Project ideas from Hacker News discussions.

Does Georgism work? Five years later

📝 Discussion Summary (Click to expand)

Here are the four most prevalent themes from the discussion:

1. Effective political change requires doing the preparatory work for policymakers

"Doing policymaker's work for them is something like 80% of lobbying." – bombcar
"If you show up with a bill to fix one of these problems, in a scoped way — like, actual working text they can put to a vote [...] you have a decent chance of them putting it on the floor." – bpodgursky

2. LVT targets economic rent from unimproved land, correcting market inefficiencies

"Georgism is not about scarcity, it's about economic land: inputs to production which are fixed in quantity... Taxing specialized labor goes against that spirit..." – epistasis
"DO tax pollution. DO tax interest income: we don’t want people to get money for doing nothing. DO tax resource usage." – dools
"Land in a city center? Hefty taxes, identical for a parking lot and a skyscraper, because the parking lot could be a skyscraper instead." – crooked-v

3. Political feasibility is hindered by concentrated opposition and practical implementation challenges

"Full LVT never works. It always ends up shot through with exceptions and loopholes... There's zero chance such a scheme could survive intact politically." – wahern
"I find expropriation to be loathsome, and I think the movement to destroy single-family zoned neighborhoods is a species of evil that borders on satanic." – noduerme
"The turnout for comment at those things is almost never representative of the area's median sentiment. 'No' turns out for everything; 'yes' rarely does." – tptacek

4. Debate over whether LVT costs can be passed to tenants versus capturing land value

"What prevents the landlord rent seekers from just charging more rent? Wont they all uniformly raise rent, because they are all uniformly having their taxes increased?" – Buttons840
"Landlords tend to raise rent to the maximum value they can. If they could raise rents, why haven't they already?" – epistasis (countering)
"The LVT shifts tax burden away from homes and businesses and towards empty lots and parking lots." – epistasis


🚀 Project Ideas

Policy Draft Assistant

Summary

  • Guided wizard that helps citizens turn policy ideas into concrete, ready-to‑submit legislative drafts (e.g., zoning reforms, licensing changes).
  • Provides templates, clause suggestions, and automatic formatting to reduce the barrier of “doing the work for them.”

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Citizen activists, neighborhood groups, local advocacy organizations
Core Feature Step‑by‑step bill drafting with issue‑specific templates, real‑time clause suggestions, and export to PDF/HTML
Tech Stack React frontend, Node.js/Express backend, PostgreSQL, optional LLM integration for clause suggestions
Difficulty Medium
Monetization Revenue-ready: Subscription tier ($10/mo per team) with free basic tier

Notes

  • HN commenters stressed that showing up with a finished bill dramatically increases chances of being heard (bpodgursky, john01dav).
  • Enables low‑effort, high‑impact participation in local politics, turning frustration into actionable proposals.

Local Impact Tracker

Summary

  • Aggregates municipal meeting agendas, minutes, and pending bills, sending keyword‑based alerts when topics of interest arise.
  • Helps citizens stay informed and show up with the necessary support or opposition.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Engaged residents, homeowner associations, issue‑based coalitions
Core Feature Unified feed of local government documents, customizable alerts, and one‑click RSVP/show‑support buttons
Tech Stack Python scraper stack (Scrapy/BeautifulSoup), PostgreSQL, Redis for caching, React frontend
Difficulty Medium
Monetization Hobby

Notes

  • Commenters noted that most political change requires “showing up” and being taken seriously; this tool reduces the information gap (tptacek, john01dav).
  • Facilitates the “succeed anywhere” strategy by making local proceedings visible and actionable.

Land Value Calculator

Summary

  • Interactive map‑based tool that estimates the land value tax (LVT) burden for any parcel, comparing it to current property tax and modeling impacts of different rates.
  • Empowers homeowners and policymakers to evaluate LVT proposals with concrete numbers.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Homeowners, urban planners, researchers, LVT advocates
Core Feature Parcel‑level LVT estimation using public assessment/sales data, scenario sliders, and visual impact maps
Tech Stack Mapbox GL/Leaflet, Django/PostGIS backend, Python data pipelines, React UI
Difficulty High
Monetization Revenue-ready: Pay‑per‑report ($5) or API access tiers for developers

Notes

  • Discussion highlighted confusion about LVT effects on homeowners and the need for clear, localized analysis (aidenn0, noduerme).
  • Provides the “work done” that legislators need to see concrete outcomes before acting on tax reform ideas.

Coalition Builder

Summary

  • Platform that matches activists with like‑minded neighbors, facilitates petition creation, tracks signatures, and schedules meetings with local officials.
  • Streamlines grassroots organizing to overcome the collective‑action problem of diffuse costs.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Grassroots organizers, issue‑based campaigns, neighborhood associations
Core Feature Location‑based matchmaking, petition hosting with verification, outreach automation (email/SMS), meeting scheduler with officials
Tech Stack Firebase/Auth, Firestore, React Native (or React Web), Twilio for SMS
Difficulty Medium
Monetization Revenue-ready: Platform fee (2‑3%) on donations processed through the tool

Notes- Several users lamented the difficulty of mobilizing enough people to counter concentrated interests (john01dav, bpodgursky).

  • By lowering the coordination cost, the tool directly addresses the “show up with a huge number of people” barrier mentioned in the thread.

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