Livin' the American Dream...........

Kickin’ back on the new deck. A gorgeous view of the 1 ½ acre lot spreads out before me as I sit on the new LL Bean Adirondack chair. Running a couple of businesses and owning a nice home. “Holy cow, does it get better than this?” I thought.

Thinking has typically been my problem.

“Wow, I’m so glad that I don’t live in the evil Chinese empire or that communist Cuban island where the governments own everything,” I mused.

Musing has typically been my problem.

Thinking and musing usually go better with a cold beverage. So I walked into the kitchen with a kind of pro-American mantra-type thing going on. Maybe I was humming the Star Spangled Banner.

Then I saw IT.

The tax bill. Property taxes. My mind came to a screeching halt. I OWNED my house, didn’t I?

Let’s see. I bought the house. I pay for the house. I furnished the house. I remodeled the house. I invest in the house. I even have a mortgage from the bank, who must think that I own it. So why am I not convinced?

What happens if I decide that I don’t want to pay the property taxes. It’s only $3000 per year anyway. Plus, it’s America! I own the place. I even pay less taxes because it’s my “homestead.” The word “homestead” brings to mind roaming buffalo and playing deer and antelope. How much more American can you get than taking care of the old homestead?

Taxes! Blah!

Well, don’t pay them and see what happens. In less than two years, the house you bought, paid for, furnished, remodeled, invested in, and mortgaged, will belong entirely to the local government. Why? Because you don’t own the house. You don’t own the land. You have the right to live there one year at a time (as long as you pay your taxes) bestowed upon you by your local government.

What’s even cooler is the fact that as you remodel and invest in the home, you have to pull permits to do the work. When a permit is pulled, a local assessor will come to your house and “reassess” your home. It turns out that the more you invest in the home, the more taxes you will pay on the home in order to keep living there! What a concept........

You will pay taxes every year on your home. Why? Because the government really owns the land your home sits on. Home “ownership” is merely an illusion. We just have the right to fix up the house and sell it for a profit to some other “renter.” Oh, yea. The profits that you make on the home might even be subject to capital gains tax.

I don’t get it. America is the center of the “Free Market” world, yet we cannot truly own the homes that we live in. Are we so conditioned to renting from the government that the issue is not even open to discussion? Are we so brainwashed into thinking that property taxes are a part of life that we don’t question it? Just like the old saying, “nothing is sure in life except death and taxes.”

My trip back to the Adirondack chair was, to say the least, disheartening. I surveyed the 1 ½ acres that I thought I owned and lost myself in my drink.......................What is the tune to the Chinese National Anthem?

Blawgerman