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Property taxes are a significant burden on people with fixed incomes. It amounts to a permanent rent, and requires an income. It amounts to a form of servitude
by ttonkytonk 5y ago
Property taxes are a significant burden on people with fixed incomes. It amounts to a permanent rent, and requires an income. It amounts to a form of servitude to the government I think.
Though it's certainly a privilege to own land.
- ak217 5y agoHow do you think local services and improvements that those people rely on should be funded instead?
- ttonkytonk 5y agoSales tax? Income tax? There's a difference between what is ideal and what is practical, but just because the ideal isn't immediately practical isn't an excuse to continue with the unideal indefinitely.
- ak217 5y agoHow would you deal with people living in one tax locale and working/shopping in another? Taxing real property to fund improvements and services adjacent to that property makes the most logical sense. I don't buy the argument that people on fixed income are somehow hurt by this. If someone on a fixed income owns a giant house and can't pay property tax on it, that implies they need to liquidate that property or rent it out to pay for the improvements around that property that support its value. Thanks to federalism, Americans actually have a choice of different places to live that tax property at different rates with correspondingly different levels of local services, so people are free to own in states with very low property tax in places that don't have much in the way of improvements.
- ttonkytonk 5y agoWell I guess they could move to the Moon, or Mars perhaps. It's also very American to be cavalier about displacing people.
- ak217 5y agoThat's bullshit. Americans provide a huge safety net to seniors. Most states have property tax relief for seniors, HELOCs are available, and there are many other support services and discounts for seniors for other costs of homeownership. American senior homeowners have extraordinary privileges protecting them from displacement and financial distress.
- ttonkytonk 5y agoI was not just referring to seniors. But good to have an authority such as yourself to reassure me that there are plenty of hoops for seniors to jump through to get relief from the govt imposed rent you're comfortable with.