In 2012, North Dakota held a referendum to become the first US state to repeal property taxes.
The measure would have amended the state constitution to eliminate property taxes and mandate the government to find revenue through alternative means.
Proponents noted that a property tax was unnecessary because North Dakota had sufficient revenue from its state income tax and oil income.
They argued that property taxes were regressive taxation that disproportionately affected low-income homeowners and senior citizens. Further, repealing property taxes would provide financial relief to homeowners and foster economic growth by attracting businesses and residents.
A coalition of bureaucrats and special interest groups opposed the referendum.
In the end, voters rejected the referendum by a wide margin, with 78% voting to keep their property taxes.
A Disturbing Distortion of Property Rights
Most people thoughtlessly accept property taxes as a normal part of life—like gravity or the sun setting in the west.
There is no way to pay off your property tax obligation in one fell swoop. It hangs over your head as long as you own the property.
However, the existence of property taxes raises some important, fundamental questions.
Do you really own something if someone forces you to make never-ending (and ever-increasing) payments on it?
Clearly, the answer is “no.”
You would possess such an item but wouldn’t own it—an important distinction.
Suppose Tony Soprano imposed a coffee table property tax on his neighborhood. He would demand everyone pay him $100 every year—for eternity—for every coffee table they had in their house.
He would increase the amount owed each year depending on the market value of the coffee table. So, his goons would assess the current market value of your coffee tables every year to justify the ever-increasing extortion.
He would threaten those who refused to pay with violence, kidnapping, imprisonment, and the theft of “their” coffee tables and other property.
Would people living in Tony Soprano’s neighborhood really own their coffee tables?
While many people would correctly view this as an intolerable situation, these same people would unquestioningly accept government-imposed property taxes on “their” homes, offices, and raw land.
In actuality, you don’t really own anything you have to pay a never-ending and ever-increasing property tax to keep. You are merely renting from the real owners—stop paying, and you’ll find out who really owns it.
The government forecloses on the houses of people who don’t pay their property taxes all the time.
For example, Geraldine Tyler, a 94-year-old elderly woman living alone in Minnesota, lost her condo over unpaid property taxes. The government seized her property and sold it at auction.
It’s not uncommon for people in North America and Europe to pay tens of thousands of dollars in property tax every year… just to live in their own homes. And the burden will almost certainly continue to increase. This is because most governments continually raise property tax rates, especially governments in bad fiscal health, which is to say all of them.
Whenever politicians want more money, they can simply increase property taxes and hope nobody notices. It’s like changing the dial on a thermostat.
That’s why property taxes have nowhere to go but up.
It’s possible that, over a lifetime, the government could take more in property taxes than the underlying value of the property.
Conclusion
Respect for property rights and property taxes are mutually exclusive concepts.
What’s yours is yours, and you shouldn’t need to pay anyone for permission to keep it.
That’s why the very concept of property tax is a despicable affront to property rights, which underpins civilization itself.
The great Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises puts it best:
“If history could teach us anything, it would be that private property is inextricably linked with civilization.”
That’s why the people who promote, implement, and benefit from property taxes are anti-civilization parasites.
The unfortunate reality is that you will be paying ever-increasing property taxes… unless you own property in one of the few places on Earth without them, the Cayman Islands, for example.
As the example in North Dakota illustrated, the average person will overwhelmingly support keeping their property taxes even when given a rare chance to eliminate them.
It’s reminiscent of the scene in the movie The Matrix where Morpheus tells Neo how most people are comfortable with the system and would fight to protect it:
“The Matrix is a system, Neo. That system is our enemy.
But when you’re inside, you look around, what do you see? Businessmen, teachers, lawyers, carpenters. The very minds of the people we are trying to save.
But until we do, these people are still a part of that system and that makes them our enemy.
You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it.”
Due to overwhelming popular support for terrible things like property taxes, we can only expect them to increase.
The same is true for policies that cause inflation.
The growing majority of voters who collect net benefits from the government is a built-in constituency to perpetuate policies financed by ever-increasing inflation.
Here’s the bottom line.
Expect ever-increasing inflation and taxation until the situation spirals out of control… which could happen soon.
Unfortunately, most people have no idea how bad things can get, let alone how to prepare.
We will likely see incredible volatility in the financial markets that could decimate many ordinary people’s life savings and retirement assets.
But I’m not just talking about a stock market crash or a currency collapse…
It’s something much bigger… with the potential to alter the fabric of society forever.
It could result in an enormous wealth transfer from you to the parasitical class—politicians, central bankers, and those connected to them.
Few people are aware of what is really happening.
And even fewer know how to prepare.
That’s why I’ve just released an urgent PDF report revealing how it could all go down soon… and what you can do about it.
Check it out as soon as possible because it could soon be too late to take action. Click here to get it now.
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