Property Tax and the Death of the American Dream
Posted by freedomforall 6 months ago to Politics
Excerpt:
"The whole American vision was built upon delayed gratification. There was no guarantee that a homesteader’s crops would thrive in any given year. Individuals who were less competent were forced to settle for a life that, while far better than before they emigrated, was below the standard of other more competent settlers. Homesteaders who wanted to fill their stomachs in winter would find they had no seed to plant in the spring. Months and years of hardship were endured to secure ownership and the ability to rest.
The government’s primary role was to protect people against anyone who desired to intrude on their hard-earned peace, whether foreign nations or malicious citizens. People worked for security and the ability to give their children security. Land was a constant investment that directly reflected its developer’s work ethic and rewarded their competency. Unlike in Europe, land was very accessible to the common man. Rather than working for lords and barons, land distinguished Americans and allowed them to work for themselves.
At the beginning of the 19th century, property taxes were small, primarily by the acre, and did not rise often. As administrative bloat and government corruption grew, property taxes gradually grew and morphed into something powerful and harmful to the core of the American dream. Property taxes became not just on the acre, but also on the valuation of the property. In some states, this tax is higher than 2% yearly. A 500,000$ house, a great deal in many locations, would force the owner to pay over 10,000$ yearly just to live on the land that they own. In complete opposition to the vision of the past, inflation and increasingly high valuations mean that as time goes on, landowners will be forced to work more just to make ends meet."
"The whole American vision was built upon delayed gratification. There was no guarantee that a homesteader’s crops would thrive in any given year. Individuals who were less competent were forced to settle for a life that, while far better than before they emigrated, was below the standard of other more competent settlers. Homesteaders who wanted to fill their stomachs in winter would find they had no seed to plant in the spring. Months and years of hardship were endured to secure ownership and the ability to rest.
The government’s primary role was to protect people against anyone who desired to intrude on their hard-earned peace, whether foreign nations or malicious citizens. People worked for security and the ability to give their children security. Land was a constant investment that directly reflected its developer’s work ethic and rewarded their competency. Unlike in Europe, land was very accessible to the common man. Rather than working for lords and barons, land distinguished Americans and allowed them to work for themselves.
At the beginning of the 19th century, property taxes were small, primarily by the acre, and did not rise often. As administrative bloat and government corruption grew, property taxes gradually grew and morphed into something powerful and harmful to the core of the American dream. Property taxes became not just on the acre, but also on the valuation of the property. In some states, this tax is higher than 2% yearly. A 500,000$ house, a great deal in many locations, would force the owner to pay over 10,000$ yearly just to live on the land that they own. In complete opposition to the vision of the past, inflation and increasingly high valuations mean that as time goes on, landowners will be forced to work more just to make ends meet."
they are designed to drive retired people out of their homes
should be 100% unconstitutional
If some individual (or organization) has some special rights in a society that others don't have, that makes their relationship a master-slave relationship, not a reciprocal one. But you can't have a fair and just society without fully reciprocal relationships. So, taxes make us all slaves of the state.