Re: A Question about LVT

On Wed, 17 May 2006 20:16:14 GMT, Michael Scheltgen
<mjs818@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

royls@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
On Wed, 17 May 2006 11:01:37 GMT, Michael Scheltgen
<mjs818@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Hi Roy, What do you think of the agricultural land reserve here
in BC? Thanks.

Hate it. It's basically a band-aid measure to prevent sprawl that
would not happen if the land rent was not being given away to
landowners for doing nothing. It's also, of course, a big factor in
corruption of civic governments and local planning, and in the chronic
insane housing costs in BC.

I agree with you. How would you knock down the arguments below?

From the SmartGrowthBC webpage:
http://www.smartgrowth.bc.ca/index.cfm?Group_ID=3404

Protecting scarce agricultural land is a key smart growth
strategy for a number of reasons.

* Farmland provides natural capital and a source of local
economic opportunities.

"Natural capital" is an oxymoron. And whoever thinks that blocking
more productive uses of land makes it "a source of local economic
opportunities" for anyone but rent seekers and land speculators is a
regular moron.

A healthy agricultural sector helps
diversify the provincial economy, supporting the livelihood of
over two hundred thousand British Columbians.

Oddly enough, jurisdictions that don't have ALRs also seem to have
diverse economies and healthy agricultural sectors.

And most of them don't have housing prices calculated to keep working
people in thrall to mortgage lenders their entire lives.

* Agricultural products increase our food security and supply
and reduce our dependence on imported foods and therefore
associated costs and impacts.

?? BC is coastal, so it is hard to see how its food security and
supply could be threatened: it can import food cheaply from anywhere
on the Pacific Rim, and has its own fishery resource, too. And the
biggest increase in BC's domestic food production has been in the
hothouse sector, which does not even need agricultural land (but uses
it anyway because it is cheaper, being frozen in the ALR!).

The amount of money BC consumers save by using domestic agricultural
products (if any) is orders of magnitude less than the amount wasted
on higher housing and commercial real estate costs due to the
artificial land shortage.

* Diverse farmlands create a variety of wildlife habitats and
support bio-diversity.

It would be interesting to see some evidence for this claim,
especially as pesticide use on farms is a major destroyer of wildlife
and biodiversity, and hothouse developments explicitly eliminate local
wildlife habitats and biodiversity.

* Open, green spaces near urban areas are a valuable resource,
adding amenity value and providing scenic landscapes, recreation
opportunities, and contribute to our enjoyment of BC?s expansive
outdoors.

BC is mountainous. As such, it has an immense amount of open green
space near every one of its urban areas, green space that is of no
agricultural value and is typically too steep for high-density
development, but is scenic, provides recreation opportunities, etc.
The notion that farmland adds any significant measure to this open
space is ludicrous.

* The agricultural land reserve has acted as an effective urban
growth boundary protecting against development and urban sprawl
since its legislation was created in 1973.

That is just a flat-out lie, as aerial photographs of the Lower
Mainland from the early 70s and recent years prove. The ALR has
mainly shoveled unearned billions into the pockets of certain favored
landowners and developers, and robbed ordinary people of the fruits of
their labor through sky-high rents, house prices and mortgage
interest.

The BC ALR is a sacred cow not because of any such effect as claimed
above, but purely because it shovels unearned wealth into the pockets
of landowners; and people who own only the land under their own
dwellings are stupid and ignorant enough to believe that this massive
theft is in their interests.

-- Roy L
.

Relevant Pages

  • THE DEBATE HEATS UP BY FIDEL CASTRO
    ... Transforming food into fuels is a monstrosity. ... land is used to produce food or to produce biofuels. ... fertilizers per acre needed to support this production. ...
    (soc.culture.cuba)
  • Re: AMI Free Monetary Seminars in Seceral Cities
    ... Concurrent tax reform of location rent taxation, ... destroys selling price of land, the financial cornerstone of the Debt Web. ... Govnmt should pay the banks for this service, ... in the economy, they are not themselves the product of effort. ...
    (sci.econ)
  • Re: 2008 Cruel Summer Deus: Food Riots are Coming to the U.S.
    ... Food Riots are Coming to the U.S. ... Organization reported that food prices had suffered a 18 percent ...   The devil in the ... Food Crisis Feared as Fertile Land Runs Out ...
    (alt.gathering.rainbow)
  • Re: Labor theory of cost
    ... It is just land. ... in our current economy. ... are continually depressed by the privatization of natural resources. ... but that's only because they keep the rent rather than ...
    (sci.econ)
  • Re: 2008 Cruel Summer Deus: Food Riots are Coming to the U.S.
    ... Food Riots are Coming to the U.S. ... Organization reported that food prices had suffered a 18 percent ... US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, ... Food Crisis Feared as Fertile Land Runs Out ...
    (alt.gathering.rainbow)