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From Capital and Ideology

US property tax and the French real estate tax neither of which has been comprehensively reformed since the 18 century…remain today as egregiously regressive taxes which simply take no account of financial assets and liabilities. Assume for instance that the property tax or the real estate tax due for a house for $300,000 is $3000 that is one percent of the value of the property. Consider now a person who owns this house but with a mortgage of $270,000 so that his or her net worth is only $30,000 for her the tax payment will be 10% of her net wealth $3000 divided by $30,000

Imagine knows someone who owns the stock portfolio worth $2.7 million together with the same house and no mortgage so that his net worth is $3 million. With the property tax system currently applied in the United States or the land tax system…this person would still pay the same tax $3000 although this makes only 0.1% of his net worth $3000 divided by $3 million such a regressive tax system is hard to justify and contributes to undermining fiscal consent and making economic justice seem impossible