About the Book
This book describes the critical issues facing the public in view of the rapid growth and economic impact of the sharing economy, which has resulted in internet firms, such as Airbnb and HomeAway, to rapidly become larger than major hotel chains, with company value measured in multiple billions of dollars.
As greed, many cities view the economic growth as an opportunity to tax and restrict. New city ordinances now impose severe restrictions for short-term rentals, which appear to violate the essential liberties guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. The new city laws have a major impact on the total economy, and now cause many major investors to rethink their construction investments which are necessary for full economic recovery.
Like the canary in a mine, this book gives clear early warning of the foreseeable economic disaster resulting from city greed in their search for more tax revenue. The book shows how police power used for zoning laws and local tax revenue corrupts, to the point where the new city laws appear to violate state constitutions and the U.S. Constitution.
The book includes a clear historical review of property rights, where even the king could not enter a home without the owner's permission. As a major change, recent restrictive city ordinances take away the inherent right of an owner to rent property for less than 30 days.
Some cities, such as Santa Monica, now ban most short term rentals, which results over the next decade in loss of rental income to owners of rental property in Santa Monica of $207 million, and $727 million loss to the local area. Nationwide, the economic impact of short-term rentals is on a scale similar to the federal expenditures designed to stimulate the economy.
The book explains better solutions to low-income housing, and methods which result in much higher city tax income without lodging taxes. Because tourists are price-sensitive, lodging taxes require spending of most of the lodging tax income on advertising to offset the loss of tourism resulting from the higher lodging price.
The author is a mathematical economist with a J.D. and Ph.D., who is listed in Marquis' Who Who in the World and Who's Who in America for the past three decades. The book is intriguing, and is written to be understood by persons from all walks of life. The subject is of high importance for all persons who want to keep their liberties which are guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.
About the Author :
Richard R. Sylvester, J.D., Ph.D. is a mathematical economist with specialization in valuation. He is a specialist in determining economic damages, investment risk and uncertainty, contingent liabilities, and the present value of future cash flow for property rights. He has valued information technology firms, rental properties, patents, copyrights, and music rights. He is a specialist in the use of quantitative methods for assessment of risk, including stochastic calculus, for securities valuation including the probability of a specific range of future price fluctuation for a publicly traded stock. For three decades, he has been retained by major law firms and the Board of Directors of major corporations to value corporate stock, partnership shares, and the value of patents, copyrights, and intangible assets, for firms such as Comsat and Pioneer Electronics. As an independent expert, he was selected by the Internal Revenue Service to substantiate claims of $700 million income tax underpayment by two large integrated oil companies. He has over thirty years of top-level professional experience, including the corporate staff of Fortune 500 firms, including General Motors and Hughes Aircraft. He has served on the division staff of several firms, such as Lockheed California Company, TRW Systems Group, and General Dynamics. He established the land acquisition price for major land development projects for Great Southwest Corporation. He qualified as an expert witness in Federal District Court, U.S. Federal Claims Court, and California Superior Court. For over three decades, his background has been listed in Marquis Who's Who in the World, Who's Who in America, and Who's Who in Finance and Industry (1980-2015). He won competitive academic awards from the Ford Foundation, General Motors, the U.S. Federal Government, and the Regents of the University of California (1957-70). He was a featured guest speaker at the 1980 national economic seminar, sharing the speaker's podium with former President Ford. He was a featured economist on ABC Prime Time Live, June 27, 1991, a documentary nominated for the Emmy. For three decades, he has advised the boards of major corporations and agencies of the U.S. Government regarding strategic planning and direction for advanced technology projects. For two decades, as a Lecturer or Associate Professor, he has taught economics, business law, quantitative methods, and management at UCLA, USC, Pepperdine, Loyola, University of Redlands, and California State University. His education includes the following: J.D., Loyola Law School, Dean's Honor List, Federal Tax Law, 1981. Postdoctoral Scholar, UCLA, Electronics Engineering, 1971-74. Ph.D., UCLA, Economics, Management, Marketing, Engineering, 1970. M.B.A., USC, Management, Finance, 1962. B.A., UCLA, Letters and Science, 1959.
Review :
Intriguing Important Early warning of impending changes Insightful Thoughtful Conceptually rich
