mr peters speaks of the rent all property owners must pay or loose their ground; 

 

When I paid off my mortgage, I thought – finally – I’d no longer have to make monthly payments. Anyone who “owns” (a sad term, given the realities) their home knows better. The payments aren’t monthly – like a mortgage or rental payment – but that doesn’t change the fact that you’re making them.

It occurs to me that it would be a helpful exercise – to help people understand the reality of their situation – to think about the payments they’re having to make on a monthly rather than once every six months or once a year basis. This way, it’s very clear you’re paying every month to avoid being evicted from what isn’t really your house, just as if you stopped paying your mortgage or rent. The latter word is italicized because it’s the proper word to use. A mortgage is finite. At some point, you pay the thing off. At which point, no more paying. Rent, on the other hand, is always due – forever. Or at least, for as long as you want to avoid being told you’ve got to leave (and helped to leave, if it comes to that, by the sheriff).

The way property taxes – i.e., the rent you’re required to pay to avoid being evicted from the home you thought you “owned” – are structured is deliberate, in the same way (and for the same reason) that what they call “withholding” was structured the way it is structured. “Withholding” means they subtract money from your paycheck before you even get the chance to hold it, however briefly. The genius of this is it conditioned people to regard their so-called “take home” pay – the money they actually get to hold – as their actual pay. In other words, they are conditioned to not even miss what they never actually had. If instead people had to write a check to the government come April 15 for all the money the government says they “owe,” there would probably be a revolution. Instead, people just plod along, never missing the money they never actually had (though they did actually work to earn it)..............more............