If you’re what’s commonly referred to as a “homeowner” – which is dishonest language because no one in this country actually owns their home because everyone in this country is obliged to pay de facto rent to the government for as long as you possess what isn’t in fact your home for exactly this reason – you may have asked yourself why there’s no end to this rent-paying they like to style “property taxes.”
The answer is obvious, of course.
There is no end to it because the idea is that no one ever actually becomes a homeowner in this country. That no one ever sees the day when they don’t owe a payment to the true owner – the government – and so will never see the day when their home is theirs, free and clear. The property tax was designed to negate the concept of property, just the same as the tax on income was designed to establish the principle that you do not even own your own labor. How can you be the owner of that when someone else – via the government – has a claim enforceable by law to a portion of that which you have worked for?
A slave is often described as a human being who is owned by someone else. Buy what else is a human being whose “income” – and home – are effectively owned by the government?
The answer is – a human being who does not realize he is enslaved.
It’s a psychological trick that works because the person is allowed to possess property and allowed conditional use of property and this allows him to believe he is the “owner” of these things. It is a belief most people want to believe in, too – because the reality of being owned is extremely unpleasant.
And so we think of ourselves as “homeowners” – even though we know perfectly well that if we fail to pay the rent styled property tax we will be evicted from what is not our home just the same as a tenant who failed to pay his rent. It is a despicable thing, too – because unlike the renter, who has never taken out (much less paid off) a mortgage, the person who did take out the mortgage and has paid off the lender is still obliged to pay what amounts to rent on the house he is permitted to believe he “owns.”
I have “owned” my house for 20 years, having paid off the mortgage 20 years ago. And yet, I am still obliged to pay the government, which might as well be my landlord as that’s what the relationship amounts to. Instead of once a month, once every six months, I receive a demand letter advising me that I “owe” money to the government and it is understood by both parties that failure to pay whatever they say I “owe” will trigger a chain of events that will ultimately lead to what is clearly not my house being seized by its true owners.
QED as the Romans used to put it.
I have over the past 20 years paid about $40,000 in de facto rent to not be evicted from what I am well-aware is not my house, except in a fig-leaf legalism sense. Have I used “services” commensurate with this sum? This is one of the arguments often used to justify the property tax via another psychological trick. Most people rightly believe that we all ought to pay for the services we use.
But what if we don’t use them? What if we did not ask for – do not want – them? How is it that I do not “owe” random other people money to “help” pay for their pool to be cleaned? Or their grass cut?
Perhaps someone will provide me with an itemized accounting. I am happy to pay for any services I do actually use.
And – my question for the county, which is the level of government that tells me what I “owe” for all these putative services – is simply this:
How much is enough?
Will a point ever be reached at which point you will agree I have paid enough to cover these vaguely defined “services” I have never contracted to use and do not actually use and for that reason have no desire to pay for them? Is it selfish – is it mean-spirited – to ask such questions?
I think it is mean-spirited to enslave anyone. To deny everyone even the distant prospect that – one day – they could conceivably own a home and the land it sits on; that if they work hard and pay hard for many years, a day will come when they have finally paid it all off and – at last! – no longer owe anyone money just to avoid living on the streets.
It would be possible to allow this even without eliminating the loathsome tax on property, which is perhaps too much to ask when almost everyone seems to think that others “owe” for services and so on that they did not contract for and don’t use, etc. Chiefly because these people want others to pay for the “services” they use.
But how about a limit? How about enough? 
In another 20 years – assuming the bi-annual rent styled property taxes does not increase – I will have paid another $40,000 to avoid being evicted from what is not my home. That’s about $80,000 in total and that amounts to about 30 percent of the purchase price of my home.
Isn’t that enough?
Of course not. If I live long enough, it will be 40 percent and perhaps even more than that. The point is, it’s never enough.
Because the point is for us to never have anything – in the meaningful sense of actually owning anything more than the clothes on our backs and whatever small items we can carry that – as yet – are not subject to being property-taxed.
Isn’t it great to be “free” – and a “homeowner,” to boot?
. . .
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To reiterate the Andy Griffith Show episode where the old codger couldn’t pay his property taxes. Andy, the sheriff of Mayberry, paid a visit to the old man’s home to inquire about his ability to pay his taxes so he wouldn’t be evicted.
While going through some papers, a bond was discovered from the 1860’s, the bond was issued by the Mayberry city, it was worth 300,000 dollars.
The city fathers of Mayberry were obsequiously servile to the old man after that. Painted the house, stuff like that.
Money does talk, however, today, the old codger would be out of his house and on the street. The accrued value of the bond would be confiscated. Raze the old man’s house and make even more money.
Cruel and unusual punishment is the rule.
A feature, not a bug.
Rules based order is the rule.
Here’s a decent read on the subject:
https://mises.org/mises-wire/evil-residential-property-tax#:~:text=Retirees'%20overall%20incomes%20tend%20to,to%20more%20turnover%20in%20neighborhoods.
If you check your STATE CONSTITUITONS, you will find PROPERTY TAXES TO BE UNLAWFUL.
For instance, right here in Ohio, ARTICLE 1 SECTION 1 of the Ohio State Constitution states:
Article I, Section 1 | Inalienable Rights
All men are, by nature, free and independent, and have certain inalienable rights, among which are those of enjoying and defending life and liberty, acquiring, possessing, and protecting property, and seeking and obtaining happiness and safety.
So owning property is clearly outlined in the state constitution. CLEARLY so.
And you CANNOT TAX A CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT.
All we REALLY need, is a group of so-called “Civil Rights Lawyers” (like the ones that masquerade as such on JewTube) who will STAND ON THE CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT TO OWN PROPERTY and take it all the way to the supreme court.
Something I’d be HAPPY to crowd-fund.
Snowplowing, fine bill me. Repair the roads, again bill me. Schools, twelve years or equivilant, all paid up, I’m out. This last one would probably cause the most gnashing of teeth, seems rather objectively fair to me, especially as there is no choice to use or not use the product, and its “value” etheral. Pardon my grammar, I didn’t stick around for the diploma, does the entitle me to a hair cut on the bill?
Every time I hear Lee Greenwood’s cheesy song, “God Bless the USA”, I want to BARF! I’ve paid $30K in taxes on my house since paying it off in 2012.
You have a point, on the slavery thing. Or, if you will, “involuntary servitude.”
Which (except as punishment for a crime, is (supposed to be) not just illegal, but unconstitutional.
Anyone see where I’m going with this, yet? Maybe we can somehow take a page out of SAF. TAF (Thirteenth Amendment Foundation) has a nice ring to it.
Probably can’t make this argument for income tax, b/c it’s specifically allowed under the 16th Amendment…but maybe, just maybe, we could get rid of the property tax on those grounds…
Check out allodial title:
“An allodial land title is a form of real property ownership where the owner has absolute, unrestricted rights over the land, free from any superior landlord or government authority. This type of ownership grants complete control and autonomy to the property holder, without obligations such as rent, service, or taxes typically associated with other forms of land tenure.”
Yup –
But as far as I have been able to determine, none (or effectively) none such exist in this country. I have heard of cases of allodial titles dating back to colonial era the having been kept in a family/grandfathered through generations provided the property stays in the same family. But I haven’t been able to confirm and even if it’s so, it’s meaningless for 99.9 percent of us.
FWIW:
“Nevada: This state is mentioned as having a clearer path to allodial title compared to other states. Nevada is described as a place where allodial title is more accessible, although the process is still complex.”
For Bill Gates, and youre NOT in it.
There should only be tariffs and a sales tax on manufactured goods every other tax should be abolished… Who’s with me…
Hi Lineman,
Well, at least those taxes would be anonymous and largely voluntary in that no one would be forced to buy the taxed goods. So it would be a step in the right direction. Toward the ideal of no taxes at all. A “tax” being legalized theft, after all. And theft ought never to be legalized!
‘I think it is mean-spirited to enslave anyone.’ — eric
So do I, although I was told as a child that this vicious misogynist crap is the ‘word of Dog’:
Marrying Female Captives
When you go out to war against your enemies, and the Lord your God gives them into your hand and you take them captive, and you see among the captives a beautiful woman, and you desire to take her to be your wife, and you bring her home to your house, she shall shave her head and pare her nails.
And she shall take off the clothes in which she was captured and shall remain in your house and lament her father and her mother a full month. After that you may go in to her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife. But if you no longer delight in her, you shall let her go where she wants. But you shall not sell her for money, nor shall you treat her as a slave, since you have humiliated her. — Deuteronomy 21:10–14
As our Latino friends would say to the author of this slave girl rape fantasy, ‘Peace on you, man.’
On Indian reservations, you’re exempt from property tax. But you can’t own property, either. So no capital gains; no real estate inflation shelter. This non-market economy has not been kind to its
victimsmembers.Don’t see why we can’t start our own tribe. The Tribe (you know the one I’m talkin’ about) seems to be makin’ out like bandits. No property taxes on our rez, that’s for sure! 🙂
“I was told as a child that this vicious misogynist crap is the ‘word of Dog’”
So was I. And I was angry for a long while. Until I found that there was reconciliation to be had between what I was born knowing and what was told to me. The Truth comes from God, not man, and is knowable. Go ahead, ask a question. Not to AI though. Wrong god.
When I was a child, my father was condemned to hell eternal, not by God, but by trusted people who misled me. I had asked church leaders what was going to happen to my dad since he chose not to attend church. Eternal hell!!
That was the end of church for me, but not the end of God. Because I asked Him the same question. Turns out, I already knew the answer. I was born knowing.
Phil Jackson wrote the book Maverick.
You know, the basketball coach for the Los Angeles Lakers, formerly the Minneapolis Lakers. A long time ago, but they could play basketball.
He was a basketball player for the Williston Coyotes, they won the state championship in 1963.
Led to a string of championships in the NBA, as luck would have it. The Chicago Bulls paid him plenty, for sure.
A long gone friend completely faked Phil out underneath the basket during a scrimmage.
Played for the New York Knickerbockers, had back problems. Used substances like marijuana.
Imagine the son of an Assemblies of God preacher using some cannabis to relieve some back pain.
The stuff is legal in Arizona, go to the pot store and get some when you are there. Not everybody down there is cool with it.
It’s all going to pot, whether you like it or not.
I got a hundred dollar bill says to keep your pills
It’s all going to pot – Willie Nelson, It’s All Going To Pot
https://wokespy.com/georgia-homeowner-jailed-for-trying-to-evict-squatters-from-her-property/
Then, of course, there is shit like this, wherein the county defends squatters on your property and puts you in jail for attempting to defend what is yours.
I’m happy that Az doesn’t have laws like this. This sort of thing would make me feel outright homicidal.
I would like to ask the county why the hell I should pay them, or especially, ask them for permission to do anything.
I know I write of this often, but it is my primary issue these days. Primarily, what the county might do for me is keep a record that I own my land and possibly do something about thieves and marauders who might take my property. I hold most anything other than that to be illegitimate.
In reality, the appearance of a sheriff out here is quite rare, and I’m pleased that this is so.
Other than that, this land is unincorporated, and the roads are not maintained by any government, and there are signs to remind you of this. There is no infrastructure; it’s all off-grid.
SO, I believe it’s a good question to ask why I should be beholden to the whims of the county government, if I am harming no one.
I think about this property taxation frequently, as it’s a massive bill for me.
Commiefornia works in a funny way, your property tax is based on your purchase price of the house, and allowed to grow at 2% annually, which is far slower than property values have been growing, so you end up in this situation where people who have had homes for a while pay far less than their neighbors. I own a small 1400 sqft house (that’s all I could afford) and in the 13 years I’ve owned it, the property value has tripled. I pay $21,000 per year in property tax. About $15k of that is the “base” tax and then the remaining $6k is nonsense voters have passed as surcharges – school bonds, public pension supplements, stuff like that. My immediate neighbors are very different. One has lived here since the 1950’s, her property tax is less than $1,000 per year. My new neighbors, with a similar home to mine, pay about $50k/year.
I’m currently in my peak earning years. As I get older and face ageism among the tech bros, it’s dropping, so I see the writing on the wall. I can’t continue to live in the place where I have made my life and career due to all kinds of excessive costs.
OppositeLock,
Can you sell the house to someone you trust for, say, $1, then buy it back for $500, giving your friend a profit, and you a radically reduced property tax bill?
No, the property tax is based on an assessment performed on the value of the house at the time of the transaction.
The parasites are clever, and the system for sucking the money out of productive people is very well polished and effective.
They suck alright. I’m sorry you’re having to deal with such an egregious extortion racket, OL.
Hi OL.
$21k per year in property taxes is simply confiscatory (let alone $50k). I know people are being driven out of paid-for homes by this; of course, that’s exactly what’s wanted. We are cattle to be milked and used while we are capable of work and then sent to the knackers when we are no longer “productive.”
You know Eric, I live near cattle all my days here. I’ve spooked them before, and felt them shake the very ground as they ran by.
Cattle are actually pretty damn dangerous if provoked, if you get my drift. 😉
You know Charlie Walser’s got that place out east of Sanderson? Well, you know how they used to slaughter beef, hit ’em right there with a maul, truss ’em up and slit their throats? Here, ol’ Charlie’s got one all trussed up, all set to drain him and the beef comes to, starts thrashing around. Six hundred pounds of very pissed-off livestock. If you’ll excuse the… Well… Charlie grabs the gun there, shoot the damn thing in the head, but with all the swingin’ and the thrashin’, it’s a glance-shot, ricochets around, comes back and hits Charlie in the shoulder. You go see Charlie, he still can’t pick up his right hand for his hat… The point bein’, that even in the contest between man and steer, the issue is not certain.
— Sheriff Ed Tom Bell
Haha, yep, Philo.
I often carry my .357 when I’m out walking my land, but I’m not so certain it would stop a raging steer coming at me.
When I was in Alaska I was advised to carry a 357 with the front sight filed down. I asked why and was told that when the grizzly took it away and shoved it up my a$$ that it wouldn’t hurt as much…
Hahaha… I’ll take that under advisement, Ernie
Here’s an example of a home that sold a few months ago, and the +950% property tax reassessment:
https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/395-Loreto-St-Mountain-View-CA-94041/19515820_zpid/
I agree, it’s nuts. If Wyoming succeeds in abolishing its property tax, it’ll be the only state where one can actually own real estate.
“If Wyoming succeeds in abolishing its property tax, it’ll be the only state where one can actually own real estate.”
Yeah, and then the “elite” (“Billy-Boy” Gates, et al) will be the first in line to buy the entire state, putting the kibosh on such an idea.
Hi OL,
Wow, $2.5 million for a 1200 sq. ft. house with only one bathroom; I thought prices were insane here but you guys win. Taxachusetts passed a law similar to California’s prop 13 awhile ago labeled prop 2-1/2, which supposedly means they can only increase property taxes by 2-1/2% each year, but the truck sized loophole is when they re-assess everyone gets bumped up to the new valuation.
We bought this house in 1974 for $33k, and our entire payment including taxes was $350/month. Now our long ago paid off house is worth (supposedly) $1.2 million and our property taxes are $13k/year on a constant upward ratchet. It is definitely a scheme to force older people out of their homes.
Time to sell sell sell and head west young man. A lot of places out here you could get a nice spread with that kind of coin.
Cali has nice weather but living under open communism is no way to spend your life.
By way of contrast, I live in rural western communisota. I just paid this years property taxes. In my small town, I have my home, 3 rental houses, a commercial market building, a dilapidated house unfit for habitation, 4 garages, a pole barn warehouse, all on 46 city lots. The total tax bill was $3700. It helps make up for the crappy winters and Timmy Horse Slurper Walz. Bonus for a really rural area is minimal cops and associated headaches.
I left Cali when they banned my guns. Palm trees are nice but why live under that?
Thats what Ashlands for dontcha know. Cmon up n shiver in piss for all that hard workin Cali dreamin.
You wont be alone.
I agree with everything in the essay, “A slave is often described as a human being who is owned by someone else.” Yes, that is true, and the real slavery is psychological, thinking that you matter, that you can own, that your vote counts, that the system you slave under is fair.
The big illusion in “free” Amerika, is the tax slaves feel empowered when they vote, when in fact voting sustains the system of exploitation, it never ends it. Voters never suspect that voting empowers the elite to rule over them.
Voting sustains the prison system in which you slave away “making a living”, paying taxes to thugs with guns who boss you around. IOW voting is an illusion that you matter, that your vote counts, that if you participate in the system, the system must be ok and fair.
Here is a gif of liberals and conservatives, voters of every creed, race, color, age, and viewpoint going to the voting booth and voting for “their” candidate:
https://i.imgur.com/sZNX8IN.gif
You choose Goyim! Choose between Zionist whore A or Zionist whore B! Vote for your team, pay no attention the game is rigged, all the candidates are owned, and the system will continue as it has since the beginning of human existence.
You are a slave, have always been a slave, the first human was genetically engineered to be a slave by the “gods”, and you will die a slave, and the fact is your lifetime of participating in the system by voting did not change the system of slavery even one little bit. But you sure got fooled good!
Here is proof of my thesis, that the system is set up to fool you, tax you, make you believe while they rob you blind. In this short video clip, just 34 seconds long, we see evidence that the moon landings were faked, filmed in a studio:
https://odysee.com/@ARGONAUT:d/VID_20230104_080105_931:f
How much tax money was pried out of your wallet, that you gladly gave them as many people were proud to be American, proud to support NASA and the moon landing? It never dawns on the tax slaves they are being worked over by a system milking them like cows, and that these government charlatans, who get rich lording over us, just make shit up to get filthy rich.
If the moon landings were faked, could they be faking us out by other means, like climate change? They control the narrative and thus they control the perceptions in your mind. The MSM is being used to push this farcical concept that humans are changing the climate – and thus they have a right to rob you blind as they fight the CO2 windmill.
Climate change like Covid, Aids and other viruses do not exist. No moon landing and no,,, Japan was not nuked. There are no ‘free’ roaming chickens, like human slaves they just extended the fence.
It’s one thing to question the moon landing, coronavirus “disease”, etc but nuclear fission is entirely possible. Nuclear bombs based on runaway fission are also quite possible, and my dad was present and watched a fusion bomb go off at Christmas Island. I trust him and other eyewitnesses. I also have the family history since of very high incidences of birth defects.
It’s good to question everything, but reality doesn’t much care what we think.
I hate to tell you this, but we DID go to the moon.
And we DID fake the moon landings in a movie studio.
BOTH are actually correct. And when you figure out WHY, you’ll be getting somewhere.
The moon hoax fakery ended with Apollo, then NASA went on and faked the Mars missions. Very few people know (or care) that NASA is filming the Mar’s missions up in North Canada on Devon’s Island.
https://yandex.com/search/?text=nasa+faking+mars+missions+on+devon+island+&lr=20991&search_source=yacom_desktop_common
So if they can fake that, can they fake you out with the claim that a slight increase in a trace gas, CO2, is going to boil us alive? But if we fight CO2 emissions, we can survive catastrophic climate change. Never mind life on earth thrived with CO2 10x higher than it is today, never mind that a major ice age epoch on earth happened when CO2 was over 5,000ppm. (current CO2 is 420ppm)
The moon hoax fakery ended with Apollo, then NASA went on and faked the Mars missions. Very few people know (or care) that NASA is filming the Mar’s missions up in North Canada on Devon’s Island.
https://yandex.com/search/?text=nasa+faking+mars+missions+on+devon+island+&lr=20991&search_source=yacom_desktop_common
So if they can fake that, can they fake you out with the claim that a slight increase in a trace gas, CO2, is going to boil us alive? But if we fight CO2 emissions, we can survive catastrophic climate change. Never mind life on earth thrived with CO2 10x higher than it is today, never mind that a major ice age epoch on earth happened when CO2 was over 5,000ppm. (current CO2 is 420ppm)
No neighbor I wasnt fooled. I recall one past life as a slave in 79 ad Rome. Entire family was owned and employed by very wealthy greek family. My owner taught me to read and I became his accountant then escaped to a piece of his property in Gaul. Not a bad life at all cept the sound of that Coliseum and living amongst total alcoholism.
From your lips to God’s ears. I have friends who have moved to Mexico. I’m not sure of the wisdom, but at least as a non citizen of Mexico they know they only have a 99 year lease. Born naked, will die naked. A POX on politicians that continue to enslave their populations. Property and Income taxes are IMMORAL.
Well said, Eric.
In this country, our rulers still feel the need to hide their Communism against us.
In Vietnam, where I lived some years teaching English, a university professor was a neighbor of mine. I was renting, the normal way. He said the government of Vietnam limits “ownership” of homes/land to 99-year leases, maximum. Openly Communist. If you do anything the rulers don’t like, goodbye lease. Even if you don’t do anything the rulers don’t like but the lease was started by your parents or grandparents, then you might get the boot when the 99 years runs out. However, a big bribe, if you can afford it, might get you a new lease. I know about that system of payment for extra “service” because it arose on occasion when dealing with visa renewals and certain lawyerly services.
Bottom line, USA and Vietnam are both Communist countries. Just because most people in the jUSA are ignorant of this fact doesn’t make it any less true.
Another truth: You can’t vote your way out of Communism. You can, duped, vote your way in (as our ancestors did). But you cannot vote your way out.
One more truth: Who invented Communism for the purpose of enslaving populations? The race of the Rothschilds, Marx and Engels, Zelensky, Netanyahu, Schumer, Pritzker, Weinberg, Epstein, Zuckerberg, Blitzer, Greenspan, Bernanke, Yellen, Eisenhower, Roosevelt, Kushner, on and on.
Brilliant.
I’ve never decided which is more immoral, property taxes or income taxes. Both are absolute negations of the principles in the Declaration of Independence.
One says you can never truly own anything. The other says you don’t even own yourself.
Last election, the voting public of North Dakota had the opportunity to abolish property taxes. They failed. All the rent seekers came out with their scenarios of society crumbling if their rice bowls were broken. And it was enough, assuming the voting was honest. Honest voting is not a given in the Estados Unidos, not even likely.
It occurs to me that abolishing property taxes and replacing them with sales taxes on property would sell and break that stranglehold. Once the transfer of a property happens the tax would be paid, and forgotten. Retirees would be in full ownership of their properties. The ability of some governments like communisota’s to collect other declared debts by simply adding them onto property taxes would be thwarted. (The last time a Gestapo ticketed me for exercising my right to drive without a seat belt I refused to pay, a right of protest both nonviolent and effective, except the partei simply added it onto property taxes the next year).
I would prefer there were no taxes. But realistically that’s not going to happen.
RE: “Last election, the voting public of North Dakota had the opportunity to abolish property taxes. They failed.”
That sucks. Twas the second time the voters voted in favor of Communism & Slavery. Says much about The People.
Idiocracy.
An oil worker from Russia was working in the oil fields here in North Dakota.
My niece is a barber. My niece had the oil worker as a customer, everybody needs a haircut.
During the conversation between the two, it turned to politics and the state government, the Russian oil worker said, “This is communism.”
Every single government employee voted against the elimination of property taxes, from dog catcher to mayor of every city in the state. All of their relatives probably did too.
You will go vote and you will vote no on the measure to eliminate property taxes.
Told what to do, don’t let the cat out of the bag.
Difficult to get anybody to understand anything when their salary depends upon them not understanding it.
Therein lies the problem, propaganda works.
The socialists won the vote to not eliminate property taxes. They’ll be counting the votes too, not you.
I can sell and all of that monkey business is gone.
Vote with your feet, the message will sink in.
The property taxes paid on one property has totaled more than 150 percent of the purchase price some 38 years ago. They now are four fold of the first year’s property tax amount.
Can’t get anybody to understand anything, can’t reason with them. They won’t listen, don’t have to bother.
Brainwashed, thoroughly indoctrinated.
Municipal services costs have trebled over the years. Water and sewer bills are an arm and a leg.
You pay through the nose for less than what used to be that the service will always be there. Not anymore.
The Russian oil worker stated the obvious.
The socialists in the state are communists, they will win.
You feel robbed, collectivists are tax thieves, all the while, you get to be poorer while enriching them.
You can’t fix stupid, impossible.
A beautiful place to be in the summertime, like the best place ever to be. During the winter months, Old Man Winter won’t feel sorry for you, you choose to be here.
There are greener pastures, property tax breaks for those who can get them translates to more property tax for homeowners, business people receive the tax breaks on property developments, which does increase all property taxes across the board for those who pay.
Move to Arizona for the winter, Snowbird Land everywhere down there.
The idiots-in-charge denied a well-deserved break for a lot of folks. Could have been a positive for the State of North Dakota, lots more money for her citizens and new businesses would have been good for the state.
Epic Fail
Last election, the voting public of North Dakota had the opportunity to abolish property taxes. They failed. All the rent seekers came out with their scenarios of society crumbling if their rice bowls were broken. And it was enough, assuming the voting was honest. Honest voting is not a given in the Estados Unidos, not even likely.
Part of the problem is that too many idiots normies still think that publik skoolz are an essential part of society rather than a cancer upon it. Since these institutions are funded by property taxes, indoctrinated normie idiots believe that abolishing property taxes will spell the end of education and impose mass illiteracy upon their kids. It’s pretty much impossible to have a free society when the majority of the population thinks this way.
Public schools are generally and mistakenly viewed by the slaves as essential free day care for thier mistakes.
So sad so true.
I look at it this way: “owning” property is the same as renting, with only a few exceptions, the biggest being, when you fork over the money for your extortion payment, ‘er I mean property taxes, it’s to somewhat prevent our overlords & their minions from doing a yearly walk-thru of your house (rental inspection, as if your house were an empty hotel room) and doing things like scrutinizing the place for potential violations &/or a chance to fine you even more, &/or throw you in jail where they get glee, fees & expand the for-profit prison system.
Ain’t the American Caste System grand?
Property tax is the fee I pay to NOT have a gunfight on my doorstep with collectors of said tax. If it gets high enough, I may re-calculate.
I like the way you think. That calculus happens every day in a burgeoning police state.
How about this deal: I’ll offer to work 10% of my weekends filling potholes in exchange for not paying some lifer’s defined benefit pension. I even have shovel experience and my own PPE.
The public employee pension funds are taking more and more of tax revenue as they make up the shortfalls in interest rates since 2000. Mish Shedlock used to write about this all the time. Much of the continued rise of the stock market to obscene valuations is due to the state pension funds pumping up prices. What’s going to happen when the boomer bulge gets closer to the end of the snake of time? Something tells me the “me generation” isn’t going to voluntarily cut back on their consumption, or get by with one penny less than what was promised 50 years ago.
That’s one of my terrifying fears of a stock market collapse.
All those 60 year old blue state union goon retirees sitting on the beach in FL aren’t going to voluntarily take a loss on their pension.
Lucky for them, the state governments they fled in the Northeast and Midwest will play rear guard and quadruple the property taxes for the slobs stuck living there – to cover any losses.
Thing is, many states have to balance their budgets. So someone’s gonna have to take the hit when the remaining property owners are tapped out. Who’s going to bail them out? That source of all dollars, the Federal government. There’s even precedent for it, since one of the primary reasons for abandoning the Articles of Confederation was so that the federal government could buy up all the state’s war debt.
What could be more American?
Perhaps they should start charging property tax on Federal lands. Perhaps then the Homestead Act will make a return.
Wake up Maggie indeed!
Property taxes is in the same ilk as “Reparations” wherein they tax people who were never slave owners and give it to people who were never slaves.
All in the name of diversity of course.
Vote with your feet.
Be a lineman for the county out west in Wichita. Better yet, move to Arizona, not north Arizona, go to the desert down south.
Lots of history there and the weather is good most of the time.
Buy some property, dig a well, prepare for the new single level home, you will be in good shape there. Water is there, just drill for it.
I’d never build or live in a two story home, makes no sense.
You can have acreage and grow peppers down in southern Arizona. Go for the Kansas Settlement, not a bad choice.
You won’t be bled white and turned blue by real estate taxes.
There are alternatives. Your feet can be your guide.
Eric, believe me, there is a lot going on down in that area of Arizona.
I was taken aback.
You won’t regret being there, it is a cool place, a very high definition of being alive in the real world.
You’ll be 50 miles from Tucson, civilization exists even in Arizona.
Never too late to make a change, have to be optimistic, always a new cut road to make your way to a better place.
Too ensconced in my home, too old to make the move. However, I’d go back again to see if a move can happen. I can liquidate at any time.
Besides, Wiley Coyote has been there forever, always being made a fool of by Roadrunner.
Visit the small town of Willcox in Arizona and decide for yourself.
This is the Occident, the place to be.
I would concur, Dumphish, though there’s nothing so wrong with Northern Az, either, if you stay out of Flagstaff.
It was cold up there in November, but, yes, it is scenic, calderas from volcanism as you drive north to the Grand Canyon, sights not soon forgotten.
Be dressed for the weather.
Sandhill cranes winter in Cochise County.
It is warmer than northern Arizona.
Take the highway that goes through Prescott to Phoenix, not I-10.
Why the Second Amendment exists.
Home owner here. Free and clear since 2009, no mortgage. I have paid over $60,000 in school and town/county taxes in that 15 year span of home ownership. That is $4,000+ a year in property taxes.
Guess what my measly property is assessed at?
$105,000
I pay close to 4% of my assessed value in property taxes every year to the government. I live in the shit hole that is New York State (upstate Central NY). I am stupid to continue to pay property taxes, as the chance that NYS will seize my property for non payment of taxes by the time I die is very slim.
More property owners (especially businesses) have ceased paying property taxes in and around where I live. I read the 50-100 pages of tax defaults every 6 months and it gets larger every year. NYS does NOT like to kick out delinquent property tax home owners who are living in their homes. The government just does not have the manpower to deal with thousands of evictions and tax sales every 6 months.
The only tax sales I see in my local area for nonpayment of property taxes is vacant lots and sometimes business properties. Even those sales take over seven years to initiate.
I am glad more and more people are not paying property taxes. I need to grow some balls and do the same.
Hi Pug,
That is egregious. You’ve been fleeced of more than 50 percent of the purchase price of your house. Some vile people will counter: But your place has increased in value over the past 15 years! As if that makes it ll better. Let alone all right. I need to hit the weights. I’m not in a good mood now.
I’m getting more depressed and angry reading these comments as they reinforce how I’m being screwed by my county government. I’ve owned my home in Cuyahoga county Ohio for five years and have already paid $30K in property taxes. God only knows how the crooks who run the county waste the money. And they always want more.
The de facto rent payments, particularly the school boards’ “beak wetting” pay your neighbors’ salaries and fill a lot of soup bowls at vendors locally as well as across the country. Even if you don’t use the services, the money is used for the common good.
RE: “the money is used for the common good.”
Am I reading this correctly? You’re defending property taxes?
‘That Which Is Seen, and That Which Is Not Seen’
“In the department of economy, an act, a habit, an institution, a law, gives birth not only to an effect, but to a series of effects. Of these effects, the first only is immediate; it manifests itself simultaneously with its cause — it is seen. The others unfold in succession — they are not seen:”…
https://mises.org/articles-interest/which-seen-and-which-not-seen
I should have added the … tags.
I’m the last person who will defend property taxes, but I know more than a few people who vote for Orange Man and espouse conservative values but get their soup bowls filled by school spending largesse.
And just try to modify your property without the required permits.
We are all serfs.
Or the blessing of the HOA.
At least you can take over the HOA if they piss you off.