
Federal minimum wage is $15,080. I may be missing something, but I believe this means people on minimum wage are being taxed! https://www.monster.com/career-advice/article/state-minimum-....
Don’t misunderstand me. I completely agree with this and would prefer having the standard deduction even higher with higher taxes above it to compensate.
> Federal minimum wage is $15,080.
I know which is why I said “close to”. This also with the assumption that it’s always 40 hours a week and you never get sick or need time off (which would assuredly be unpaid).
Even working 36 hours per week, every week, at minimum wage (which is considered a full time job), would put you under the standard deduction.