Only One Land Owner in the United States

Becoming a landowner is one of the primary American dreams. It is a status symbol. Being a landowner is one of the ways to show that you can make it on your own. It is also a sanctuary and a castle. Your house and land is supposed to be sacred unto you. But did you realize that you don’t actually own it?

When you purchase or inherit a piece of property you receive a deed to that property. Only that deed is not actually a title to your land. All you are really purchasing is the right to lease the land and make some improvements on it. If you don’t believe me, just try telling the states that you aren’t going to pay your property taxes. The state will swoop in, take your property and then auction it off to the highest bidder. Poof! You are now homeless.

Is that not enough to convince you that you don’t own your land? How about eminent domain? The government can decide they want your property for the “good of the people” and you are once again homeless. Maybe they want a road to go through your property, or how about a new park. Maybe it is a developer that wants to put in high rises. Whatever the reason, the government will take that property from you whenever it decides to. Pray you don’t get in their crosshairs!

The only landowner is the government. Slaves are not allowed to own property, and here we find ourselves not able to own property. We may not be slaves completely yet, but this certainly pushes us closer.

Our founding fathers are rolling over in their graves so fast you might think it is a new amusement park ride. How are you doing? Had enough yet? Is this the straw that breaks the camels back? If not, how much more will it take?

WHAT I LEARNED FROM THE DEMOCRATS, REPUBLICANS, AND LIBERTARIANS

Having been raised by southern democrats and educated by the 60’s hippies turned teachers, I have a lot to be thankful for. The liberals taught me two main lessons that will be with me forever, and effect how I think.

First, they taught me empathy. They taught me how to feel bad for the homeless, feel pain for the hungry, and feel the unfairness of any given situation. They taught me how to get in touch with my heart. But more importantly, they taught me to question.

You still see the bumper stickers around that read “question authority”. The democrats taught me to question anything, with any kind of authority. I was supposed to question creationism, history, religion, those in power (the republicans), and on and on. This was a lesson I learned very well. Questions can be fun! Dig in and question everything. Oops. Maybe I took their lesson a little to far, because my questions led me to the republicans.

Growing up, I always thought those republicans were the scary, and unfair people. But in the quest for answers I had to question them as well. The republicans taught me to take those feelings and questions to the next step and apply human nature to them. Feeding the poor only helps them momentarily. What do you do next?

The republicans also taught me to be even more empathetic than the democrats. Teach the poor how to feed themselves. Isn’t abortion just the murder of a sweet innocent baby? Why should we help those who refuse to help themselves?

Unfortunately, I kept finding that those feelings were getting in the way of my questions. If you let those feelings control you, you quit feeling the need to question. You stop, and pursue the solution to that last feeling. Feed the homeless. Stop abortion. What was that last feeling? Go with it.

I didn’t like being just a creature of feelings. That will just wear a person out! In came the libertarians. They taught me the most important lesson of all. They taught me that it is all right to have all those feelings, but the most important feeling you should have is the feeling of freedom and liberty!

At first, I thought that was easy. Feel free! The democrats and the republicans taught me lots about freedom. Or had they? Democrats seem to want to control me with anything to do with money. Ah yes, they had taught me that money was evil. If you have to much the democrats should have the right to come and take it away, to help those who don’t have so much. Wow, is that freedom? That seems to smack of socialism, and seems to be telling me that I don’t have the freedom to earn as much as I want.

Ah, but the republicans don’t believe that money is evil. Maybe they taught me how to be free. Oh no! They seem to want to control what I do socially. They are trying to control how I am allowed to die, whether or not I should wear a seat belt. When I am allowed to drink alcohol. Once again I must ask, is that freedom? Not so much. Seems to smack like socialism again.

Seems as though the libertarians have the toughest lesson to learn. You would think the feelings of freedom would be instinctual, but when you have lived life not free, those feelings are squashed.

I am still learning the liberty lesson. I think this is a lesson that I may have to work on for the rest of my life. The biggest thing that seems to help me find those freedom lessons is remembering that the government is not my parent and should not act like it!

The Government or the Mafia?

I recently read a statement by Lysander Spooner detailing how the government was less respectable than a common highwayman. Spooner wrote about that in the 1800s, but I think the more apt comparison for this day and age would be the mafia.

The mafia started up by taking money for protection. Of course they never completely explained what that protection was from. Though we can guess. Some of that protection was from the mafia itself, just ask the shopkeepers who thought they didn’t have to pay.

If you were very good to the mafia, and a problem arose, there was a good chance the mafia boss might take care of the problem for you. Don’t ask how, you May not want to know. (Makes me wonder what the statistics would say about how many child molesters resided in mafia territory. I bet not many unless they were extremely good at hiding.)

Our government takes money for protection as well. Of course they term protection money as taxes and fees. Just like the mafia, our government continually raises those taxes though. You can only count on the tax rate for one year at a time. Never know just what congress might want this time.

Don’t forget to make your tax contributions! You don’t even want to know what the IRS might do to you and your family if you don’t!

What is the government protecting us from? That is a subject of much debate. They seem only to truly want to protect us from ourselves. Wear your seat-belt. Wear your motorcycle helmet. No drinking until you are 21. Can’t get antibiotics unless you pay a licensed practitioner to write you a prescription. Last I checked the government wasn’t supposed to be my mother!

Is the government protecting us from that which is actually endangering us? How about the plethora of sexual predators that roam the streets, and live in our neighborhoods? How about from all those gang bangers that I hear about on the news every day, making me scared to go into certain neighborhoods? How about from terrorists? They say they are, but isn’t it just luck that we haven’t been hit again. Just look how many people freely cross our borders with nothing stopping them.

As a nation, we have romanticized the horrible. Look how loved pirates, serial murders and the mafia is. Is it any wonder that this happens when our government seems no better?