The fomented mass hysteria over WuFlu has cost us more – in terms of basic liberties – than the German Nazis and Soviet Russians ever managed to, combined – over the course of a World War and a Cold War that, together, spanned more than half a century. It has also cost us more in money – including the double-tax of being forced to hand over money for “the schools” and then forced to use our home as a school – without so much as a pro rata discount on the taxes we’re still forced to pay for “the schools” we aren’t allowed to use.
A reader sends in the following:
Lately, I’m concerned that our property rights are being infringed upon by educators restricting areas inside homes to do their “educating. Some require exclusion of some or all other activities that can take place in the space. If my child is educated in a room of my house that I can’t use during some hours, then the school system needs to cut me a check for using my real estate. There seems to be no end to how much of the “village” we have to let into our homes because of WuFlu. It is creepy that my home would become a digital playground for leftist-educators to inventory, monitor, make adjustments to and virtually own it for themselves during these sessions. If the state wants to rent space in my house to indoctrinate my child, then I certainly want to pay less in taxes or have some other kind of representation or consideration.
Indeed. And of a piece with being mulcted to pay for the retirement of people you never met at the cost of your own retirement security and then mulcted again on the meager pittance remitted when – if – you ever manage to retire yourself.
It brings to mind the dictum, which many people forget, that there is no free lunch.
In fact, you generally pay more for the “free” lunch than you would have had you bought your own lunch in the first place. This is so because you decide how much you’re going to pay for the “lunch” – whether it takes the form of food or the education of your child or the provisioning for your own retirement.
You are the arbiter of your needs. Not a random stranger, who cannot know them and who will inevitably put his own need – for power, acquired by keeping himself in a position to arbitrate your needs – ahead of your actual needs.
Thus, the arbiters who control the “school” – really, more of a government-controlled warehouse for the socialization of children according to the interests of the government – can close it at their whim while also forcing you to pay for its continued existence, as well as the salaries of the personnel therein. While also requiring that you use your own home as a “school” – not only without compensation but with a taking – a legal term that refers to the deprivation of property without compensation for some use by the government.
And – as you note – it is more than merely that.
Not only are you required to devote a portion of the floor space of what you thought was your home to the service of the government, which no longer provides the “service” it forces you to pay for, thereby robbing you not only of money but also the use of your own property – the one you’re serially and perpetually forced to pay rent to the government on via “real estate” taxes in order to avoid being evicted from the home you thought you owned – your home has now become a kind of branch office of that same government.
It decrees how it must be furnished and enumerates how it must be used, including who may be present and for how long. It even insists that cameras and microphones be installed so that its minions can monitor compliance with its terms and conditions, eliminating what was perhaps the very last bastion of privacy left to human beings in this country – a man’s home is now the government’s castle.
If a minion doesn’t like what it sees, this can trigger minions entering what you thought was your home, pretty much anytime they like. Their ululation will be, “the children!” Which you also perhaps quaintly considered yours.
Incidentally, this same ululation will be deployed upon people who already home-schooled, by choice. There will be no exception granted them from real-time observation by the minions, to assure all is going as the government likes as regards its kids.
But this development is natural – inevitable. It flows from the long-ago-accepted obscenity that Americans do not own their homes because the government is the landlord of all American homes, its ownership expressed plainly by the fact that the homeowner must pay the government a regular sum – rent, by any definition though it is re-branded (like Social Security “contributions”) as “property taxes.” Call it what you like. If you are compelled to pay a sum of money in order to avoid being evicted then you are a renter, no matter that you paid off the mortgage.
Renters do not have property rights.
They occupy a dwelling temporarily, at the pleasure of the landlord – who decrees the terms and conditions of occupancy. This is the hard fact of home-not-ownership in the United States.
And it is the mechanism by which parents – and people who aren’t even parents – have been forced to finance “the schools” over which they have no control.
When you have no control, you can be forced not only to keep on paying for what you do not use but also forced to pay in other ways, as by opening your home life to that same government and accepting its further assertion of ownership over what you perhaps thought was your home and your life – as well as your kids – these mental defense mechanisms being necessary delusions (else you might decide to stop working – and paying).
The solution is obvious – and perhaps Americans will come to see it:
Pay for your own lunch.
You’d be surprised what a bargain it is.
. . .
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“Pay for your own lunch.”
Except that it’s much easier to be a leech than to be self-sufficient. CON-venience is always favored over freedom.
Well – here in the UK the gov basically thinks they own your kids. I booked my tickets back to the UK late because I found it quite refreshing being in a country where they don’t buy the covid con and people are free to live life as they wish, so wanted to prolong it a bit. But when I got back, I get threatened with fines as I took them out of school during term time – because the gov cares more for my kids than I do, and them not receiving the state mandated propaganda for their age is of great detriment to their development as humans (or sheep)…..
Hi Nasir,
I feel for you, amigo – and everyone who has kids who is dealing with this. In a sad kind of way, I am glad I don’t have kids for this reason. I think I’d be in prison now – or they would be. Because I would never allow them to be Diapered and terrified by these sons-of-bitches into neurotic wrecks.
You should be glad you don’t. It’s a lot like driving uphill with the emergency brake on. I’m not talking about kids being a pain in the ass, which they are, but every tie you have to devote a millisecond of your thought process that you know is right, because of having a kid is a slight impediment. I think that’s something the “system” counts on.
My property taxes are fairly low, although the populace never met a “for the children” ballot initiative they didn’t like, so I’m guessing over the next few years the property taxes will fall into line with the national averages. But even if they were much higher, Colorado public schools will still be underfunded. Why? Because the largest landholder in the state is the Federal Government, and I’ll bet the state government is second on the list. In many counties Uncle owns more than half the land. So the amount of taxable land is extremely limited to begin with. The eastern prairies are pretty much all farmland (or owned by Uncle), so they aren’t going to be taxed either.
If they want to raise revenue (keeping the current taxation model), let people homestead the open ranges and forest service land. Otherwise shut the hell up about your underfunded schools.
We made the choice to homeschool our children 20 years ago, and none of our 7 children have ever attended public (government) school. 3 of them have graduated from homeschool, and are hard-working productive young adults, while the other 4 continue to work at their studies. Fortunately we live in a state that allows the parents to choose the curriculum, length/location of “class” time, etc. We simply have to keep records to prove the mandatory 180 days of instruction.
That being said – we still have paid twice for our children’s education. Once for the actual books, software, hardware, and other supplies needed to actually perform the education, and then again by force in property taxes to pay for the government schools.
The government education system is broken, it’s a losing proposition that produces abysmal results for the amount of money spent. I wish more parents would opt-out of the “free” government educational system so that it would collapse under it’s own inadequacies and failures.
BTW – our decision to homeschool was VERY unpopular in our extended family; having 2 parents and a sister who are/were lifelong public school teachers. 🙂
As the old sayings go “nothing is more expensive than free, and nothing is more permanent than a temporary situation.
All this “remote learning” is no more than a way to further monitor the activities happening in the home’s of students.
Don’t think for a minute that they can’t hear, see and record anything they like at any time through your computer or even smart devices. Look for more in home CPS (communist protections services) “interventions” in the near future.
Home school. We did. Almost everybody spiraled and they were all 100% WRONG about the outcomes. Your children are yours, period the end.
Remember most teachers graduate at the bottom 10% of their class. These are largely the most incompetent group in society with a few exceptions.
The monetary loss of paying for homeschool curriculum AND property tax is nothing compared to what we gained by educating our own children.
We are also veteran homeschoolers – although by no means would I say experts :). This is our 10th year. Our daughter graduated this spring and is now in college – another oxymoron, as she is mostly confined to her dorm and doing online classes, all for the same tuition rate as if it was “normal” college. (The PTB did deign to waive the online class surcharges, however….)
But I digress. Good on you for homeschooling. Monetarily it is a rip-off to be forced to pay for schools we don’t use, but so do retirees, childless, singles, etc. Perhaps it should be a pay as you go system, but of course, the bureaucracy would then collapse. Pity. Besides, I always thought the lottery paid for our educational system…
It would be nice to receive an offset for our expenses. But as SS astutely notes, the benefits far outweigh the monetary costs. It is a worthy investment. I wouldn’t change a thing, except to perhaps have started homeschooling even earlier.
Bless you. What’s right is right, no matter who within or outside of your social circle thinks.
What is the next level of this evil takeover of our homes; public housing. Since the government is the landlord they can raise the rent at will. The government has decided to make provisions for another group of people have become a reliable voting block in it’s interest; the half legal alien. As Plugs stated in the debate, he will provide amnesty to 11 million illegal aliens. They are the new democratic voters. The working class has become an unreliable voting block and can’t be trusted any longer. Since these new half citizens will need housing why not take back what the government owns and get the current renters out and provide housing to their new voter group. Cheaper than building soviet style concrete mid rises using Davis-Bacon labor rate construction workers. Coming to a soviet-america soon….
Hi Hans,
This is what they did after the revolution in Soviet Russia; homeowners were dispossessed – or forced to”share” their homes with the “needy.”
I expect the same to be attempted here.
We’re all Kulaks now!
Hi Eric,
I’ve always remembered that scene in the movie “Dr. Zhivago” where the title character (played by Omar Sharif) returns to his family home and finds it infested with “comrades” who were assigned there by the local commissar. Too much space for one family per the commies, how selfish of him to not share it. Looks like that’s what’s planned for us in the devolution of the USSA.
P.S. I saw “Dr.Zhivago” in the theater when it first came out and haven’t seen it since; think it’s time to rent the video and watch it again. Hopefully it will be available at the library.
Hi Mike,
I’m hoping, of course, that it doesn’t come to that. If it does, I’ll burn my place to cinders before I turn it over to the “comrades.”
And all the liberal SJW fucktards will scream bloody murder if they hear about a home-not-owner refusing to relinquish their 3,500 sq-ft abode to some sleazy ex-con, who thinks they’re too good for “Section 8” housing.
The responsibility to educate the children is that of the parents. Not anyone else. In Texas 75% of our property tax went to support the school district. Suffice it to say it was a large amount of money. We are childless. Things are better in Arizona. We live in a high end 55 and older golf community that is exempt of government school tax burden. However a percentage of our property tax goes to support the local community college. WTFO? I am sick of it. The lockdown if it does nothing else brings to light the unnecessary government schools and their incompetence. If you have children you should pay to educate them. Not everyone else.
Hi JMDGT,
I share your view that the parents of children are the ones who ought to pay for their education – and also be the ones who control it. This latter point is often lost on those who demand that the general population – including those who are not parents – be compelled to finance government schools. Morally, the people who make children are responsible for them. While I am sympathetic to children’s needs and inclined to help when I am able and feel it is deserved, I reject the notion that I owe a cent to anyone just because they exist – whether child or adult. Just as I accept that the fact I exist – and have “needs” – does not impose any enforceable obligation on them to provide what I “need.”
ERIC PETERS 2024!
Oh god, Mark – no!
Me in office would be like Elvis in an old age home…
Most assuredly agreed. Having been a tenured teacher, the education public school provides is less than 3td world basic training. If we don’t educate our kids above what public school “provides”, they’ll always react to a debate of any sort with their mouths hanging open with drool.
Well, we have all heard the stories of offended teachers and administrators seeing guns and Trump 2020 posters other offensive things in the backgrounds of our homes. So sick of the “offended”.
If anything those things NEED to be displayed to our “public servants”.
I’m so sick, triggered if you will, with their adjective complaints. Nothing is ever “incorrect” or “wrong,” to them it’s always:
Unacceptable!
Irresponsible!
Dangerous!
Disgusting!
Offensive!
Uncalled for!
On and on
For sure. The Principal of my kids’ school couldn’t handle a parent because he refused to “get back in (my) car and put on a mask” with a finger pointed in my face. Now I’m banned from the property, which is hilarious to me. And all because the halfwits who have already been paid think they can tell us anything.
Don’t these useful idiots work for us? Maybe I’m mistaken, but I don’t think so.
I do agree with your thoughts on the government leasing my home back to me, the same with my cars. I abhor it, but thankfully in my county, taxes are pretty cheap. I lie to myself and believe mine are going to the library, the volunteer rescue squad, or the fire department. It helps me sleep better at night.
In regards to education our children do not have to attend public schools. We do have school choice and we can take choose to educate our children however we want. As everyone knows my children are homeschooled and have never set foot in a public school. I teach them what I feel they need to learn. I am also a business owner, too. I work on average 40 hours a week and sometimes up to 80 hours. Working parents can homeschool, send our children to a private school or charter school, or a public school. That decision is made by us for what is best for our children. The schools can only intervene in the indoctrination of our offspring if we let them.
Here’s some irony for ya’.
My daughter and son-in-law have three sons, 7,5&2. She is homeschooling the two oldest and will the youngest in time. He took a job a couple years ago with the local skuul system as an HVAC tech.
But wait, there’s more!
Last April the schools shut down and he had to stay home…with full pay. Thankfully he got to go back to work in May on a shortened schedule, while getting Pay and a Half due to the “hazards” of the WuFlu.
Education is merely the transmission of information from one to another. With a smartphone you can have access to the entire stock of human knowledge in your pocket. With all the industries restructured or destroyed by the internet the “Public Schools” have been totally unaffected by this phenomenon while they, of all people, should be the most impacted.
The good news is, it will implode under the weight of its own contradictions.
Just don’t count on that smartphone. Networks are the product of an advanced civilization, which is pretty much vanished from this globe. Barbarians in places high have pretty much commandeered all means of communication. Those who believe in their own superiority and right to rule others have finally recovered all the ground they lost to Jesus, Gutenberg, and the barons of Runnymede. A truly dark age is coming.
I understand. My point is with all the industries that have had to restructure, innovate or die, GovCo skoolz have been totally unaffected by this transition. For nearly a quarter century there has been a declining need for these Byzantine Bureaucratic Monstrosities yet they just keep on truckin’.
A number of years ago an “educator” said to me that children needed computers to learn. I asked her if that’s so, how did the computer get invented? Talk about a deer in the headlights look…classic.
Some youngsters I know are amused by my personal library. Why I’d want all those paper books is beyond them when everything’s on the interwebs (true, as far as that goes). On one sail far from the reach of 4G signals I asked them a couple of technical questions. No signals, no answers.
Then I reached into my ditty bag and pulled out a reference book, pencil, and notepad. I think I made my point.
There is only one valid secular law, thou shalt not steal, whether that theft be of property, well being, or life. All other “laws” are tyranny. Rather than enforce that law, our current Psychopaths In Charge are the by far biggest perpetrators of the crime. Not satisfied with stealing our current wealth, they have stolen the wealth of generations unborn. Hence public education, to get those generations on board with the theft. My grandchildren have been home schooled for several years. It’s truly heartwarming to converse with a ten year old AnCap libertarian. Any attempt to kidnap them will be met with lethal force. We may not survive that encounter, but that would be preferable to living in those chains.
‘Arbiters who control the “school” can close it at their whim while also forcing you to pay for its continued existence.’
An ugly example of this phenomenon is on the ballot as Prop 208 in Arizona. It would apply an eye-popping 3.5% income tax surcharge on incomes over $250,000 (single) / $500,000 (married), and earmark ALL of it to school funding.
If passed, Prop 208 will turn Arizona into the “New York of the Southwest,” with an 8.0 percent top marginal income tax rate. New York State’s top rate is 8.82%, but it only applies to incomes over $1 million.
Drastically hiking taxes in a recession is a first-class terrible idea. Worse, though, is earmarking all the new loot for schools. This destroys the state’s ability to replenish exhausted unemployment insurance reserves and other recession-stressed state budget items from the shrunken tax take that’s left over, after schools rudely elbow and shove their way to the front row of the feeding trough.
Sadly and horribly, polls suggest that Prop 208 is likely to pass, forever changing Arizona. The National Education Association and Stand With Children contributed several million dollars each to foment this appalling tax grab, having cleverly used polling to determine that taxing the [not really] rich appealed to voters’ festering class envy.
BEWARE: Stand With Children (stand.org) has affiliates in the red states of Indiana, Louisiana, Tennessee and Texas, as well as the no-income tax blue state of Washington. They’re next in line to be californicated, using the Prop 208 model from Arizona.
I’m in AZ. It’s not the place I grew up. Tons more trash wafted in from all over the country. Fashion Square mall is Idiocracy on parade on the weekend.
And yeah, most people won’t even come close to sniffing a million a year in their lifetime (mostly because they’re lazy pieces of shit), so they’ll use that frustration to PUNISH those who do.
Schools never have enough money. Each Monday The Aspen Times publishes the “What’s the big deal,” a story featuring a real estate transaction of note. For example, this gem:
https://www.aspentimes.com/news/whats-the-big-deal-eisners-pay-19m-for-ziegler-ranch/
“What’s the Big Deal?” runs Mondays and is based on the week’s most expensive property transaction recorded in the Pitkin County Clerk & Recorder’s Office.
Price: $19 million
Date recorded: Sept. 2
Address: 2308 Ziegler Divide Way, Snowmass
Buyer: Jane and Michael Eisner, trustees, Nore Trust
Seller: Ziegler Pitkin County Colorado Property
Property type: Residential
Total heated area: Three homes — 1,472 square feet, 2,837 square feet and 3,210 square feet — came with the property
Year built: 1972-85
Lot size: 158 acres
Assessor’s office actual value: $10 million
Assessor’s office assessed value: $717,550
Property tax bill: $32,169
Note Mr Eisner’s tax bill. But more importantly, with that much cash from just one property you’d think the teachers in Aspen would be well-paid. They probably are, but along with the big real estate deals comes stories about the infighting over “affordable housing,” because it is so difficult for working class people to live in Aspen. Working class people include city workers, teachers, nurses and first responders. The above mentioned get preferential treatment in the affordable housing lotteries, crowding out the real working class people who have to drive hours every day. How much is enough? We don’t know, but you can bet it’s always going to be more than you’re paying now.
Just wait until the assessed value is re-valued closer to or at the sale price.
This rings incredibly true for me. I’m a former teacher. Now I’m conscripted into doing most of the schools job for no pay.
Education is nothing more than an indoctrination experiment- when I taught, I got in hot water because I taught actual history, not “social studies”.
Now I’m thrust, against my will, back into teaching. I have to sit and watch people who are making a very respectable salary in their jammies give “gym” lessons. Art and music teachers sit in a room by themselves with masks on(!) and nobody in their classroom.
They make my kid walk around in the hallway on the 2 days a week he actually attends school, with his arms out to social distance. This all feels like preparation for marching lockstep with whatever nonsense they come up with in the future and it looks plain out of place and more (mentally) sick than the purveyors of WuFlu and weaponized hypochondria.
The main teacher is an older woman, in her last year of teaching before she retires on my dime. And I’m doing most of her job. For no money. And she’s inept in terms of technology, never realizing that half of the “tech issues” are parents just doing the work and shutting off her halfass “lessons”.
She doesn’t even sit down with a calculator to figure out grades, she just pushes a button, thanks to Goo-Ghoul (seasonally appropriate) Classroom.
Even contacting the principal of the school is no help. It’s “out of their hands”.
Well, if Trump gets back in and does something about school choice, I’ll be happy for remuneration for my services. I’m not going to hold my breath no matter who is in office (Biden being the worst of the choices).
One thing I will not abide is what I have in the background of these “lessons”. I put up anything I want, I eat while “in class” and anyone who doesn’t like it is in for a fight and a fuck you. It’s all I can do, but I will stand my ground.
You’re on point as usual, Eric. This bullshit is grating on me and many other parents. Where the hell is my compensation for doing the job of the school?
Amen, James –
Channeling the evil emperor from Star Wars: I can feel your anger. And mine. And many other people’s. Who are very sick of all this sickness. And very close to having had their fill of it. I feel terrible for parents – and kids – especially. I cannot begin to image what it must be like to submit one’s child to this sort of treatment, else be threatened with the confiscation of said kid by the state.
If we’re not ready to fight now, the fight may already have been lost.
Speaking of “confiscation of said kid by the state,” the State University of New York is requiring ALL students to test negative for COVID before returning home for Thanksgiving! Those who test positive will be “quarantined” — presumably on campus???
Where in hell does a college get the authority to restrict travel and effectively incarcerate students?? There seems to be zero outcry over this:
https://nypost.com/2020/10/27/suny-students-must-test-negative-for-covid-19-to-go-home-for-thanksgiving/
Isn’t that false imprisonment? Oh, it’s in New York, one of the real slave states.
What happens if the kid just heads home for the holiday? What are they going to? Kick them out? I don’t see how the university can line up 140k students and force them to test. What happens if about 10k of them decide to rebel and just say “screw it, I’m outta here” and leave.
They won’t do that. The kids these days are real sheep. They’ve been turned into zombies by Ritalin and cell phones.
X,
I agree with you, but there are a few rebels out there. I can’t believe every parent has completely screwed up their kids.
Rebel college kids here. Both would leave regardless of the circumstances. I am proud of them.
2 days ago a young man in her college flew a blue lives matter flag and got attacked by a mob and the school (and he’s black, go figure). My daughter is one of just a few that is standing by his side and challenging the school and the idiot snowflakes. She is so pissed she is thinking of transferring.
Hi Chris,
Outstanding! Hearing of such things is important as it gives us hope that all is not lost (that’s for you, Nunz!). This forum serves as kind of bulletin board for the sane – which let us know that everyone isn’t crazy!
Hi Chris,
That is great news to hear! You should be very proud of your daughter. It takes a lot of guts to go against the crowd and to stand up for what you believe in. I am glad she is able to see through the BS.
Hi RG,
In re rebels -i.e., Wrongthinkers (i.e., people capable of critical thought): I know several, including some homeschoolers like yourself who’ve raised sharp-minded kids who – even though still teenagers – reason on a level all too many adults are apparently incapable of.
Hi Eric,
It is so sad that critical thinking is so rare. I guess we can thank the schools for doing such a good job of taking analysis of thought out of the curriculum and squishing any resistance to it.
The ultimate blame should be on the parents, but I do sympathize with them…they are a product of the system. You can’t teach what you don’t know.
That’s horrifying, and even worse is the little outcry, and meek acceptance.
In NY and most other places they’re saying they OWN those people. They’ll travel when they say they can travel, et c.
What we’re seeing now from these Satanists, is what some term “The externalization of the hierarchy.” In the past, they’d be quite discreet about their feelings of ownership over the souls of these people. However, now they’re getting more and more open about it.
The HBO show True Blood was an allegory for that. One set of vampires wanted to continue to live “in the shadows” while another group wanted to come out into the open. The same two vampiric factions are fighting today. The externalizers are winning.
Something else I caught in the article:
“Testing is also recommended for faculty and staff.” Notice it didn’t say mandatory or mention any quarantine or isolation for them.
Living in China for 5 years, I expected the Chinese to roll over and blindly obey their gov’s mandates. I’ve been disgusted by the pusillanimous obedience that “Americans” have displayed so far this year.
Right there with you. The hill I’ll die on will be directly related to my personal and familial liberties. I won’t go alone.
Everybody at school has to walk in the halls with arms out to social distance?
If so, what a waking nightmare.
If I’d been ordered to do that I’d have gotten in trouble for always making airplane sounds.
Oh, it’s real and really repugnant. My wife didn’t even tell me about it I suspect because she knows I’m unapologetically vocal. Walking around with your arms out? Smells Goddamn bad to me.
I don’t know if it is still the case, but much of the problem seems to be the tenure system. It is completely wrong at the grade school level to allow for teachers to have tenure. They’re not supposed to be teaching anything controversial, which is what tenure was designed for. In every other profession technology and market forces cause massive change over time. What I do today has very little in common with with I did 20 years ago, and someone visiting from 40-50 years ago would have no idea what they were looking at if they saw my office. But every time I see a school classroom I immediately recognize everything in the room. Oh maybe there’s a whiteboard instead of a blackboard, and maybe a few computers pushed up against the back wall, but that’s about it. And the teachers are still teaching the exact same way they did 50 years ago too. The content may be different but lecture and regurgitate is still the preferred method.