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RE: "Mine?" A Deeper Look at the Realities of Home Ownership, Taxes and Government...
I have lived in villages in the Himalayas where people owned their own houses and land. There were no property taxes. Life was reasonably civilized and I did not observe that the inhabitants had "fallen" into uncivilized tribalism/feudalism. I am sure there are other places in the world like that. No, they did not have paved roads. But living walking distance from their fields and having no cars, they did not need them. Why are you so pessimistic about your and our neighbors' ability to aspire to something similar?
To be honest, I think my pessimism — or maybe it's cynicism — has grown since living in the US. When I came to this country as a Danish exchange student, I was far more idealistic and trusting in a world in which the vast majority of people were "positive actors," even though I am — by nature — fairly reclusive.
My opinions are probably also colored by having been on the "receiving end" of rather more deception, manipulation and even fraud than I care to think about. Why does this happen, one might ask? Perhaps because I give the benefit of the doubt to
too manythe wrong people.It's a good question, and I appreciate you asking... and I need to check myself a bit, here.
Yes it probably needs to begin by choosing to live in a small community with like minded people. Once ostentatious consumption does not equate status, and you control the education of your children locally, you are probably most of the way there. Taxes tend to benefit some, even many, but penalize others. So it seems optimal that no tax is valid without 100% consensus. Better the project/amenity,upgrade be left undone then to have it imposed on anyone against their will. Most people in a small community will make sacrifices if they are convinced that it is for the general good and not to benefit some at the expense of others.
Smaller does seem to equate "better" in many ways. We moved from a metro area of almost 2 million (Austin, TX) to our small city of some 9,500 and in many ways things we didn't feel "right" about have gone away. Some of the "tax issues" we are seeing here now are related to that pattern...
The "curious" thing, though, is that a lot of people seek a "better way," but tend to bring their problems with them from the places they left. We see a great influx of people from California here, trying to escape a certain way of life. And all is well.. until 3-4 years pass and they start "missing" their big city amenities, thereby changing the very character of the place they were drawn to, in the first place.
Yes, I took some of my "needs" with me to the Himalayas way back then. I am sure that I contributed to a dis-harmonizing of the local lifestyle. And I wasn't even fro California :-)