Los Angeles passed a tax on mansion sales to fund government programs for the homeless. Sounds simple, right? Take from the rich, who can afford the tax, and give to the poor, who need the assistance.

Well, the implementation of the tax is going poorly, for reasons that should have been obvious.

[Devotees of central control never pay attention to the perverse incentives they create. As a result, their policies routinely fail, and usually spectacularly. F.A. Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom makes this point and its consequences plain, and every such attempt only validates his point further. Utopianism is a terrible basis for governance, especially economically. — Ed]