sovereignman.com / By Darren Kaiser / January 30, 2013
sov·er·eign·ty
n. pl. ·ties
1. The quality of having independent authority over a certain geographic area.
2. A territory existing as an independent state.
Human beings have always striven to achieve sovereignty. It’s in our nature.
Like animals in the wild, we humans began our long climb to modernity by securing sources of food. Clean water. Land. Energy. Building materials. Eventually, even self-governance.
Yet as our advancement perpetuated, the rights of the individual slowly degraded. Perhaps nowhere is this clearer than with individual property rights… and specifically, with property taxes.
As they say, “Try not paying your property taxes for a few years and see who really owns your home and land…”
Especially in North America and Europe, people can pay thousands… tens of thousands of dollars / euros… to ‘rent’ their properties from the government. If you don’t pay, the property is confiscated.
The real kicker is that in countries, states, and counties where, year after year, revenue doesn’t quite meet expenditures, one can be sure that property taxes will rise.
We’ve seen this happen already–Italy, for example, recently re-introduced a property tax. Plus cities and counties across North America, from Winnipeg, Manitoba to Maricopa, Arizona, have either raised taxes or are considering increases.
I used to think that this was just something one had to deal with… until I came to Chile.
