"The system of private property
is the most important guaranty of freedom,
not only for those who own property,
but scarcely less for those who do not."
by:
Friedrich August von Hayek
(1899-1992), Nobel Laureate of Economic Sciences 1974
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Reader comments about this quote:
Not quite - if you don't pay your property tax your property is taken away by the government -Your home should be tax free - all government taxes should come from income and expenditure. Until then freedom is not gauranteed. Property tax is the harbinger of greed.
 -- Robert, Sarasota     
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     -- F. Lewis, San Antonio      
    Hmmm--guess we should tell the supreme court that....now that it is fab for governmetn to take someone's property for the benefit of another with higher tax rate....and the supreme court ok'd it.
     -- Michael, Houston     
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    Directly on point, Robert and Michael.
     -- Joe, Rochester, MI     
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    Concur on the Property taxes, but income taxes punish the successful and destroy your privacy by giving the government the right to know everything about you. Sales tax is the best way for revenues to be raised. Income tax was an anathema to the founders as it should be to all Americans. Fairtax.org
     -- helorat, Milton     
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    Those that think taxing the rich to give to the poor ought to pay close attention to the fact that in order to abridge the rights of the rich, the rights of the poor are also abridged.
     -- E Archer, NYC     
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    Because allodial freehold no longer exists, because there is no right to a perfected property title, because private property is an extict reality, because the tangible now belongs to the intangible ethos, the aloof democratic oligarchy now determines all rights of the once constitutional sovereign.
     -- Mike, Norwalk     
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    Far out, Mike. ;-)
     -- E Archer, NYC     
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    By way of example: if you don't pay a property tax, the ultimate and rightful owner takes back the nature of composed ground and kicks you off. If you don't pay an income tax, the owner of your person and any related fiscal fruits takes its nature of composed ground back as partial payment and kicks you off. (that concerns the system of a despot's land 'property' with little god defined title holders) In the case of chattel, intellectual or otherwise non-land property, if the license, sales / consumption / use tax. etc. is not paid to the owner, such property is taken from you or otherwise declared inoperable. The system of private property "OWNERSHIP" benefits both property and non-property owners.
     -- Mike, Norwalk     
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    Zero stars, for this utterance of absolutism allows no room, at all, for a giant portion of reality. The essence of reality I refer to was given voice by Chief Seattle, over a hundred years ago: "... the earth does not belong to man; man belongs to the earth." He meant "man" as ONE, a single, inseparable organism. As practiced by Western, mostly old, white-man elite, "freedom" has metastasized into license to "own" and exploit anything and anyone at any time, regardless of consequences for the exploited. A good example of this assumed license is corporate "ownership" of the human genome, for 'private' exploitation - to say nothing of court 'approval' of such an outrage. Another example is US insistence on 'freedom' to export and impose our 'values' - among them democracy and free market economy, as we're endlessly indoctrinated. Export them we do and have always done, imposing them militarily whenever necessary, in resource-rich nations all over the planet. Oh yes, history shows that we're real big on 'democracy' - unless the local majority of voters is intent on regulating their internal economy to the extent of making certain profits realized from from domestic resources and labor stay in-country, instead of flowing into Wall St. coffers. Local intentions like that are inevitably labeled 'commie' and/or 'terrorist' by politicians and media. Then D.C. moves heaven and earth to install an equally inevitable monster supported by plenty of firepower and US 'goodwill' - in order to make certain that proper levels of wealth resume their flow towards Wall St. and The City. Quotations like von Hayek's are nothing more nor less than DOGMA for adherents to cling to, usually mindlessly, and detractors (present) to attack. Instead of embracing endless paens of Dr. Feelgood propaganda, a substantial, daily look at the prevailing reality (IT'S NOT ON TV) and horribly grim future you've been handed is more than in order. The august August paints lipstick on a pig with this one.
     -- Mann, Kalamazoo     
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    Mann, the giant portion of reality was in fact, the subject of the quote. Your reference to man's relationship to the earth is a real nice - feel good religious dogma but again, just misses the point of the quote. Most of your comment was spot on and explained well what lack of property ownership ends up looking like. For example: corporations are government bifurcations. The corporation exists as an extension of the State, the State owning all that the corporation claims title to. The State allows others to do a narrow day to day operation and/or participate in profits. The Wall St. set of corporations you reference have grown large enough that their day to day operations have become more closely entwined with the State's directed efforts (a closely held fascist endeavor) At that point of collaboration, there is still no private property ownership (again, that is the point of the quote). A license, assumed or otherwise, denotes NON-ownership. A license is authority to perform an otherwise illegal act. Why is marriage an illegal act that needs a government license ? Because the government owns all individuals. Government owning everything and everybody offers certain licensing to its property. Again, to the point of the quote - private property promotes freedom, a lack of individually owned private property promotes despotism and slavery. Slaves are chattel dictated by democracy, or some other form of totalitarian statist state defining private property- a government of men vs. a government of law.
     -- Mike, Norwalk     
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    Mann, you are right when we think of how Taft and Teddy, FDR, and LBJ have handed us a grim future.
     -- cal, lewisville, tx     
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     -- Ronw13, USA      
     -- jim k, Austin      
     
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