Comments on: How to Create a Serfdom

By: New York Renovator

New York Renovator — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 14:48:47 +0000

[...] were occurring– lots of homes foreclose, and lots of investors snap them up (see my post How to Create a Serfdom about that). But this is a HUGE, across-the-board failure in the United States (and in a few other [...]

By: Beebalm

Beebalm — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 06:23:14 +0000

I could be wrong but as I remember correctly from college that the original “property” tax was meant only for someone who made a profit from their property, such as if you had a farm or some other enterprise on that property that made money. Per the founding fathers, this would only have made the most sense.

By: New York Renovator

New York Renovator — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 22:09:02 +0000

[...] the other posts I’ve written about this subject– you can read more about it on my post, How To Create a Serfdom, which is exactly what the government and their fascist corporations are doing to us. These tyrants [...]

By: Jeff Miller

Jeff Miller — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 17:39:20 +0000

#23: Urban mining is a big problem in a lot of places. In many areas, it means that it costs less to tear down the house than to fix it.

There are two markets for that kind of house: buy it, fix it, & sell it and buy it, fix it & rent it out.

If no one is buying (except those looking for pretty houses at fixer prices), the first is out.

Many of the states that have a bad out flux of home owners also have very landlord unfriendly laws. So that puts a damper on the second market.

By: hparis

hparis — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 01:13:11 +0000

someone already beat me to the punch. I was gonna say, “spoken like a true Libertarian!”

two items on the Libertarian docket – property rights and repeal of the 16th amendment. But there’s only so much that a clean up on the federal level can accomplish. You (and I) still live in New York, the Tax Me State. But if real change on a federal level were to occur, New York would have to straighten up in order to prevent the mass exodus which will ensue as people flee the state for greener pastures… oh wait! It’s already begun! Buffalo has lost about 500,000 residents already. I live in an abandoned shell of a city where most of the people remaining are on the welfare rolls. Yet the politicians just don’t get it. It’s pretty bad when the largest employer in the State IS the government itself!

BTW, you can pick up a dump or two in my hood for a few hundred (back taxes), but you’ll have to replace the copper that the scrappers stole.

By: Jeff Miller

Jeff Miller — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 05:46:13 +0000

It might not be great news but it’s not the wort news. It means that things won’t be getting better any time fast but they probably won’t get much worse.

When this foreclosure crises first hit, banks did not have staffed foreclosure departments. They had one guy who would pass the property on to their favorite realtor and they would recover their money in the house sale. When they started to get swamped, their departments did not try to work out the loans because their policy was to foreclose the house and hand it off to the guy who sends it to a realtor. They also didn’t have staffed workout departments (all of their staffing was in people generating questionable loans).

Now, banks have staffed foreclosure departments and work out departments (loss mitigation). So, I don’t think that the ’09 foreclosures will hit as hard. They will just delay the recovery.

By: Mrs. Mecomber

Mrs. Mecomber — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 05:15:57 +0000

Wow, Jeff, I’m interested in ancient civilizations, as well. That’s not very good news about the impending crisis in mortgages. :S

Kathy, yes *sigh* I know TX has no state income tax. Enjoy.

Kim, thanks for visiting. I don’t mind people taking excerpts from my posts and linking back to me. Feel free.

By: Kim

Kim — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 01:09:13 +0000

This article is wonderful! I have learned so much about our history as it relates to property taxes and income taxes. It’s a tragedy that we, as a country, have strayed so much from what the founding fathers had in mind. Thanks for posting this. If you don’t mind, my husband and I would like to post your article on our blog, which we’ve just recently started. The blog covers all sorts of topics and this would be a great addition.

By: Kathy@brazoscowgirl

Kathy@brazoscowgirl — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 00:15:14 +0000

Closets counted as rooms, so to get around this like our house has huge windows. Newer homes have many smaller windows. Each bedroom has two big windows.

FYI Texas has never had a state tax, and I predict never will. It is the last of the our Texas heritage. We will do anything to prevent a state tax.

By: Jeff Miller

Jeff Miller — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 22:05:35 +0000

My history interests are of a different era (-4000BC – 0 BC) and I’m not as steeped in early US history. I know a lot about the Mexican revolution and the Spanish American War though (I grew up in CA).

Property taxes haven’t concerned me as much as the early option/minimum pay loans out there. We got hit with the loans that had a 3 year recast in 2007. There is another batch of loans from the same era that have a 5 year recast. So we should be seeing more of those hit mid 2009. Expect more foreclosures when that happens unless the banks get busy on work outs.