<instructions>Your goal is to analyze the following comment and estimate how highly it will be upvoted by the Hacker News community.</instructions><comment><author>seanp2k2</author><text>Prop 13 also has the great benefit of keeping anyone new out of the neighborhood, as they’ll be paying potentially an order of magnitude higher tax on the same property. Meanwhile, folks living on the edge of poverty already can stay in their 7-figure homes, unable to afford anything locally as everything else has moved on price-wise, so we get underfunded schools surrounded by de-facto millionaires. Businesses benefit even more, just look up what Disney’s Prop13 benefits are like. This is a great idea too, as it ensures that land owners who have owned in a place for decades are untouchable in terms of investment performance due to the massive tax benefit, so they can charge market-rate rent while paying a small fraction of the tax that anyone else trying to do the same today would. &amp;#x2F;s</text><parent_chain><item><author>IG_Semmelweiss</author><text>Prop 13 was a direct result of a California court decision.&lt;p&gt;I forget the 1960s case, but the gist of it was it instituted equalization in school budgets out from property taxes in the name of equity.&lt;p&gt;In other words, high property taxes in 1 town were forced to be transfered to the neighboring town with a lower budget, so much so that the transfer had to be make payments by pupil within a $100 band.&lt;p&gt;That was instituted blind to school performance of course.&lt;p&gt;This actually took hold in many states not just California, however CA was the o ly one that forced transfer payments within a $100 band. There are different flavors of this all accross the country&lt;p&gt;Of course, homeowners are not idiots. They dont want their tax dollars wasted.  So soon after this case forced these transfer payments, there was a swell of home owners pushing for prop 13.&lt;p&gt;Makes sense. Local taxes to local benefit.  If my taxes are going elsewhere, why should i pay more?&lt;p&gt;And so here we are. Almost 50 years later. 
Prop 13 is here to stay and is the only restraint that communities have against out of control state spending.</text></item><item><author>geocon</author><text>Behold the rise of neofeudalism: you can already see it in California, thanks to Prop 13.&lt;p&gt;Land value tax would fix this.</text></item><item><author>wolverine876</author><text>The megalandords are potentially a serious threat to democracy.&lt;p&gt;Property rights are, to many theorists, the foundation of liberty. The widespread ownership of property is arguably the foundation of democracy. Owning your home gives you rights and independence; your home is your castle. The landlord&amp;#x27;s home is their castle.&lt;p&gt;Now we are concentrating wealth and property back into the hands of a few, a corporate aristocracy. You can use property at their pleasure. What happens if you want to do something politically unpopular? Put a sign in your yard? Work someplace or say something on social media? What if you have a dispute with this landlord - can you compete in court with their lawyers? where else will you live? Will other megalandlords accept you?&lt;p&gt;They also will have enormous influence in local communities. Property owners, not renters, are the influential people in any community. These new megalandlords will concentrate that power in a large corporation which has enormous resources. Local government will not be able to compete.&lt;p&gt;How does this arrangement differ from feudalism, with the wealthy controlling the land and the rest reduced to renting it. Well past feudalism, the concentration of property ownership has been a serious obstacle to democracy in many countries trying to make that transition. Now we are going backward.&lt;p&gt;Do you think these wealthy, powerful people, who pride themselves on their naked aggression and disregard of others&amp;#x27; welfare, who have a long history of buying government, will not use this power?&lt;p&gt;A crucial question is, is this part of the deliberate attack on democracy by the (unnamed) coalition of wealthy and corporations, or truly just an investment? Regardless, the power will be there for that coalition to utilize.</text></item></parent_chain></comment><story><title>JPMorgan to spend $1B on rental homes in the US to become a megalandlord</title><url>https://www.businessinsider.com/jp-morgan-to-acquire-1-billion-of-single-family-rentals-2022-11</url></story>
<instructions>Your goal is to analyze the following comment and estimate how highly it will be upvoted by the Hacker News community.</instructions><comment><author>istjohn</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s truly incredible the mountains that are moved in politics to ensure poor families attend inferior public schools since Brown v. Board.</text><parent_chain><item><author>IG_Semmelweiss</author><text>Prop 13 was a direct result of a California court decision.&lt;p&gt;I forget the 1960s case, but the gist of it was it instituted equalization in school budgets out from property taxes in the name of equity.&lt;p&gt;In other words, high property taxes in 1 town were forced to be transfered to the neighboring town with a lower budget, so much so that the transfer had to be make payments by pupil within a $100 band.&lt;p&gt;That was instituted blind to school performance of course.&lt;p&gt;This actually took hold in many states not just California, however CA was the o ly one that forced transfer payments within a $100 band. There are different flavors of this all accross the country&lt;p&gt;Of course, homeowners are not idiots. They dont want their tax dollars wasted.  So soon after this case forced these transfer payments, there was a swell of home owners pushing for prop 13.&lt;p&gt;Makes sense. Local taxes to local benefit.  If my taxes are going elsewhere, why should i pay more?&lt;p&gt;And so here we are. Almost 50 years later. 
Prop 13 is here to stay and is the only restraint that communities have against out of control state spending.</text></item><item><author>geocon</author><text>Behold the rise of neofeudalism: you can already see it in California, thanks to Prop 13.&lt;p&gt;Land value tax would fix this.</text></item><item><author>wolverine876</author><text>The megalandords are potentially a serious threat to democracy.&lt;p&gt;Property rights are, to many theorists, the foundation of liberty. The widespread ownership of property is arguably the foundation of democracy. Owning your home gives you rights and independence; your home is your castle. The landlord&amp;#x27;s home is their castle.&lt;p&gt;Now we are concentrating wealth and property back into the hands of a few, a corporate aristocracy. You can use property at their pleasure. What happens if you want to do something politically unpopular? Put a sign in your yard? Work someplace or say something on social media? What if you have a dispute with this landlord - can you compete in court with their lawyers? where else will you live? Will other megalandlords accept you?&lt;p&gt;They also will have enormous influence in local communities. Property owners, not renters, are the influential people in any community. These new megalandlords will concentrate that power in a large corporation which has enormous resources. Local government will not be able to compete.&lt;p&gt;How does this arrangement differ from feudalism, with the wealthy controlling the land and the rest reduced to renting it. Well past feudalism, the concentration of property ownership has been a serious obstacle to democracy in many countries trying to make that transition. Now we are going backward.&lt;p&gt;Do you think these wealthy, powerful people, who pride themselves on their naked aggression and disregard of others&amp;#x27; welfare, who have a long history of buying government, will not use this power?&lt;p&gt;A crucial question is, is this part of the deliberate attack on democracy by the (unnamed) coalition of wealthy and corporations, or truly just an investment? Regardless, the power will be there for that coalition to utilize.</text></item></parent_chain></comment><story><title>JPMorgan to spend $1B on rental homes in the US to become a megalandlord</title><url>https://www.businessinsider.com/jp-morgan-to-acquire-1-billion-of-single-family-rentals-2022-11</url></story>