Taxing income is morally despicable because it’s your money – and that means it does not belong to anyone else. That means if it is taken from you, you have been robbed. It does not change the fact to call this robbery “taxation.” Of course, that is why they call this robbery “taxation” – to give it a patina of legitimacy.
But there is a worse form of taxation/robbery. It is the so-called “property tax” – which is worse because it pretty much forces the victim to work forever to earn the income to pay this tax – after taxes – in order to void being evicted from what can never be his home.
If it were possible to actually own a home in this country – as by having paid off the mortgage – the owner of that home would not need to work very much anymore because it would take not much income to provide for life’s necessities, such as food and so on. It would be possible to not have to generate any income at all, if one were to grow/raise food on one’s land and barter for whatever else one needed.
One would be free, in other words – and that’s what they can never allow, for then they would no longer have any control over us. They could not force much upon a man who owned his land and so was free to not deal with them. Them being the people who think other people are theirs to control and to use as serfs were used by the lord back in feudal times.
Exactly.
In feudal times, the serfs were allowed to live on a piece of land so long as they handed over a portion of the fruits of their labor to the lord, who was the one who owned the land (and the serfs). The serfs existed at the sufferance of the lord and the serfs understood their position vis-a-vis the lord.
Is this not the state of the “homeowner” in this country today? It is not sad and ridiculous to speak of him as a “homeowner”? Is his name on a title any more meaningful than a name on a rental contract? The renter knows he must pay rent in order to not find himself in the street. Is it not the same for the “homeowner”? It is worse, actually – because if the renter does not pay rent, he is only out in the street. He does not lose what he never thought of as his home. The “homeowner” who fails to pay the rent not only finds himself in the street. He finds himself robbed of the value of what he naively considered to be “his” home, which he was allowed to believe he “owned” until the day it was seized on account of his failure to hand over the rent.
The home he did not own is auctioned off to the highest bidder, who becomes the new “owner.” And the taxes continue to be paid, which is the point of the thing. The thieves behind it all do not care who pays it – nor who is allowed to believe they “own” the home.
So long as whoever “owns” the home continues to pay the rent.
America will never be a free country again until Americans can be free again. And no man or woman can ever be free in any meaningful sense when they can never own more than the shirt on their backs , if they’re allowed that.
. . .
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Hey, I thought the DOGE gains were going to finance a 5000 dollar check to every US household? Trump is a fraud, a liar, and an idiot.
100,000,000 households, 500,000,000,000 dollars.
How to buy real estate that sells for a song and a dance:
Like most of the bargain-hunters who packed the Palace Theatre in Salisbury, England, on the afternoon of September 21, 1915, Cecil Chubb was looking for a deal. Legend says the wealthy 39-year-old lawyer had been dispatched by his wife to purchase a set of dining chairs, but that all changed when auctioneer Howard Frank announced lot number 15—“Stonehenge with about 30 acres, 2 rods, 37 perches of adjoining downland.”
https://www.history.com/articles/the-man-who-bought-stonehenge“>Cecil Chubb bought Stonehenge for 6600 British Pounds then gave it to the British gov.
Better deal than the Louisiana Purchase.
Who knew some rocks could be so valuable and have so much history?
Might as well give them away.
No more real estate taxes on those rocks for Cecil.
The British gov is probably taxing and billing to this day the builders of Stonehenge for the value of the real estate they once held.
The moon and stars hang out in bars just talkin’
Remember how we thought that house was haunted…
Come on home, come on home
No, you don’t have to be alone – John Prine, Come On Home
The MONGOL ’empire’ taxed the European cities, too. If they didn’t pay-up, then they were destroyed. That’s why it was called ‘tribute’. Considering how the IRS and individual state agencies enforce taxation, how are they different from the MONGOLS? (pay-up or be destroyed) ..
One of two main reasons I stopped voting over 20 years ago; first was the never-gonna-happen term limits spectacle in Congress, that obviously never goes anywhere, and second was this very issue of property taxes, that no politician can seem to come to terms with. Owning your property without the chains of property taxes IS the cornerstone of real freedom (setting aside any philosophical or spiritual arguments for a moment).
We paid $33k for this house in 1974, we have paid more than that in property taxes over the last three years. The politicians are driving out seniors and retirees to create their Yuppie heaven.
Your taxes go to pay for your local skoolz. Don’t you care about the children and the government indoctrination camp workers?
“If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issuing of currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, these institutions will grow to the point that they will deprive people of all property, until our children will wake up destitute in the nation their fathers conquered “. Thomas Jefferson.
The tragedy of property taxes is we have been cursed to let Jews take over ourmoney supply in 1913 with the federal reserve act….and here we are today… destitute in our own nation!!!
I have a friend in Massachusetts. He did not call it Tax-a-Chusetts for nothing.
The escrow portion of my mortgage payment makes up 40 percent of my total payment.
Here’s a couple of houses for sale in the Peoples Republics of New York and New Jersey. Check out the property taxes:
41 EUCLID AVENUE, HASTINGS-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.
A four-bedroom, three-and-a-half-bath 2,832-square-foot house built in 1927.
Taxes: $44,702 a year
353 HIGHLAND AVENUE, RIDGEWOOD, N.J.
This five-bedroom, five-and-a-half-bath house was built in the early 1900s and updated in the 2000s.
Taxes: $55,017 a year
Even if you owned one of these houses free and clear, you’d still need an income well into six figures to stay there in retirement.
Who knew that socialism was so expensive?
And the link, if you want to make an offer:
https://archive.ph/1eLib#selection-1685.0-1685.21
Next week in our town we get to vote on our school taxes. Each year the measure passes. People like to complain about it, but given the chance they still vote themselves to have pay more taxes.
Check this out:
Australia pushing the envelope
https://www.livewiremarkets.com/wires/a-proposed-tax-on-unrealised-capital-gains-could-hit-your-super-in-years-to-come
Soon, they will tax unrealized gains on un-purchased assets.
Quite the fascists, confiscated and destroyed all firearms in the country, including non-functional antiques.
My wife wants to visit Australia. I’ll stay home. Dreadfully long trip to visit a country that is like Kansas with kangaroos.
“My wife wants to visit Australia. I’ll stay home. Dreadfully long trip to visit a country that is like Kansas with kangaroos.”
Well, that description is not exactly correct. I’ve spent a couple of years in that corner of the world, and had an opportunity to explore a fair bit of Australia as well as New Zealand.
The country is not all that much smaller than the US, albeit with a population of only about 26 million.
But it encompasses some very different natural environments, like large deserts, fertile farm land, tropical rainforest, as well as temperate to cool climate in the south – including a mountain range which, while relatively low at some 7,300 feet, still allows for six months a year of skiing. And there are beaches that easily rival Hawaii.
Even the gun issue is a bit of a myth. Yes, some guns were ‘bought back’ by the government after the mass shooting at Port Arthur in Tasmania in 1996, but it’s not that hard to actually acquire a gun permit.
Every farmer in that country owns plenty of guns. Same with New Zealand.
But yeah, the culture is quite different to the US and most Australians are definitely pro gun control.
And their government is truly appalling. But then again, that one can be said about just any other government these days.
Thank you. I appreciate some balance on these issues.
Just wait until the Global Carbon Taxes start accumulating, and they’re already beginning with Mr. MIGA’s AIPAC blessings!
Some major cataclysmic event is on the very short-term horizon.
The whole pink water thing is alarming. Alongside the talk of limiting everyone’s water for “Climate Change” agenda purposes is concerning.
Hi Ronin,
Yup – I worry about that, too. OM is not our friend. But many people think he is their friend.
“Taxing income is morally despicable because it’s your money – and that means it does not belong to anyone else. That means if it is taken from you, you have been robbed.”
It’s even worse than that.
Having to involuntarily hand over some of what you’ve earned, in free exchange with others, implies that you are NOT a free person in any sense of that term any longer.
As implied by the ‘modern’ Orwellian terminology, so beloved by politicians, where a tax cut is called ‘tax concession’ – because the government blob owns 100% of you, so anything they let you keep is a ‘concession’.
Or the other favorite, where a tax cut is a ‘cost to the government’. Again implying that you are 100% owned, so anything not taken from you comes at a ‘cost’ to the government.
But hey – taxes are ‘the price of civilization’, right? And they fund lots and lots of free shit, which is what the population craves! Brawndo, man…it’s got electrolytes!
“The government says to the citizen: Your earnings are not exclusively your own; we have a claim on them, and our claim precedes yours; we will allow you to keep some of it, because we recognize your need, not your right; but whatever we grant you for yourself is for us to decide.”
Frank Chodorov
Exactly, James –
I read Chodorov when I was in high school; somehow, I found the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) and that’s where I found him, along with Leonard Read and some others…
Property taxes are awful, but Eric…you’ve seen nothing yet!
The new kid on the block is tax on unrealized gains.
Norway already imposes it across the board, so far ‘only’ at a rate of 1.1%. It has already successfully pushed several of their internet start ups out of the country, because if you have a successful, yet cash-poor start up, which you have just floated on the stock exchange, you are unlikely to have the money to pay tax on the ‘new’ valuation. Unless you sell some of your shares, which you quite likely did not really want to do.
But now Australia says ‘hold my beer!’
The newly re-elected Labor government is pressing ahead with a 30% tax on unrealized gains. So far, there is a ‘limit’ – you need to have assets in excess of about $2M (US) – and it will ‘only’ apply to private pension schemes. For now, anyway.
Many of those pension schemes are popular, because you could own an investment property in it, in what used to be a ‘tax-advantaged environment, and then use to income from it to pay yourself a private pension.
Which you would very much need – the private pension that is – because having assets at these valuations would well and truly disqualify you from the means-tested government retirement pension; even though you were forced to ‘contribute’ to it via you taxes all your life.
But now, the government can simply declare that your asset/property has increased in value by 10% year on year – nothing unreasonable, in other words – and you may well owe them a hundred grand which you, or rather your personal pension fund, does not have.
So your only option is to sell the asset, because these entities cannot legally borrow against the assets they hold.
And if you happen to make a ‘paper’ loss the following year?
Good news, comrade – you will be able to carry it over and offset against future ‘gains’.
No refunds, of course.
If you want to see modern slavery in action, this is it.
And yes, I fully expect it to soon come to a country near me/you.
Morning, John –
Yup. I expect the Communists – let’s call them by their rightful title – will do the same here and when they do, it will mean only very high income people will be able to afford to live in a single family home. Everyone else will be driven out of their homes because they will not be able to afford to pay the unrealized capital gains taxes in addition to all the other taxes. We’ll all be Derelicte soon. Except for the very few. Because that’s how Communism works.
Yep, some pigs are truly more equal than others.
And as is obvious these days, Orwell was an optimist.
Property taxes will be a major problem sometime in the not-too-distant future. A few years back, when the fed still had short term rates at 0, many home buyers purchased property that had property tax payments higher than their mortgage. Also, I know of quite a few people who retired and THEN bought the giant house. Major serfdom.
Major serfdom is Fun right now & has been for decades.
It’s, a Life Goal.
All Americans owe it to be ensurfed to their masters.
To be, “an American” means, being yoked.
Being yoked, is a joy.
It’s quite like having chains around one’s neck, is Super Duper Fun & everyone should, like, do it.
I will nominate AG as a site moderator and monitor, that way the proper narrative will be acceptable. AG can receive all donations to EP Autos and distribute them accordingly, it’s only fair there too. You can trust AG!
We need to do something about all of these anti-Israeli comments and allow only comments that praise Satanyahoo’s miraculous genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.
Up with the Jews! Down with the Goyim!
Should solve the problem.
Why do I receive solicitations in the mail asking for 19.95 USD to help elderly Jewish women?
Why can’t the Jews stop bombing everything to smithereens and fund poor elderly Jewish women? They’ll save a bundle on postage and paper to boot.
Doesn’t that make more sense? Like doing the right thing, is it not?
The Jews don’t mind if you pay for everything and sacrifice everything for them.
You would think and hope that they can finally see the light.
That should do it for now, plus more cowbell.
Oh dang man. You ruined everything & mentioned cowbell.
Anyway, RE: “Why can’t the Jews stop bombing everything to smithereens and fund poor elderly Jewish women?”
…’Cause, “we” pay for everything? And, “doin’ good, ain’t got no end”?
…Remember when Trump was against stupid wars?
…I guess, he’s for only sthmart wars now? Idk.
‘The Digital Revolution Is Too Costly To Continue’
“humanity is both irrelevant and unneeded as there is nothing for them to do except for a handful to program the machines.” …
Are you a programmer?
Blue Oyster Cult on SNL with Will Farrell on cowbell, that’s all.
I hurl my fertile imagination to go into a rage of nothingness. The furls remain furdled. IOW, redacting is important.
You can call it programming, I am a programmer then too.
Now he’s just an old man that no one believes
Says he’s a gunfighter, the last of the breed
And there are ghosts in the street seeking revenge
Calling him out to the lunatic fringe
Now he’s out in the traffic checking the sun
And he’s killed by a car as he goes for his gun
So much for the smell of the black powder smoke
And the stand in the street at the turn of a joke – Guy Clark, Last Gunfighter Ballad
What does this have to do with the point of the article?
I won’t let it be an incommunicado. Thinking helps, I think.
Here’s the communication:
Your vain attempt to keelhaul a few commenters because of their proclivity to denounce the murderous actions of the war-like Jews exposes your bias.
I don’t really care, you have a right to express your opinions.
Please don’t uselessly attempt to silence others just because you disagree.
All opinions are accepted, whether correct or not.
“The time to speak up has passed, now is the time for senseless bickering.”- author unknown
Back before Oklahoma had a state lottery, they were trying to push it through by telling us that “all of our school funding woes would be a thing of the past”. People fell for it, and now we have a state lottery AND perpetual school funding issues. What happened to all of that money? Where’d it go? It went somewhere. Into someone’s pockets.
My grandpa always referred to the lottery as “the idiot tax”. At least participation in the lottery is completely voluntary. Maybe all taxes could be replaced by lottery schemes?
It’s amazing how much money generated from cigarettes, lotteries, gambling, marijuana, alcohol or any vice tax really goes into administrative costs. Colorado passed the weed sales and that was supposed to be a windfall for schools but only a fraction has ever been seen.
Hi Telly,
Yup. And what is this business of taxing “vices”? Who are these Puritans? What gives them the right to punish a man because he wants to smoke a cigarette or weed or drink whiskey? It is the Puritan mentality that has turned this country into a No Fun Zone and soon worse than that.
You’re damn right, Eric! Thank you.
Fucking Puritanical misanthropy. And then there’s this race for who is the most pure and holy, but they’re usually full of shit. Often those claiming to be pure as the driven snow are actually the most depraved. Bullshit. Someone hand me a beer.
A bit hyperbolic, Eric. The huge elephant in the room is the decline of Christianity (and I’m not talking about this fake nonsense surrounding Trump fools), and the corresponding decline of society. Unlimited ways out there to have “fun”.
In fact, men chide against the moral restraints that The Bible would have you self discipline yourself into, and then complain about the results of unrestrained indulgence. BTW, there is no prohibition in the Bible against alcohol, sex, or other things you would label as Puritanical; it just cautions against misuse and sets healthy boundaries. Here’s a verse you probably had no idea exists in the Bible:
Proverbs 5:15-19
15Drink water from your own cistern,
And running water from your own well.
16Should your fountains be dispersed abroad,
[g]Streams of water in the streets?
17Let them be only your own,
And not for strangers with you.
18Let your fountain be blessed,
And rejoice with the wife of your youth.
19As a loving deer and a graceful doe,
Let her breasts satisfy you at all times;
And always be [h]enraptured with her love.
20For why should you, my son, be enraptured by an immoral woman,
And be embraced in the arms of a seductress?
Hi Tom,
I don’t smoke, myself – and drink only occasionally and very moderately. But I begrudge no man his smokes – or his drink. Nor do I believe it is right to punish any man for having a smoke or a drink. Of course, moderation in all things,. But that is for us to handle for ourselves. The thing I dislike is busybodyism – as opposed to live and let live.
I agree; whatever a person wants to do with themselves privately is their deal. Just don’t complain about the consequences, nor expect someone else to pay for the damages.
100 percent, Tom –
I believe in freedom. That means I’m free to make my own decisions and enjoy both the rewards and accept the risks/consequences, if any. Too bad Americans have in the main decided they’d rather be “safe” – and want to force everyone else to be “safe,” too.
It’s this notion that “Society” ultimately pays for your sins, as if they owned you, so that gives the PTB the “Authoritai” to levy “sin” taxes. As if I don’t have the freedom to abuse my corpus indelectus howsoever pleases me, and bear the personal responsibility for it.
FUCK “Society”!
Amen, Douglas –
“Society”? Who is that, specifically? No one, of course. It is just a greasy term that most people take to mean “all of us.” But in fact, in practice, it means some of us. The people who think other people are responsible for the costs incurred by other people. It is difficult to imagine a more immoral idea. I have no control over what other people do. I only have control over what I do. If I do something that results in harm to myself, it is no one else’s problem – in the sense that it does not impose a moral obligation on them to pay for it. Just the same, what other people do isn’t my problem unless they do it to me. Otherwise, it is their problem.
But there are loathsome people who think “we’re all in this together.” By which they mean – though they never say it – that even if you do nothing to incur costs on anyone, you still get to pay for them and be controlled on the basis of them.
This state already had the marijuana tax money spent on whatever the hell it was they were going to spend it on. Whoops, the projected money they were expecting did not materialize. Probably because people knew of someone who grew the stuff, and bought outside the system. Thereby, getting around the tax. What is that old saying of not counting ones chickens before they are hatched? The powers-that-be did just that, and got egg on their faces.
There’s truth in what you say. The “illegal” market didn’t subside with legalization as promised in no small part to being regulated and taxed heavily means it’s a little like shooting fish in a barrel for the black market to undercut on price. No producing and recording ID, no 30% sales tax.
I’ll jump into the TV debate: my parents never owned a TV, and neither have I. As a child, I read adult books and magazines, TIME for example, before the publisher dumbed it down to a fourth-grade level. With no TV, I’m off to the YMCA Mon-Fri, and to the library every week. The library is a great use of my tax dollars!
Back to paying taxes to educate other peoples’ children: What percentage of my taxes educates doctors, plumbers, and so on? How about professionals who came from other states? Or other countries. I paid back ALL my undergraduate student loans, and paid out-of pocket (with the exception of a scolarship) for my post-graduate education at SMU in Dallas, Texas (a PRIVATE university). This reminds me of a bumper sticker on a pickup in Tahlequah, Oklahoma: “don’t breed ’em if you can’t feed ’em.” Do I receive a tax refund for money spent on education for criminals, and pendejos? Parents hould pay additional taxes to educate their oh-so-precious yard apes. As a kid, I attended private schools in Mexico, England, Haiti, Colombia, and the U.S. My mom attended private schools in Rockford Illinois, then college / B.S. Master’s at Loyola. My dad, undegrad at Jesuit schools in Haiti, and PhD from UNAM (a atate school) in Mexico City.
The end goal of communism is the abolition of private property ownership.
Stated by Marx.
Communism is a Jewish construct. I can document this if anyone asks.
Notice how this has nothing to do with the evil Zionist Jews, now we’re talking another sect of Jewry.
I wonder, which sects are the “good ones”?
Perhaps someone can point them out for me.
I hold the same sentiments as Eric, I want to live free outside of any taxation – to parasites I detest. So to beat taxes AND interest to banks I built houses in Idaho for cash. I had no mortgage. Since I built the house and did the plumbing and electric and everything else myself, I never needed to call a repair man. All my vehicles were paid in cash, and I learned how to fix them.
I also hunted for meat, bought bulk meat like sides of beef, had a large chest freezer in the garage, and did bulk food storage. I could literally live for years for not a single dime out of pocket except for property tax, and in Idaho, you could apply for a 50% reduction on a home you lived in. Plus, since Idaho was ultra conservative, government was small and so was the need for revenue.
I also never own a credit card. I removed the evil television from my personal space – the TV allows the Jews and their advertizers into your sacred space to sell you crap you do not need. Having a TV is like having a disgusting war mongering Rabbi in your living room. Do you want a filthy Jew in your living room? No? Get rid of the god damned TV!
It is even worse now, I saw some TV recently, and it all weird pharma pills and gay and tranny. I saw 2 grown men kissing. I am disgusted by it, our Jewish run culture has sunk to new lows, promoting fudge packing filth. Almost all of Hollywood actors are trannys, do you want your children watching he-she’s pretending to be women?
https://www.frot.co.nz/design/funny/the-full-tranny-suspect-list/
Anyways, sorry for the rant but someone has got to point these things out! I grew up in NE Ohio and worked on farms and was around Amish – who have no TVs and don’t use vaccines. Amish do not promote LBGTQ and they have no autism.
Back to property tax issue. It is indeed the most egregious tax, because you have to live somewhere and the greedy state has made you a slave to their carefree spending. Think about Nature, no deer or raccoon has to pay tax, a beaver needs no building permit, a bear does not get a fine for shitting in the woods. Every living thing is free EXCEPT FOR US.
LOL.
I haven’t had a functioning TeeVee, or the desire to own one, in many decades.
Occasionally, a friend or acquaintance will mention some TeeVee program or other, which elicits a blank stare from me. 🙂
Are you a John Prine fan, Jack?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWOoiMtevdY&list=RDNWOoiMtevdY&start_radio=1
Desantis has been making a big deal about this and agrees with you Eric.
Easy search for his statements.
He basically says remove the state portion of property tax and replace the revenue with sales tax. While a good start, it’s local taxes for schools that’s the problem. But maybe it will gain traction?
What do property taxes buy you, if you live in New Orleans?
‘City Hall now takes in about $190 million a year in property taxes. That’s 43% more in constant dollars than it brought in two decades ago — to serve a population that’s shrunk by roughly a quarter.
‘On top of that, the city’s budget this year is stuffed with more than $300 million in federal grants, an amount that dwarfs any American city of comparable size.
‘[But] even with $10 million in dedicated funding, city crews last year cleared just 1,500 of the city’s 72,000 catch basins.
‘In 1995, the public works department’s maintenance yard had more than 175 workers. Now it’s down to fewer than 30.
‘Over the last 15 years, consultants warned that a 10-year storm would threaten at least 40% of the city with standing water of up to 3 feet.’ — New Orleans Times-Picayune
https://tinyurl.com/22uy82ws
Is this a consequence of shambolic, corrupt African-American rule? Or is the USA another Soviet Union, visibly cracking up as it can’t even get the basics right?
The corrupt and federally incarcerated Mayor Nagin did confirm that NOLA is a “chocolate city.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEH9u26Vlhk
Thanks!
‘I don’t care whut people are sayin’ Uptown …’ — Ray Nagin
–> He’s referring to the last redoubt of white folks in chocolate New Orleans.
‘D.C. wuz the first chocolate city that ever came on the map … Newark, Detroit, New Awlins …’ — Ray Nagin
–> How are these outposts of advanced, otherworldly Wakandan technology workin’ out for us? Or did they just steal Jewish Space Lasers [google it]?
Nevertheless, setting aside the social pathology of chocolate cities, America is still a dying empire. When first I heard about the Golden Dome, I thought they meant the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. But no — it’s a purely American grift, designed to deliver Maynard Keynes’ long-delayed euthanasia of the middle class:
https://spacenews.com/senate-forms-golden-dome-caucus-to-champion-missile-defense-shield/
Ronald Raygun’s ‘Star Wars’ never went away; it just changed in form. Meanwhile, any man jack can just dangle a hundred-dollah bill under the bathroom stall partition at DCA for some hot Congress Clown action.
Property taxes pay for infrastructure needed to access and provide utilities to enhance the value of property. So it is more than reasonable for us to pay some property tax…but ONLY for directly related services that enhance our property values and maximum its use. After property tax pays for initial installation, all road upkeep should be paid by gasoline taxes…everybody uses the roads, everybody pay ps for them…not property owners.
BUT when a person has paid property taxes on his home for 20 years, he (or she) has paid his fair share. Or at least no taxes on the first $500k private residence property assessment after paying for 20 years. Or maybe after paying residential taxes for 20 years they drop in half and after 30 years, they end. But no seniors who have worked and paid taxes all their lives should be worried about losing their home when they have carried the world on their backs for 30-40 years, and are now too old, weak, and sick to work.
Glee,
I don’t know where you live, but when I lived in my old house in the city, I paid a bill to said city which included water, sewer and trash collection fees. There was also the electric bill, the gas bill and the cable bill, and the funds directed to these various entities went both the maintenance and new construction of this infrastructure you mention. No need for paying “my fair share” through property taxes.
I’m happy there is no such infrastructure anywhere near me and hope there never is. THAT is a big portion of the value I have for my land.
You might make a valid point if you didn’t also pay directly for utilities. Some cities and counties have it baked into taxes but that’s rare. Most of the time you (or whoever built the house) paid a substantial tap fee to tie into the water and sewer and a connection fee for the electrical power. Then you still pay monthly use charges for those things.
Property taxes usually cover schools, maybe surface streets and parks, that fancy pro stadium, sometimes trash collection.
It’s not always for streets, which may be covered either directly with fuel taxes or via grants and payments from a larger entity, the state or Feds.
Property taxes primary existence is to keep you from being free-and-clear home owners, wrapping the sloth of school districts mostly and secondarily “improvement” districts and “special” authorities.
I sometimes think taxing income is the more pernicious drag, being a direct assault on productivity. But the case for permanent serfdom via property taxes is compelling. Both are evil wrapped in flowery words of “shared” responsibility and are compulsory under threat of prison or financial ruin, hardly the model of voluntary social participation.
Haha! Not in my neck of the woods. All we get for our tax dollars is a dumpster site and bandaid road maintenance. Oh and sub par schooling for kids even if you do not have any.
The issue with property tax is an interesting one to consider. One way or another services will have to be paid for. Originally fire departments were by subscription; if you paid they put the fire out if you didn’t they might have come out but only to insure that covered house did not catch fire but otherwise did nothing. In a situation like that I could see the mortgage holder would demand certain coverage’s (fire, police) were in place to protect their asset.
People renting instead of buying to avoid paying property taxes are just fooling themselves because even if your landlord is a saint the only difference between renting and buying is the matter of the down payment. Your rent would still have to cover the mortgage, house insurance, maintenance and property taxes.
Your only other option is as Jim H says is to live on GovCo land and move as needed. RV parks will still have the same aforementioned costs and will bill you for same.
Hey Landru,
The fire department out where I live still works by subscription, and I’m happy that this is so.
The best method toward freedom other than the abolition of the property tax is to avoid the mortgage, building your house and necessities incrementally. Unfortunately, few areas allow any kind of temporary housing, so you’d be forced to rent from someone else while your built your house, which would sap your funds. By design, I’m sure.
As the people of Palisades in California figured out, having your own private fire department isn’t a bad idea. I’m of the mind that firefighters are perhaps one of the least offensive public utility. They do voluntarily staff a justifiably dangerous job all the time. This is unlike cops who give that lip service but are the first to duck and cover if given the chance. On the list of dangerous jobs roofers and electricians rank higher than cops. But firefighters, EMTs, Flight For Life, those people are doing legitimately risky jobs for the benefit of others (and pay, of course). But even fire departments have grown fat with greed, demanding more and more from the trough. They, like EVERYTHING, would benefit from competition to stay sharp and efficient. I have no problem with a government fire department but they ought to exist as a default funding and if you decide to spend your money on a private department then you don’t kick into the public kitty. Funding, if it must be via coercive property tax, then being by vouchers. Same as they’re trying to do for schools. Allow charter police, fire, road, etc. At least make the government suckling pigs compete against each other.
Unfortunately everything red has a grossly inflated price, because whole parasitic industries have grown up around money forcibly stolen from the taxpayers.
Another huge problem is the rise of academic “professionalism” including “training” requirements, so even if you’re a volunteer who gets $15 for a call regardless of if it’s one hour or 24, you’re still subject to time wasting training requirements and paid trainers. Then there is mandatory replacement of turnout gear every couple years even in a small rural volunteer dept which has fewer calls in 5 years than a big urban dept gets in a week.
It’s a mess, and a constant budget buster for small towns and rural areas.
And the fire departments are much like the schools, bureaucratic entities greedily shoving their snouts into the trough. They are organized and the taxpayers are not. So they get whatever they demand.
Is democracy, comrade. So long as voting is not strictly limited to qualified citizens who have skin in the game, democracy is communism. And it always collapses over loose fiscal policy, ends in civil war and then strong man tyranny. No exceptions.
My wife and I don’t have children. I resent paying taxes to educate other people’s kids.
Apparently in India public education is only up to maybe grade six and after that the parents have to pay for it. I’m darn sure that the parents there are definitely incentivized to make sure they get their money’s worth.
$75K a year for teachers and the kids are illiterate and then the scruel board blame the parents……
OK. So long as those who don’t contribute to educating the next generation, receive NO benefits from the educated…no access to doctors, carpenters, accountants, architects, engineers, etc. Using your own reasoning, only those who paid for education should be served by those so educated. Go build your own house and remove your own tonsils. Fair enough. You earned it.
“receive NO benefits from the educated”
You are using the term “educated” rather loosely. We are deeply within the world of ideocracy. Public education is an abject failure.
Public rightthink would be a better term for it.
Hey Glee,
Doctors, carpenters, accountants, architects and engineers DID pay for their own education, and WE pay for their services, whether or not we contributed to their elementary education. As needed. As it should be. Go to your doctor and request your discount for putting him through K-12. See what happens.
Some of the most intelligent and successful people I know dropped out of school and pursued their own interests, to their unquestionable benefit. Education is much more than what is taught in public school.
The publik edukashun sistum is atrocious, and if I didn’t know better, I’d say it serves more to impair the mental growth of children more than augment it. Now, who might benefit from THAT?
Well, a great many opportunists might like a legion of mental midgets steeped in a system of compliance and conformity. They are more easily controlled and manipulated.
“Go build your own house”
I’m about to.
So those people don’t pay tuition? Your argument would hold some water if we educated all those doing “important” (by who’s definition?) jobs and they didn’t take a salary to do them. Public education is no different than bail outs, where risk is socialized and benefit is privatized. Wall Street happily let us cover their losses but clutch your pearls if you ask them to pay us back or to throw their profits back into the pool of money. No, that’s fascism, we live in America, where capitalism rules. Unless you might go bankrupt, then it’s FDIC and Treasury to the rescue.
I’m fully with you, Antoine. My wife is even a school teacher (at the moment) and would agree. Publik skool has largely become a subsidy for lunch and daycare.
Kids are the responsibility of their parents, much like their dogs or cars or lawns, expect that they typically love them more, and trust them less!
100 percent, BaDnOn –
I like kids. I am happy to help them when I am able. But I deeply resent kids being used to mulct me (and others). It’s diabolical because it causes people to dislike kids (not any specific kid, just “kids”) because they become a claim upon what’s yours.
So often “…For the children!”, Eric. It IS diabolical to frame people such as us as uncaring, unfeeling, selfish misers for not wanting to be robbed by those using their kids as an excuse. If you had kids and can’t for them, YOU are the villain, not me.
>If you had kids and can’t for them, YOU are the villain, not me.
Long ago, I was solicited by Jimmy Carter’s “Habitat for Humanity,” wanting me to *donate* my time to help build a house for a po’ Black Southerner with 8 kids or so.
At the time, I was earning my living as a construction framing carpenter, working mainly by the piece. It is a strenuous and dangerous job, but at the time the money was good, and I was perfectly happy with my job.
Nobody ever gave me any money (nor would I have accepted charity). I earned every penny of the down payment on my own house, the monthly payments, the taxes and insurance.
And I didn’t get laid, either. So, put your dick away, Rastus, and GET A JOB. I wrote Habitat for Humanity expressing essentially the above sentiments. Never did hear back from them. 🙂
Hey Adi,
I always thought “Habitat for Humanity” sounded like “Human Zoo” and would never give anything to such a concept.
Otherwise, when I lived in the city, I was always looking for a charity that might use my labor rather than my money, and perhaps I could use my tools to build houses for the homeless. It appeared that such a charity didn’t exist. They always just wanted money, and I suspect that a great number of them were just scams.
>“Habitat for Humanity” sounded like “Human Zoo”
Now THAT is funny. 🙂
I think we should be able to claim said kids on our tax returns. For if we are paying for their education (and a lousy one at that), with the screaming masses telling us we are responsible for them, yada yada, then it is only fair and right that we who do not have children are allowed to deduct them on our taxes every year: State and Federal. If we are going to get saddled with raising them in every way, except being able to discipline them, which they sorely need more than anything, at the very least, we should get some money at the end of the year for not having a say in any of this.
True that.
An old friend of mine (haven’t seen her since before the pandemic), used to be an engineer then taught math at the local community college. Kind of a tiger mom. (She’s Chinese, she gets to be). Anyway, when her kids were in school she’d let them treat it like playtime, because that’s pretty much all it was. when they got home in the afternoons, that’s when the real lessons started, which she taught. And she had actual expectations. Because she wanted to make sure they actually learned something.
>I resent paying taxes to educate other people’s kids.
Copy that. If I am going to be forced to pay for someone else’s childrens’ education, I really do think I ought to have “privileges” with their mother, if I so choose. In fact the amount of my “contribution” should be set on a sliding scale based on her “attributes.”
Fat, ugly, low IQ sweathog with a very low (or negative) sexual market value?
Sorry, no “contribution.”
Hahahahaha!..
You’re killing me, Adi.
Here’s another thing your property taxes subsidize, at least in Commiefornia:
Newsom calls for walking back free healthcare for eligible undocumented immigrants
‘Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office said his spending plan for the upcoming fiscal year will call for requiring all undocumented adults to pay $100 monthly premiums to receive coverage and for blocking all new adult applications to the program as of Jan. 1.’
— LA Times, May 14, 2025
Just for comparison, the Medicare Part B premium is $185 a month this year — for
victimsseniors who ‘contributed’ to this program all their lives.Something is deeply askew in the DPRK (Democratic Peoples Republic of Kommiefornicate). 🙁
The only politician talking about the immorality of property taxes and perhaps abolishing these taxes is Governor Desantis. We all may be moving South if he can accomplish this.
I’m commenting before reading the article because the property tax has been the single-most important and outrageous issue for me. Not only is it immoral, not only does it mean that no one owns property where property taxes are collected, that we all rent from the government, but it’s been shocking to me for decades that conservatives care very little about it.
To me, it’s incredible that your most important purchase in life is the only one that can be taken from you. Don’t get me wrong, I’d entertain something like a one-time sales tax that could be incorporated into the mortgage, but of course, that penalizes those who move more often.
When I brought this up on Fox several months back, I got two responses from conservatives who disagreed with me, and one who shared my POV. I’ve long said that the only people I despise more than every liberal on the planet are a whole lot of conservatives, and their position on the property tax typifies why.
Amen, Ted –
The same has happened to me. This showed me that there really isn’t much difference, when it comes down to it, between a “liberal” and a “conservative.” I really don’t care why my money is taken from me – nor what it is spent on. I care that it is taken from me.
Eric, I used to run a conservative forum, and that’s where I began to sour on conservatives. They were mostly whiners until the day I chastised Rush Limbaugh for declaring that there was nothing wrong with our healthcare system, and the bulk of the populace agreed with him. I told them they’d better find a way to get people affordable insurance through the free market, or they were going to get exactly what they feared most.
For that I was called very name in the book, and my closest friend there was the most viciously vocal. The forum was subsequently and immediately decimated, and a few years later we got Obamacare.
A city can issue municipal bonds at a price to fund a project, improved infrastructure.
The bond has investors that want a return on the investment.
Municipal bonds translate to property taxes to pay back the bond investors.
City leaders want zee money!
“The city may also issue general obligation bonds, which are backed by the city’s full faith and credit and taxing power.”
Says it all right there.
Republicans want those property taxes in the worst way. Jonesin’ for those taxes night and day.
Can’t go cold turkey on them, those taxes are there to prevent delirium tremens in those conservatives who invest in the bond markets.
Anybody in their right mind would oppose property taxes.
Find better ways to raise the money, property taxes have become confiscatory.
Remember the Andy Griffith episode where the Mayberry town leaders were going to seize an old guy’s house bc he couldn’t pay the property tax? Turned out the old homeowner had a city bond worth over 300,000 dollars. The mayor of Mayberry was a bit surprised, the city couldn’t possibly pay the money, helped the old man spruce up his house.
The tune changed.
There ain’t no easy way out – Tom Petty
I had to find the song, Drumpish. Good grief, 1989? Time sure does fly, but here is Tom Petty’s video of said song. A blast from the past! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvlTJrNJ5lA
Maybe 10 years ago, a newspaper published a PDF which contained the names of all the teachers in a local school district.
Many salaries were between 65,000 to 77,000 USD per year.
Several teachers had the same surname, husband and wife, with salaries of 68,000 and 70,000 USD.
The year was for 2014 salaries for educators, the athletic director was paid 103,000 USD.
You report for teacher duty in the middle of August, work until the last week of May, beach time, beer time, time for fun in the sun.
The Life of Riley for them me thinks.
I was taken aback at what I saw, the newspaper was forced to remove the page by the local school district, it disappeared.
You are denied to know where the money goes and you still pay for it, probably an arm, maybe even a leg.
Up here we have had a property tax cap. Which has to be voted on by the people in order to be increased. We voted twice last year a definitive “no” to a property tax increase for school funding. We pay more per pupil and rank 49. The pro-fund-the-schools crowd was not happy for the failed initiative tax increase and blamed those of us who did not want to pay more for such crappy results. Funny thing: Not a one of these fools are volunteering to give up their yearly dividends or their kids dividends for the cause.
And until they do I don’t think the rest of us should have to pay any more than we already are.
‘In feudal times, the serfs were allowed to live on a piece of land so long as they handed over a portion of the fruits of their labor to the lord.’ — eric
A majority of property taxes — two-thirds in some districts — goes to fund the bloated cost of public schools. Teachers unions did this to us.
In some parts of the country, property taxes are de minimis. Some modest houses in Phoenix are taxed at as little as $1,000 to $1,500 a year. On a monthly basis, that’s like another utility bill.
If dodging property tax entirely is a personal
obsession concern, buy an RV and live on plentiful government land in the West. Legally you can stay 14 days before moving on down the road. But (whisper it) enforcement capability is lacking, so many stay for months and years.‘Internal snowbirds’ in Arizona live in the mountains during the summer, and head down to the desert in winter.
What’s amazing is that you seem to think your “compromise” is reasonable.
“Teachers unions did this to us.”
Nope. The public keeps voting for more taxation. . . Or the voting is rigged.
Put the blame where it belongs – vote harder.
I’ve seen it happen.
A state sales tax of five percent wasn’t enough, the city added a 1.5 percent sales tax for economic development, then another one percent to stabilize property taxes.
The one percent sales tax had a sunset clause about to expire, a Madison Avenue add campaign succeeded in retaining the one percent sales tax meant to reduce property taxes.
What do you mean the tax is going to end? Are you crazy? That’s a lot of money down the drain. We have to protect our phony baloney tax!
Just have an election and bombard everybody with the propaganda that their property taxes will increase if the one cent sales continuance ceases. You can scare the bejesus out of them, they’ll still pay even more. The beatings and all of that nonchalant jazz.
2.5 percent is a 50 percent increase in sales tax, easy to spot that.
The Gravy Train for them is what you get.
Guess what else happens? Property taxes increased by 60 percent in just a few years, didn’t take long.
Dot.gov is a racket, can’t be anything else.
BiD, it is the “teacher’s unions” that did this…via the ballot box.
If you have a gathering of 10 or more people I guarantee you that several will either be employed directly in the GovCo school system and/or have immediate relatives that are.
When you hear, “We need more money for schools and the children” what you should hear is, “The people employed in GovCo schools want more money in their pockets” because that’s where it goes.
It’s called Voting Yourself Largesse. There have even been proposals that GovCo schools close so those employed can go vote. They’re a bunch of duplicitous parasites. “For the children” my butt.
Every few years there’s a referendum. The options are to raise the school budget, or to keep it the same. And if you vote to keep it the same they’ll just come back around every few years until they get what they want.
How come there’s never an option to cut the school’s budget? I’d vote for it. I bet other people would, too. Who knows if it would pass. But basic fairness would seem to indicate that option should be covered too, just in case it’s a more popular alternative.
For that matter, how come I don’t get some kind of discount since I don’t have kids?
Yep, the whole thing is a system of thievery! The assessors have made their rounds this year and they left a card in my door stating they were here (how thoughtful of them) two weeks ago. I figure next year it will be “bend over even mere, grab the ankles and spell r.u.n.” when the “revised” new tax assessments are sent out! It is a good thing they can’t put a tax on our souls but then again some Ahole may contemplating that too!
It’s shocking that property taxes are assessed on unrealized gains based on possibly one person’s opinion of the property’s value, and you don’t get money back if prices decline, yet this barely registers on conservatives’ lists of grievances.
The assessors here fly drones with cameras around to see if your keeping up with the Jone’s. I hope to be home some day when they are doing a fly by . 12 gauge with #2 shot should abort the mission. When income tax was first started it was ….. wait for it “temporary” to pay for wwI.
How about the Federal Communications Tax on your phone bill? It was imposed to pay for the Spanish-American War about 1898. Then you have income tax withholdings of your paycheck instead of paying yearly to the Feds to fund WW2. That provision was to be rescinded after the war. The wars are history but the taxes and provisions go on forever.
I surmise it is one reason why I have not purchased a home. No point when-after buying a parcel of land (let’s say 10 acres) and putting a house on it, paying it off….in the end, I still owe the state & borough rent for the rest of my life for the privilege of not not getting thrown out on the street. It is said that renting a house is throwing your money away. I am not so sure that paying taxes in perpetuity (or rent) is much different.
We’ve lived in our house a long time, and we’ve paid the government an amount that getting close to the price we originally paid for the house.
Hi Ted,
I have so far paid about $50k in property taxes on a house that I bought for $270k. And as bad as that is, there’s no end to it. If I live here another 20 years, I will have paid at least $100,000 in such taxes – which is confiscatory by any standard. But even here, in my rural Southern county, the “conservatives” will go after you if you dare to suggest you’ve paid enough – and that it is all theft.
Eric, your last sentence is perhaps the worst part of it all. I got married late and we have no children, so we subsidize the education of others’ children, and when I’ve brought this aspect up, I had two conservatives say, “Tough, that’s your choice.” I’m no longer shocked since the vast majority of Republicans in Congress are merely pretending to be conservative, and a fair number don’t even do that.
I am not sure how it was “your choice” to be forced against your will to educate children you did not have-with your tax dollars (but they did). Tough? Yeah, it would be tough if these parents actually had to take responsibility for the monsters they raise, rather than foster the blame for their lousy parenting on the rest of us.
Many of those islands and towns in and around Prince of Whales have no property taxes Shadow. Some are actually nice and habitable, since you’re already living in the land of the frozen tundra
I have not traveled down around that area, but hear it is quite beautiful, and the Winters are not as frigid. The borough next to mine does not have property taxes, but it is a looong drive to town to work. But some do just that, simply to avoid being in town 24/7. If one cannot afford to live here, but cannot afford to move, I think that finding a more hospitable place (not the Anchorage area, sadly) elsewhere in the state may prove to be a wise choice in the long run. With the way things are going in this neck of the woods.
Its well below the arctic circle and I have been told the winters are quite temperate, relative to the rest of the state. Better fishing there as well, not being landlocked
Depending on where you live.
Property tax is almost always WAY less expensive than rent.
Maintenance costs are on you though.
If you own your own place outright, and maintain it to a minimum standard, and stay on top of the taxes, it is almost always very very difficult for entities to force you out when you don’t want to go, and (outside of the law) no one can set the rules for you.
It’s far from a perfect system but the independence & the ability to set my own rules on my own property (if nowhere else) (at the time I was renting and everyone was afeared of the ‘Rona, including my landlord) that tipped the balance for me.
You’re right, Publius –
That said, the tax can always be (and always is) increased. If they can force you to pay $5 per year they can force you to pay $5,000 per year. And then $10,000. Eventually, they can force you to pay so much you cannot afford to pay. And they will, one day.
‘MURICA!!!
“Land of the free because of the brave” and other slogans will be trotted out in a few days so we can all thank the Killers From GovCo for their “service and sacrifice”
We are ceaselessly hectored that we “are the freest country in the world”. Really?
As you’ve so deftly pointed out, you don’t own shit in this country without GovCo’s permission.
The ChiComms are currently the Oppressor du jour and we must shun them at every opportunity.
However, are you familiar with what are called “Nail Houses”? Even the evil Chinese will not kick someone out of THEIR home for public works projects.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/photos-of-chinese-homes-owned-by-people-who-refuse-to-sell/
And we have the temerity to lecture the world on “democracy”. The world sees what this country has become and they don’t seem to be following our lead. Good for them.
“Real estate” has been a thieving scam for nearly a century.
If you want to get really upset do some research into how ‘private property’ ownership was changed into ‘real estate’ which ended the rights of ownership while expanding the responsibilities.
Thanks to the banking cartel and their shyster conspirators.