The Socratic Scribe

Humans are born into environments (by environment, I mean the normal order of things, for example, social structures, political structures, etc), and as we grow, we become accustomed to those environments; and because we are used to them, and because the environment we happen to live in is all we've ever known, we rarely stop to inspect it, to question it, and to challenge it when necessary. For example, we grow up knowing that almost everyone attends school for 12 years, after which people pursue either a higher education or begin a career in a chosen trade. We hardly think, if at all, about all of the other places in the world where children do not attend school, and we hardly think of how it is only recently in the course of history that the majority of a society's population received a decent education. We just go with the flow, unaware and unthinking about the environment in which we exist.

Now, let us move on to another aspect of our society that is even more rarely questioned because we are so conditioned into this process: PROPERTY TAX.

Every year, whether you own a home or are in the middle of paying a mortgage, you pay property tax on top of that. This property tax is used to fund public schools, and the amount you pay is based on the value of your property. Because we have always known this to be the case, that every year we pay property taxes and by doing so, we help support the public education system, we do not question the very nature of this tax system. But if you look closely enough, you will recognize this system as something you studied in your high school history class: medieval serfdom.

Now, there were actually several classes of peasants in the system of serfdom, but what group most mirrors ourselves is the peasant class called Freemen. The name sounds lovely, until you realize that freemen were peasants who just happened to be better off than other classes of peasants, such as villeins or cottagers. Freemen lived on a lord's land, worked, earned their living, and were subjected to pay taxes to the lord for the privilege of living on his land. This is exactly what we do today. Even if we buy a home outright, we still pay rent (property tax) yearly to the lord of the land (our government) just for the privilege of living on the land.

My point is this. We may think that all of our hard work and effort and money that we put into purchasing a house secures us a safe home that is ours and ours alone, but that is never the case. You do not truly own your home in this secure sense. Because you are always subject to a yearly fee to the government, if you can not pay up, a lien can be put up against your property or your house can be seized and auctioned off for payment, leaving you an evicted former home-"owner". If you truly owned your property in the sense that you own the shirt on your back or the pots and pans in your kitchen, then you would not be paying a yearly tax on it. The state government, in this case, is truly the owner of your property, and you are merely tenets.

This is modern day serfdom, and a type of slavery between the citizens of this country and the government. Some might argue that we need property taxes to fund the school system. Well, of course if you are going to have a PUBLIC school system, it will be funded by the public in some way, but that does not mean it has to be funded through property taxes. There are many other options for public school funding without the government resorting to threats of property seizure. The great enlightenment thinkers who broke away from oppressive monarchical governments and feudalistic socio-economic systems, and who set the standard for personal liberty, that all men are created equal and have a right to life, liberty, and property (property was changed to pursuit of happiness in our Declaration of Independence), would be appalled that this form of slavery has crept back into our society and once again placed shackles upon its citizens. Property is an important element of personal freedom in that personal property is the idea that what you have worked for, what you have put your time and effort into and in turn earned, belongs to you, and as such is an extension of you. If someone or some institution declared that they have a right to seize a part of your property, they are setting the precedent for laying claim to the rest of your property or even to yourself. It is a forceful violation of personal freedom to seize a person's property without their consent.

Chances are, a lot of people still have no problem with property taxes. After all, it's going to a good purpose, isn't it? Funding our schools? And it's just a little percentage of our money anyways, a small sacrifice to make.

Our governments, city, state, and federal, are in serious debt. They have spent unwisely and beyond their means the money that we have given them. The past few years, it would be hard to find a single person in our country who would trust our government to make wise financial decisions. Cities and states are shutting down their governments for days at a time and are requesting bailouts. Some are seizing state income tax refunds (which amounts to thievery) because they are in such financial trouble. The U.S. National debt is $12.9 trillion dollars, or $41,925 per citizen. Our Debt to GDP ratio is %90, as our GDP is only $14.3 trillion dollars. Our government has been found wanting in financial responsibility, and the money they are playing with is YOURS. Our governments can not be trusted with our money, and if you can not trust someone with your money, you can not trust them with your life or your freedoms. Those in power and in debt will for the most part care about their own well being before they care about yours, and evidence of this is in the news daily. The city of Philadelphia has just proposed a 10% increase in property taxes for the 2011 budget.

With all of the economic hardships that our citizens are going through, we can not afford to pay for the outrageous financial mishaps of our governments. They can raise taxes to exhorbitant levels, and though WE may have been financially responsible, if we can not afford to pay our property taxes to our irresponsible government, then we are the ones who stand to lose the very homes we worked so hard to own. All because in reality, we never really had a safe and secure home to begin with. The government has had its hand on it from the very beginning.

So I leave you with this question. With the buffoonery of our government today, with all of its irresponsibility, corruption, and cronyism, do you still trust the government to look after you when they find themselves in the midst of a crisis? Do you still trust them with your money, your property, your freedom, and your life? Do you trust them to take responsibility for their faults, or to shirk off their responsibilities and place the burden on you? Eventually, the weight gets too much to shoulder, and the pot gets too hot to handle. Who will be the one to suffer the load? I think you already know the answer.