https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext....

The agencies were democratically put in place for a reason. Removing them with no public discussion of the original reasoning is deeply undemocratic. At the very least, someone thought that the cost of having them in place was less than the cost to society of not having them there. Has that changed?

Properties are made up of a building and a plot of land that it's attached to. Whilst we can nake more buildings, we can't make more land, so the land in a given location is by definition going to be in a permanent state of shortage. If more poeple want to live in that location OR (the main driver of this crisis) if more money is chasing the same fixed supply, then the prices rise. The land component is the part that has become more expensive recently, not the buildings.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iridium_satellite_constellatio...

Land value is therefore a really weird part of the economy that allows people to charge money without doing any work or providing any value in return. If we confiscate all the money people charge to rent or buy land, nothing changes because no work was ever happening. The land is still there and still just as useful. Contrast that with anything where work is actually done - the industry would collapse if you confiscate the money. Taxing land value therefore allows the government to reclaim the money which those people should not be able to charge in the first place (if there was free market competition). When this happens, counter-intuitively, land prices do not rise (because the highest bid in the auction doesn't change) and there is no negative affect on production or jobs (because no one is employed to manufacture or maintain land). We know this because economic theory predicts it and various countries have already tried it. Instead, other taxes can be cut or eliminated due to the enourmous boost in government income, which has very positive effects on the rest of the economy. Understanding how this works is deeply counter-intuitive and so people usually think that a shortage of buildings is driving property/land values because it's easy to make sense of.

To directly answer your question: if you tax the land value as set by the current market, you don't have to worry about assessing other factors that SHOULD lead to higher taxes because the people trying to buy the land have already done that. That's why they are offering a higher price. It's simple and therefore cheap and easy to administer. Also essentially immune to tax dodging because you can't hide the asset.

I initally had the assumption (no idea why) that I was supposed to spend most of my time standing if I had a standing desk. Initially I thought standing desks were not for me because I'd start to feel tired after 20-30 minutes. I've now learned that a far more effective approach for back pain and general good posture is to vary your position every 20-30 mins. i.e. got from standing to sitting, or sitting to kneeling (if your setup supports it). The more viable postures you can use, the better.

To enable this, I have invested in an Hag Capisco chair, which supports multiple postures: https://store.flokk.com/uk/en-gb/products/hag-capisco Again, I initially thought it wasn't for me until I realised how it was meant to be used. The intention is to mostly sit on it with the small of your back unsupported, like you're on a stool, but with the option to relax and lean back when you get tired. I now spend very little time in the traditional sitting posture and change regulary to sitting sideways, backwards, or even kneeling on the chair. It's not for everyone but it's made a huge positive difference for me. Places that sell these will often let you try them or hire them for a few weeks to see if you like them. I'd strongly recommend having a go.

Additionally as others have mentioned, having a standing mat is a big help. I used to find that the soles of my feet would become uncofortable quite quickly. The solution I am using now is an Aeris Muvmat https://en.aeris.de/products/aeris-muvmat-schwarz-ohne-bezug which appears to be flat, but actually has irregular hard lumps under the surface. It's designed to mimic the feeling of tree roots on a forest floor. It encourages you to keep moving your feet around without you really relaising you're doing it, effectively massaging your feet slowly, so the circulation keeps going and the soles of your feet don't get tired. Thsi has been really effective for me, so highly recommended.

This. So many times over. Everything else can be done later or slowly. Don't miss the good bits!

If I spend less overall by renting, I don't care because I can't pass the property as an inheritance to my kids. If I buy, they get a house for free when I pass on.

Also, if I rent, I have to continue to pay the same (high) rents through retirement where my income will likely drop drastically once I stop full time work. The aim of buying is to be mortgage-free when you retire so your pension gives you a decent quality of life.

I am currently working as a contractor and the interllectual property assignment clause mentions "materials created pursuant to this agreement", but nothing further than that.

If they push back, point out that such clauses are illegal in California and it doesn't seem to have held back the companises in silicon valley too much. You always have the option to walk away if they won't agree.

This is also a very strong claim that is lacking a source :)

I moved from teaching to coding by first working on open source teaching software in my spare time, then using it as part of my teaching work, then getting a junior coding job at a university. I was a better teacher because of the software I was making, and I was a more attractive junior hire due to my domain knowledge.

Code at home --> Use project at old job --> Use domain knowledge plus project to land first coding job --> Coding career :)

Which brings to mind another of his tricks: He set up a lunch voucher trading scheme for all of the other restaurants in the little downtown area where he was based. He got to eat anywhere he liked every lunch time.

One of his employment perks was getting a free lunch from his restaurant every day. He soon got bored of it, so he designed and printed some home made lunch vouchers with his name on, and arranged for the front of house staff to accept them in lieu of payment. The understanding was that there would be no more than one per day for the days he didn't eat there. Then he went to all of the other restaurants and told their front of house staff that they could swap their own free lunches for his by letting him eat there in exchange for his vouchers. They could then eat at his restaurant for free on one of the next few days.

That was 10 years ago and I've never since met anyone with a better hustle than that guy.

He'd search for reasonably high value items that had been listed with spelling mistakes in the name so that they didn't show up in searches, or showed up too far down the results to be noticed. He'd then buy them and immediately on winning the auction, re-list the same item but without the spelling mistakes.

His secret trick was using a copy/paste of the text and images from the historically highest priced listing that had sold for that same item, which ebay made it easy to search for. By the time it arrived in the post, he'd already sold it on at a higher price to someone else. He just relabelled the packages, sent them on and pocketed the difference.