Something to think about.
My dad and I had a good discussion today.
I spent most of the day chainsawing timber...trees and limbs that had fallen during the ice storm. I've got a pretty sizable timber pile stacked up...girthy and taller than a man. It will make a good bonfire when the first few weeks of summer dry the ground and woods out. I haven't had a good bonfire in quite awhile.
I sold my truck today. Granted, for $750 less than I had it listed for (and $750 less than I think it's worth,) but it's sold. I've payed off my debts to my dad, so I intend to use the rest to pay off one of my bills...probably my computer...and get started on an apartment (deposit, laundry detergent, etc. etc.)
While we were driving into town, to find a notary to notarize the title for the truck, my dad and I somehow got on the subject of taxes.
He remarked that the house he is living in now, he and mom...and I (temporarily)...he owns it. I knew he had lived here awhile back, I guess after he'd come back from Vietnam and then moved back from California, so 70's maybe. When I go into the attic to find something I've stowed away, I can see the roof of the house that my dad had lived in many years ago...before he and my mom had moved to Alabama to have my sister, and then moved back to have me, in the home I grew up in...on Bellview.
After I went off to college, mom and dad split up. Mom went to Frankfort, and dad moved into the house next-door to this one. When this house went up for sale...and some other things happened...mom and dad got back together and bought this house.
It is payed off. They own it...the bought it straight cash, I guess. The house, the property, dad owns it.
So to speak...
In the car, on the way back from the notary, he mentioned how ridiculous it is that, although he owns this house and this property, he still has to pay property taxes to the government.
If he doesn't pay the property taxes, on the property that he supposedly owns, the government will prosecute him. This property and this house will be up for auction on the courthouse steps.
So what does that mean? Even though my dad has payed in full for this house and property, he still has to pay the government for the right to own it. If he does not, then he, we, are not allowed to live here. So in all reality, the government owns it.
Dad owns this house and property at the mercy of the government. Whats to stop them from arbitrarily taking it away?
I think people miss the fundamental problem with taxes. America has always been the home of utopian ideals; our own Atlantis. The free country. Liberty. Where you are free to enjoy the spoils of your labor. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
But we take for granted the fact that, all of these rights that are supposedly "god given" or naturally born to us...we have to buy. We pay for them.
Is that right?
I don't own anything. No matter what I purchase from another man, in full, I don't own it. If I have something, I have it at the governments mercy. If I don't pay my taxes, my possessions are forfeit?
I have no problem with paying for things like roads, police, military, the courts...but where are my dollars going? Look at the stimulus. Why do I have to pitch a large part of my income into the pot to fund a monorail system between vegas and disneyland, in order to keep my car?
Does that make sense?
Of course. Welcome to the United States of Stupid.
I spent most of the day chainsawing timber...trees and limbs that had fallen during the ice storm. I've got a pretty sizable timber pile stacked up...girthy and taller than a man. It will make a good bonfire when the first few weeks of summer dry the ground and woods out. I haven't had a good bonfire in quite awhile.
I sold my truck today. Granted, for $750 less than I had it listed for (and $750 less than I think it's worth,) but it's sold. I've payed off my debts to my dad, so I intend to use the rest to pay off one of my bills...probably my computer...and get started on an apartment (deposit, laundry detergent, etc. etc.)
While we were driving into town, to find a notary to notarize the title for the truck, my dad and I somehow got on the subject of taxes.
He remarked that the house he is living in now, he and mom...and I (temporarily)...he owns it. I knew he had lived here awhile back, I guess after he'd come back from Vietnam and then moved back from California, so 70's maybe. When I go into the attic to find something I've stowed away, I can see the roof of the house that my dad had lived in many years ago...before he and my mom had moved to Alabama to have my sister, and then moved back to have me, in the home I grew up in...on Bellview.
After I went off to college, mom and dad split up. Mom went to Frankfort, and dad moved into the house next-door to this one. When this house went up for sale...and some other things happened...mom and dad got back together and bought this house.
It is payed off. They own it...the bought it straight cash, I guess. The house, the property, dad owns it.
So to speak...
In the car, on the way back from the notary, he mentioned how ridiculous it is that, although he owns this house and this property, he still has to pay property taxes to the government.
If he doesn't pay the property taxes, on the property that he supposedly owns, the government will prosecute him. This property and this house will be up for auction on the courthouse steps.
So what does that mean? Even though my dad has payed in full for this house and property, he still has to pay the government for the right to own it. If he does not, then he, we, are not allowed to live here. So in all reality, the government owns it.
Dad owns this house and property at the mercy of the government. Whats to stop them from arbitrarily taking it away?
I think people miss the fundamental problem with taxes. America has always been the home of utopian ideals; our own Atlantis. The free country. Liberty. Where you are free to enjoy the spoils of your labor. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
But we take for granted the fact that, all of these rights that are supposedly "god given" or naturally born to us...we have to buy. We pay for them.
Is that right?
I don't own anything. No matter what I purchase from another man, in full, I don't own it. If I have something, I have it at the governments mercy. If I don't pay my taxes, my possessions are forfeit?
I have no problem with paying for things like roads, police, military, the courts...but where are my dollars going? Look at the stimulus. Why do I have to pitch a large part of my income into the pot to fund a monorail system between vegas and disneyland, in order to keep my car?
Does that make sense?
Of course. Welcome to the United States of Stupid.