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Comment by dheera | Hacker News Reader

Yep, if I own something I'd better own it. I shouldn't have to pay rent for owning land, or pay rent for owning a house.

I'll just keep renting, I guess, since it makes no difference.

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>I shouldn't have to pay rent for owning land

That land is provided ongoing services, security, and utilities which cost money each year to maintain. Ownership is not some fundamental law of physics. It's a made up concept which is defined however the society you live in wants to define it.

> That land is provided ongoing services, security, and utilities which cost money each year to maintain

Yeah, and I already pay PG&E, Comcrap, and whoever else is maintaining those services, I don't need to pay it again to the IRS. The IRS wouldn't do jack shit on land I own.

Good news, the IRS doesn’t levy property taxes.

The IRS has nothing to do with property taxes. Property taxes mainly go to your town and some to your state. They mainly fund your local schools, streets, parks, maintenance, etc.

Do you think all these things just magically exist?

Same thing, it's a bunch of inefficient brats taking my money and not giving me that amount of value in return. I could do things much more efficiently with the same amount of money.

Hence, owning property isn't attractive to me at all right now unless they can stop taxing it.

Except the people who are renting you the place you live in are probably doing so for a profit which accounts for the property taxes and thus you are still effectively paying a property tax regardless of whether you buy or rent a place to live.

You sound like a great community member!

Where I live we see tremendous value in the property taxes we pay. The kids get a quality education, the parks are well maintained, the streets are good and the walkways are clean. It’s not cheap but it’s all accounted for in a public ledger. And if you don’t like it you’re able to run for office to change it.

Look - I’m with you when it comes to government inefficiency, corruption, etc. the further from home the worse it is. At least property taxes go into my community and we directly benefit. It makes a place desirable.

You see where I live, cars get smashed all the time, and the police does nothing about it. They just sit on their lazy asses. Property taxes where I live are also some of the highest in the state.

Ahh yeah, I understand your frustration there. It’s sad how some communities choose to spend their taxes and I empathize with you. It’s sad when corrupt and incompetent government pisses away tax revenue instead of making the locality a better place to live with safe streets, good schools, and nice, clean parks.

If the Federal government builds a highway that increases your land value, why should you get the windfall from any capital gains?

In this case the IRS collecting LVT is just recouping the investment they have made improving your land for you.

> I'll just keep renting, I guess, since it makes no difference.

There’s no way that the tax burden offsets the equity you would build by owning property vs renting.

95% of my mortgage payment goes toward paying down principal on the loan, which is essentially value I get to keep. Not to mention that my housing costs are much more fixed compared to rent.

Paying rent provides zero value retention in the long run, its only real benefit is flexibility.

This stance is predicated on interest rates. Taking out a mortgage is currently not the clear cut “right choice.” It might be the optimal choice, but consider, for a loan issued today at over 6%, twice as much money over the lifetime of the loan will be go towards interest as will go toward principle.

True, but you always have opportunity to refinance once rates come back down.

How has property managed to get you to defend such an extreme version of it without also tempting you with a slice of the pie?

This is like saying:

> Harry Potter is the best story ever written and I have no interest in ever reading it.

Property rights are made of consensus, so I'd recommend you stop consenting to the short end of the stick.

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