Real Estate 4 Ransom
Real Estate 4 Ransom is a documentary about global property speculation and its impact on the economy.
Real Estate 4 Ransom considers the changing motivations behind property investment and challenges the notion that the Global Financial Crisis was caused by bank lending alone.
Shot over 5 years, the film focuses an economics lens on many of the big picture issues world politics are grappling to deal with. The 40 min documentary looks at whether genuine freedom has been delivered by the democratic system.
We investigate the inefficiencies of the economic system and the impact this has on potential homeowners and small businesses.
The documentary argues that with a simpler tax system, entrepreneurs have a better chance to succeed and the average Australian has a better chance of owning their own home.
This documentary sketches a very utopian image of the makers point of view. Taxing rent 100% would mean no man would still rent their property to tenants. Why would they? Rental property would be rendered absolutely worthless, evaporating liquidity put in property for many many years. This would create a new real estate crash as seen in 2008. If no one is still interested in investing in such properties there will be a gigantic shortage in rentals pushing more people into homelessness. A vast percentage of people just simply can not save up for a 20% down payment on a small $100.000 home thus renting is for them the only option. And yes landlords make a profit but they also supply a service to the community.
Incredible!!! isn’t it. I constantly query why is that the most [conscious] among us, the most [enlighten] among us are also the
poorer. Or are we just fooling ourselves are were nave and stupid, are we
poorer and deprive for reason The people depicted here
in the documentary are all compassionate caring, smart and socially conscious yet, they are all poor. I wish egomaniac Warren Buffet, narcissistic Bill Gates and Larry Elision or the delusional psychopath Jeff Bezos were conscious enough to do something about the plight of these miserable people. Or are we positioned where we are [poor] due to our perpetual naivety Where are the
wealthy conscious billionaires willing and able to build homes for the workingmen and women.
As a left leaning landlord with multiple properties I think they do not fully understand a few points they are advocating.While abolishing negative gearing sounds like a great idea.Negative gearing really only applies as a tax deduction in the first few years of starting up your rental property.After about 5 years you start to make a profit and pay taxes to the government for the next 25 years.The problem is if you decrease supply of available rental properties by making it harder to invest you will drive up rents because of lack of supply.Yes property may not rise in price as much and that's good if you can afford to get a place but those who can't will be left with much higher rents to pay.There is already land tax,stamp duty,capital gains tax,council rates,insurance,water rates,body corp fees,property management fees which are all fixed costs for every landlord and you must pass those costs on to tenants if you do not want to go broke.Advocating a 6% land tax will probably not make it worthwhile to be a landlord unless you can pass the cost on so you again you have a lack of supply of rental properties due to less investing and higher prices for rent.Most things in life are valued by supply and demand factors.If you want something everybody else wants you will have to pay the price to get it.A decent paying secure job for all with a broad based moderate tax system is the best solution to solving poverty.Starting with a modest affordable first property worked out well for me.
Wouldn't introducing a land tax just increase the price of rent? Property owners would just pass that cost onto renters, buyers or someone else - God forbid that they should wear the cost of something themselves & just be grateful that they are blessed with owning more than the schmuck next door hey?
Question: How many people understand that for someone to be rich, everyone else around them must be poor, because rich is a relative state? That's a lot more poor than rich & it's disgusting that such an arrangement is justifiable...
I like paying tax here in the UK. Does a lot of good. Only issue is these right wing govs who misuse it.
Well I have to say hearing the narrator say that ppl love to kick around the banks. That they are not to blame. WHO IN THE HELL DO PEOPLE BELIEVE DESIGNED THE TAX LAWS?!!!
THE BANKS!
I don't want to hear people talk about unfair tax laws and that the government, as if they are an INDEPENDENT ENTITY, are behind these tax laws.
How does a truly for the people by the people government benefit from these tax laws.
NO! In fact HELL NO!
It's the bankers/multinational corporations/ or what ever the hell name they have in vogue today that benefit.
The multinational corporations are the bankers, and the bankers and the corporations are the government. If the reader or the deluded narrator or maker of this film is confused by this then look at the bios of the government officials.
This is a piss poor doc. I will admit I learned some things but letting the bankers off of the hook and blaming the TAX CODE???! Sounds Obama like!
Its curious to me that republicans, democrats, the FED, and every other so called respectable authority agrees that its the DAMN TAX CODE!
LIKE THE TAX CODE CREATED ITSELF!
WE HAVE GOT TO WAKE UP!
Damn satan!
LONG REIGN YHWH (GOD)!!!
RULE KING CHRIST!!!
TTax the richest is resisted only by extreme conservative billionaire s.
Rich Liberal leaners agree ...they should all be taxed in all the ways
they make that wealth . Its an issue because they Do NOT pay
any tax at all...or a very tiny percent based on the rest of us.
No one can argue this anymore . Yes we need better tax laws
+ changes to all laws which unfairly benefited the most wealthy
above the rest of us .
Those arguing from the standard propaganda standpoint of "punishing successful individuals" vs. "lazy workers looking for handouts" are disingenuous at best. When individuals purposely partake in actions which artificially inflate prices by creating illusions of scarcity, and turning every common asset of humanity into a neo-liberal casino, particularly THE NECESSITIES OF LIFE -- and then shifting the resulting tax burden onto those same workers who make society function -- that is not worthy of a society pretending to based upon rational or enlightenment principles. There is this elitist idea that money is the measuring stick of contribution to society -- which is a notion opposed by virtually any serious investigation -- only existing in thought-terminating clichés promoting irrational and broken systems.
This video only introduces land value tax - the comments below arguing against it based on this video are a waste of time. Go away and do some homework.
The huge flaw in most of the tax-the-rich-so-we-pay-less-tax utopian visions like this one is that we all pay the taxes levied on the rich through higher rents and higher prices of goods. The rich derive their wealth from owning land and industry. “Tax the rich” really means “tax ourselves” because higher taxes to the rich mean higher prices for the goods and services we all buy from them.
A second severe flaw in the tax-the-rich visions is that somehow we think that the rich just sit there and take the take the tax increases like the poor and middle class do. The rich can afford to implement the type of tax planning and advice that others can’t to avoid tax. For example moving the company base of operations to a tax favored country, state, or province and expensing their lifestyle with before tax dollars through their companies rather be stuck paying for everything with after-tax dollars like all employee wage earners do.
That’s the bad news. The good news is that owning property and starting a company to enjoy those same benefits I just described is available to all at least in America where I live and I think the same is true in Australia as well.
It is very unlikely that increasing the tax on land with a flat 6% tax would decrease the cost of land by increasing the supply. Rather than building more, it’s far more likely that the price of real estate and rents would just be adjusted upwards to absorb this higher tax cost and once again passed on to the consumer in the form of higher rents and the higher cost of goods. The idea that real estate would be less expensive because it is taxed more is something only a planned economy minded government official would think is credible!
The film claims that the higher tax would somehow reduce rents by increasing the supply of available land by making the carrying cost of vacant land higher. This is incorrect because the cost of land is not the primary cost of development, building improvements on the land is far more expensive. So even a 6% increase would not influence building to a very great degree.
The premise that if all land was taxed at a flat 6% then more land would be developed rather than held for speculation would be true to a small degree. However, not to a large enough degree that so much more land would be made available that overall prices would dramatically fall for all.
TThe premise that exchanging one large property tax in exchange for several smaller payroll, sales, and other taxes would free up more money for the workers is false.
Workers would merely exchange higher rents for less taxes and be at the same point as before. A smaller portion of the hourly wage would be called “tax” but a larger portion in the same wage would be called “rent” the net to the workers hourly pay would be zero.
" The owner does not work and the value rises, even when he is asleep. " So am I to understand that any investment that grows while I sleep is unfair? Interest on the money in my bank account, my stocks, my vending machine business? How about the convenience store that I own and is open 24 hours ?
The value of my stocks rise because the community is growing and there are more people buying the products that my company sells. And my convenience store makes money when these new residents buy products. So using the logic that " land values belong to the community as they created them", should I be sharing my stock and store profits with the community ?
What about my employee at the convenience store who got a raise because we sold more products. Should he share his increased earnings with the community that created them ?
What if I buy a rental unit at the peak of the bubble and sell it at a loss ? If the community is entitled to share in the gain, will the community compensate me for my loss?
And if property developers build too many luxury apartments during a boom, why wouldn't they switch to building cheap housing during a bust?
why don't these documentary producers structure their argument better, draw cause-effect diagrams, etc.? do I need to do all the thinking myself? this only confuses the public more and leads to misdirected blaming.
they say "real estate speculators leave some of their land unused in order to create scarcity and thus increase prices" (5:00), but fail to explain that this only happens in cartel situations. In a free market, I would leave the task of "creating scarcity" to other speculators and fully utilize my land for extra profit. I do understand the brilliant "perceived scarcity"-tactic though.
around 8:00 they jump to "overproduction of luxury apartments" and "low cost of keeping a house empty" as causing high vacancy rates, too high prices, and too little supply of cheaper houses. In both cases it seems the "bad guys" are not feeling the pain, because they don't mention "opportunity costs" (the rent you could have received, or the sports car you could have bought in stead of the luxury apartment).
if i am old and cannot work any more. with what i have i will pay for food and what i need with in my means. if you tax my home there is no scape when i can not pay the tax. i will be home less. but on sales tax system i can by only berad and have a home to go to. and the rich and drug deales will pay taxes on their algator shoes and expensive cars ect..
If land ownership is taxed, what will happen to the farmers? And by extension, what will happen to food security when farming become such an unprofitable investment and way of life? Additionally, while Hong Kong and a number of other Asian countries does have property taxes and duties, it is nowhere near what is advocated by this video. In Hong Kong, tax on property rental is 15% while taxes on sales of property is between US$13 to 4.25% (maximum) of the sales value. Other Asian countries have lower tax rates for both categories while still generally maintaining very low taxes (by Western standards) on wages and businesses.
First many have to understand where the value in land comes from?
It came because of community activity - private and public. Economic growth soaks into the land and crystallizes as land values. The value never came from the sky. The value in the land is common wealth. It belongs to the community, as they created it.
Currently this common wealth is appropriated for private gain. Land Valuation Taxation reclaim this commonly created wealth to pay for common community services which we all benefit from. So, socially created wealth is socialized, for social use.
With LVT as the Single Tax, private wealth is not socialized. Private wealth stays private. Income Tax socializes private wealth.
This way productive work is not penalized and socially created wealth is RECLAIMED to pay for community services.
A spin off is that land speculation is kept in check and land prices, and hence house prices, kept low. Enterprise is encourage not land speculation. All win, win.
People, Agenda 21, it is here, it is the most un American plan you can imagine, no land ownership for individuals & when they come evict you, they aren't compensating like eminent domain, They have been working their way around the rural areas here in CA for a few years when nobody knew what was going on, they have been successfully getting people to walk away from their homes by way of code violations, when you comply they find more.
They have been really hard after land that has water rights. Watch out for the Nuisance abatement team, they will be knocking on your door if this isn't stopped and I warn you, they bring deputies along and if you aren't prepared, they do a thorough search of your property in and out. You can refuse but they aren't informing people of this, they give people the impression it's mandatory, it's up to you to know your rights!
Agenda 21 documentation is huge but it can be found on the UN website, and at your local planning dept. which is also the one who holds local meetings where people need to attend and fight this thing. Once the ball really starts rolling and all the neighborhood is talking, it will be too late.
Worst part is this is actually the final faze of a plan of doom they have been busy at for quite some time. I suggest YouTube to learn about it, it will take you years to get through the UN documentation!
If you find this comment useful, please like it Agenda 21 needs everyone's immediate attention!
Being almost resistant to the endless 2008 debacle tales; this refreshingly paced narrated documentary (Rachel Meagher) -gave me an insight into the debacle from another side, quite literally-the hemisphere down under.
No one escaped the fall out, evidently,-except for the usually suspects.
Buffalo Springfield (well known economists-???) once said albeit, in another context...
'There's something happening here
What it is ain't exactly clear'
Here, the problem and solution is clear;
Get those *******politicians (stupid or greedily bent) to put a
LAND TAX -in place!
Maybe too late for some of us, to see........but
OMG this doc is a load of kaka, we currently have land tax in Australia and it is based on the value of your properties other than your current residence. The doc states that it "could" eliminate other taxes like income and payroll tax. You are naive if you think that the government will honour that promise. The introduction of the GST was to eliminate other taxes, the only one that it did, was the sales tax, income tax or payg is here to stay as it is the most steady source of revenue, most of the other taxes are at the mercy of the economy. I know the sales of property declined as a result of the land tax. The doc stated that the income tax of the public was being used to increase the speculators profit because the negative gearing was being subsidized, this doesn't mean that they pay no tax, it means the tax they are paying is adjusted to the correct amount. I seriously could go on and on but I am sure I have bored you half to death.
Cheaper too rent for life I think.
Maybe I could buy and sell the house after it doubles in value.
If there will be a buyer dumb enough to buy something way over its actual value. Or maybe that is me now >_<...
They been saying its a good time to buy, house prices are going down. Though last year, they said its a good time to buy, house prices are going up. Whoever they are, I seriously hate them =_=...
A hypothetical thought scenario: I would like to ride my efficient all terrain scooter to grandmas house and according to both natural law and my country's constitution i can do so without interference of government however as soon as i leave my sovereign parcel (that's another fantasy all together) i encounter a road placed there by a government so with no other option to get around it i must use it at least in part however now a enforcer of government taxation and regulation detains me and requires i have a government note allowing me to operate my private means of conveyance upon the public works project or road that i could not avoid and also a note that a private firm has bonded me against harm and damage resulting from my actions while using my private means of conveyance upon the unavoidable "public" ways. i reason with this armed individual however no expression of my rights satisfies his intellect and i am fined and or detained for offending some artificial legal statute i never had opportunity to vote on or be cognizant of as it is not natural nor constitutional law which is my duty as a human being and citizen to understand.(and this detention factor really does go whatever way they feel like in reality with no standard)
My question is then WTF! are we actually free as this very scenario depicts reality and the very freedoms we treasure are the very freedoms in question here? I know this is a long winded post and a bit out of place but it is base to the issue if we wish to be honest with ourselves so reply's would be appreciated and perhaps could open a more vital discussion rather than just hypothetical banter how we should adapt to what seems to be a unjust tax to begin with.
I must be missing something. In Kansas, we have property tax and property is revalued every year. I own property in Wisconsin and every year I pay taxes on it and receive a valuation on it every year.
I thought this was the norm everywhere.
I am wondering if this documentary is targeting only Australia and California land/property tax laws.