The first families to come to the coast moved into a relatively, sparely populated area, with low property taxes. These hard working Americans, like most people, invested in their homes with their blood and sweet; spending their precious weekends working on their homes, keeping up the outer appearances, while also, over the years, adding a screened porch, a garage or other basic comforts and necessities as their means allowed. They invested their time and the little money they could afford in keeping their family home a beautiful, safe and secure nest for themselves and their families. It is called family wealth.
These hard working people often weighed options such as: “should we use our saving this year for a vacation, or would building the screened porch be a wiser investment of our money for our future comfort and pleasure?” They carefully directed their money to build future family wealth for themselves. They wanted to pass on, to their children and grandchildren, what they had worked for so hard for most their lives; the security of owning a mortgage free home. However, that is not allowed for long for the non rich. Building family wealth, for the middle income families, is usually taken away from them, eventually, because of the government.
It appears that middle income people are not allowed to live in the nicest places for long, if that is where the wealthy decide to move to. Is it right that we be controlled like that? Why is it that our hard work, over the decades and generations, doesn’t count in the eyes of the government? Why is it that the government doesn’t protect our life long investments in our homes? Not only does the government not acknowledge the blood and sweat investments we put into our homes, often for decades, they actively put us in positions of forcing us to lose our homes, in favor of the rich, or because of greedy or political government spending.
Over the decades, the once off the beaten path, family ocean front homes became attractive to the wealthy. Then the wealthy soon built their large summer “cottages”, mansions to us normal folks, in the neighborhood. This forced fisherman and other normal, income folks to sell their beach front homes. Even though the normal folks were the first to arrive, because they were not of the elitist financial class, these regular folks could not afford to pay what the town now decided their family home, of decades, were now worth. Only the rich were now allowed into their neighborhood; people, who often didn’t even stay over winter, were the ones forcing year round middle income folks out of their family homes.
Maybe their family just paid $5,000 for their home, decades ago. It was their dream to own ocean front property. So they moved north, where they could afford to make their dream a reality. The house became a treasured, family legacy for this average income family. Then suddenly, because of new rich neighbors, their homes that had been in the family for fifty to hundred years now had a yearly property tax bill of $25,000 or $30,000. Most Americans don’t even make that much money annually. Some of the better off ones, tried to hold on to their family legacies, often spending up to three quarters of their income or more to keep their homes by paying the government their proclaimed “due” of an outrageous property tax bill. The government drove many of these hard working people into poverty, until they were forced to sell their family home. How ironic that the grandparents thought their descendants would be more financially secure in having a mortgage free home. Little could they foresee that the town would demand more money than the bank ever did, and would force their descendants out because they couldn’t afford to keep their mortgage free home because of rich people moving in next door. Is that the American way; to steal the wealth of your parents and grandparents, because the rich wanted what you had worked so hard for over the decades?
Should the rich have that much power against average income Americans? Should property taxes be raised so outrageously high, that it drives out hard working people out of their family homes? Is ocean front property now just for the rich, who often only live there in the summer? Why do the fishermen, who make their living from the sea, have to live inland, even though their families once owned ocean front property when no one else wanted it?
Do the people actually ever own their homes even when they pay of their mortgage? What is wrong with state and local government that they would take people’s homes because they couldn’t afford to pay highly outrageous property taxes? In some places they have rent control, perhaps with towns there should be property tax control so people are not forced out of their homes.
The state is not any more responsible of handling the People’s money than the federal government is. Who is not aware of the monstrous government spending wasteland, and is just getting larger. And those in power feed that financial wasteland by bleeding everyday people dry, including taking people’s homes, when they have nothing left to give. Is that right? When will people’s home, their roof over their head, the basic need of every individual become sacred and untouchable by the government, so life can be preserved and not harmed.
Most people don’t earn over thirty thousand a year. Many, especially, those retired earn much less. So what exactly should the average tax bill be for one’s mortgage- free home that average people worked so hard for all their lives to “secure” for their family? These families worked hard to pay off their mortgage so that they could have a little economic security of having a roof over their heads in their declining years, while proudly passing on the fruits of their hard labor and sacrifices in obtaining that asset onto their decedents, only to have the government bully come along and make it impossible for them to keep. Is that a form theft? Should the government, on any level, be allowed to steal from the people, or force people out of their homes? And yet they do. Why is that okay? Why does the government get away with hurting people?
So one’s home, is one’s castle, as long as a rich neighbor doesn’t move into the neighborhood? How is the government protecting the “family wealth.” of the majority of Americans who work hard, long hours for under forty and fifty thousand a year? Seems to me most hard working Americans are treated no better than slaves, if the town, state, or federal government can so easily force you out of your home simply by raising property taxes? If the majority of people, in your state, makes $600 a week, is it right that property taxes be more than their weekly food bill? Is it right that property taxes be as high as if paying a second mortgage?
How much money should the government demand from most Americans? Should not the government be run within the People’s means? Is it right that people are not allowed to keep the fruits of their labor to pay for their own basic needs first? Is it right that many Americans have to choose between eating nutritious healthy food, or paying a tax on the roof over their head that they no longer can afford after the rich took over their neighborhood?
Over the years, I have seen too many people forced to sell their mortgage-free homes, especially in their golden years. How many times have I listen to them say: “but it has been in the family for five generations?” Then of course there are the ones who didn’t get a chance to sell and the town just “acquired” the property.
Property that town, through the decades, did not fix the roof on, or mowed the lawn on, or repair the furnace on, or invested thousand of dollars on landscaping on, or ever painted the house, or fixed the driveway or foundation, no they just took it. “Pay what we tell you to pay, or lose all”, is unfortunately the stance of our so called “servant” government.
Shouldn’t Americans have more security over their hard earned labor of keeping a roof over their heads then that? Exactly how is your county, and your town protecting your right to keep the fruit of your labor? Or is theft, by forcing Americans out of their homes, the most basic need of anyone, the American way.
