Incident: Recently I saw a news report regarding an older, traditional farmer who was about to loose his 100 acre farm to increasing property taxes. Apparently the farm had been in his family for about 100 years, being past on from parents to children. Due to recent housing developments in the area, the land has now been reassessed in value as a potential housing project, dismissing the time honored farming that had been a way of life serving people for generations. The annual property taxes have been increased accordingly.

Thoughts: The old thought of "Owning your own home.." is a myth. One doesn’t Own anything. One only rents it from the government, at comparatively cheaper rates than market rent. The rental is the annual property taxes due each year and although the terms, conditions, and collection process is comparatively favorable, it does eventually catch up and the payment becomes due. The justification of the rental increases is that the property is somehow worth more due to other people’s values of the surrounding land. This farmer has had the farm in his family for the last 100 years, being passed down the family tree. The love, labor, and sweat along with true appreciation and family traditions of the farm as been placed in jeopardy due to someone else believing that their idea of land use is better, and will produce a higher return on money. Sooner or later the farmer will not be able to generate the income to support the increasing property tax assessment and will have to either sell or develop the land, until the next generation of land use is determined. And the farmer has done nothing except the time honored traditions of farming, supplying the "Food" for his own extinction, i.e. if he didn’t supply the food, there would be less people able to afford the new developments, leading to less development, less demand for neighboring land and ultimately less taxes. This also leads to less demand for food, less income, and eventually less traditional farms. It’s appears to be a loose-loose situation. The farmer cannot win in a long term situation. He will have to sell or be gobbled up by a bigger, more efficient farming company ( or become one himself). The main reason is the property taxes. It is a slow moving, unstoppable fog that menacingly moves across the fences of traditional land ownership and forces the owners, aka renters, off or demands they change the land according to the progression of society. If they don’t, society becomes more hostil and will demand penalties and additional return on it’s pseudo investment in the form of interest. Once the penalties and interest start rolling over the property the end is near. The farmer will be forced to leave his once "pride of ownership" of over 100 years in a time honored tradition of feeding society and helping it grow. Yes, he will be forced to accept the new materialistic value of all that tradition and end up buying a Winnebago with a useful 5 year life. A somewhat less than the crowning achievements that his father, grand father, great grandfather and great-great grand father were able to pass on to their family.

Conclusion: Although the idea of home ownership is a myth, because eventually you have to return it to society, it is, unfortunately, a necessary evil. There has to be the function of turnover, recycling, or demand. The land certainly isn’t growing, but the people are, in increasingly faster numbers. If complete 100% ownership is allowed, then eventually the land would be owned by a certain few, to do with as they please. Eventually the land would be gone, people wouldn’t be able to establish themselves with a sense of permanence and security that "ownership" provides. Now-a-days people are moving from one place to another and the majority of ownership is focused on one generation at a time. The system is working, but perhaps at the expense of the traditional need to establish family roots. There is no ownership, just the right of a temporary "squatting rights" to regain the values of family traditions, with society looming on the horizon…. And then move on…….