Land ownership

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What do you think/feel about land ownership?

Its been bugging me for a while. It just doesnt make sense to me on a fundamental level that an individual can own land.

It seems that every other person I know is preoccupied with paying rent, maintaining their property or aquiring more property. There are those that own most of the land and then the rest of us that squabble over and work our whole lives to own a piece of the left overs. Even I want my own piece of paradise in the rainforest high up on a hill.

In a true sense land is all we have, all that is real. It belongs to all of us and the future generations. We are custodians of the land if anything, like many tribal cultures believe. Money doesnt exist and the concept of ownership is just that- a concept.

Is it possible or practical to live in a world with no land ownership?
How would this work?
 
I LOVE the idea vs. owning real property, that is. I know exactly where I would buy: Colorado. As long as it's cheap, low maintenance and low taxes, I would hold onto it until I was ready to build on it. The reality is everyone needs some place to go.
 
Non-ownership of land is something that you only really see in hunter-gatherer societies, and I really can't see the world going back to that any time soon, barring some sort of apocalypse. There wouldn't be much in the way of agriculture, luxuries, technology or industry... without ownership someone could just come in and steal all of your stuff.

Land ownership is okay so long as the land is maintained and protected-- it's much better than watching some horrible people move in and turn it into a cesspool, or watching the resources be depleted. Of course, that also happens, so it really depends on who owns it, and unfortunately you can't control who gets rich, who can afford which property, or what they do with that property once they own it...

But anyone who lives in the first world could probably own land right now-- it wouldn't be in the first world and it might not be desireable or even liveable, but you could probably do it. It would be extremely inconvenient to live there, however.

But yeah, if you want to own a nice piece of land that's on a beach or has a view of the ocean or is extremely pleasant to live in, then you're probably not going to be able to afford it. The only other alternative is to inherit... or to get a big group of people together, buy it together, and then try to make it all work for the group, which would probably be harder than you think.
 
In a perfect world with perfect people, land ownership may not be necessary. We do not live in a perfect world.

When I was young, renting was just fine. It was my only choice, or at least the only choice I could think of. Bought my first house when my parents moved. I paid it off finally in what seemed like a lifetime. It was a long part of my lifetime. Moved on down the road since then.

It amazes me how many people want to move into a condominium nowadays that have owned property. Maintenance is a full-time job. Property taxes, both city and county where applicable, can be quite debilitating. Insurance, flood insurance, fire insurance, contents insurance, and I wish one could buy insurance to protect one from all the insurances one must have. Need a new roof? How about painting? Then there's always those that trespass and stand at your back door when you let the dogs out at 6 AM. Guess it's time for a new fence....a large one with barbed wire....and no trespassing signs. Maybe they won't kill our pets anymore. Glad that guy moved away.

One can get attached to property, too. Sentimental value is added to the real value, making it impossible to even think about selling it. As we grow older, we do think about selling it or part of it. Guess that's the stage I am in right now. Hate throwing money at something one really doesn't need, especially when money is much harder to come by than before. Do we want someone else moving into a part of our solitude and solace? Do we really have solace anymore when pets and loved ones have died? Maybe property is part of life as we grow older? Holding onto things can sometimes be grievous, but the thought of someone else moving into a part of your life can be worse. Where do we go from here?

I have come to the conclusion property is made important through those we share it with and the memories we have there. Otherwise, it is just dirt. We go through different stages in life, and sometimes owning property is a good thing. I am reminded of the old saying from a song, "It's just a silly stage we're going through." We are nothing more than caretakers; someone owned the land before us, and someone will own the land after us: as long as there is land.
 
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It is possible, but not practical to do away with land ownership, because at the fundamental level it is about resource management as [MENTION=5090]Apone[/MENTION] suggested.
 
Asarya said:
What do you think/feel about land ownership?

Its been bugging me for a while. It just doesnt make sense to me on a fundamental level that an individual can own land.

It seems that every other person I know is preoccupied with paying rent, maintaining their property or aquiring more property. There are those that own most of the land and then the rest of us that squabble over and work our whole lives to own a piece of the left overs. Even I want my own piece of paradise in the rainforest high up on a hill.

In a true sense land is all we have, all that is real. It belongs to all of us and the future generations. We are custodians of the land if anything, like many tribal cultures believe. Money doesnt exist and the concept of ownership is just that- a concept.

Is it possible or practical to live in a world with no land ownership?
How would this work?
Click to expand...

I think it's possible to alter perceptions. There have been and still are cultures where mankind is seen as part of nature not distinct from it.

Industrialisation has seen a change in attitude from an agrarian culture where life revolved around the seasons and the rhytms of nature to one where nature is now seen as a resource to be exploited.

We have become less self sufficient and more specialised and compartmentalised. This has made us more dependant on the system and therefore more easily controlled by it.

The current economic crisis is revealing the corrupt behaviour of the bankers and the policy makers who are controlled by the bankers.

People can talk until they're blue in the face about whether or not land ownership is a good thing but the reality is that there is a process under way right now. That process is a drift back to a more fuedal arrangement before the development of the middle class.

This process has seen all the wealth flow upwards to the top 1% and it is seeing all the utilities, corporations, land, resources and various organisations bought up by the 1%

For example they're talking about privatising the Chicago police force. What that means is that they will be owned by private individuals....the same private individuals who own the 'federal' reserve, mainstream media and many big corporations. Will a police man arrest his boss? NO. Will they arrest someone who disagrees with their boss? YES

The NDAA act was passed recently which allows the military to arrest and detain US citizens without trial indefinately. In the event of a disaster such as a break down in law and order resulting from massive rises in food costs. The Federal Emergency Managment Agency (FEMA) has been set up as a replacement government to manage the country in the event of a crisis. This organisation is made up of the same people who own and control the federal reserve bank, the mainstream media and the big corporations.

In the event of a crisis they can take power and declare martial law, using the newly empowered military to arrest any opponents (bit like Hitler did). These people already have private armies such as Blackwater.

There needs to be a popular resistance (eg the Occupy Wallstreet Movement) which needs to fight to stop the corporate takeover of the state and all its apparatus.

Until that happens the 1% will continue to buy up the land, steal peoples pensions, cut public services and gain more and more control over peoples lives.

The answer as far as i see it is to ensure that the resources of the world are owned in common by everyone in the world not by a small number of people who have concentrated all the wealth into their hands. These resources should then be managed by communities through consensus democracy.

This has to happen and the longer we put this struggle against the 1% off the harder it will be when it comes. The Greek people already know all about it, but what they are facing is going to affect us all at some point.

The choice is simple: do we believe that all the decisions should be made a by a small elite who also own everything or do we think we should all have a say in the decision making process and all have a stake in the land?

Crunch time is approaching
 
I think most people would like to have their own space? Very few people want to be nomads, IMO.
 
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I love the idea of knowing that I have a right to protect the crop that I am growing, and the social contract that people wont steal the food plants in my yard. Also that I get dibs on planting in a certain area nearest to my home.

I am open to the idea of sharing my "unused" land with passers by except that legally if someone got hurt on my property I could be liable. So something would need to be worked out there.

I feel that owning land is a great expression of freedom and individuality and paying taxes on your land is a great expression of cooperation (in an ideal scenario).
 
uberrogo said:
I love the idea of knowing that I have a right to protect the crop that I am growing, and the social contract that people wont steal the food plants in my yard. Also that I get dibs on planting in a certain area nearest to my home.

I am open to the idea of sharing my "unused" land with passers by except that legally if someone got hurt on my property I could be liable. So something would need to be worked out there.

I feel that owning land is a great expression of freedom and individuality and paying taxes on your land is a great expression of cooperation (in an ideal scenario).
Click to expand...

I do relate to this. I would want my own piece of land for the same reasons you have mentioned. The autonomy, pride in my work, and security.


How about land leasing without inheritance? Is this viable?
 
Recently I've been obsessed with buying a large piece of land in Manitoba, Canada-- land is actually somewhat cheap up there and there are heaps of lakes and rivers to explore. I think it would be amazing to go on long canoe trips every summer. Even though the elements are pretty nasty and most of the province is extremely remote, I think that with the right kind of setup it could actually be a pretty amazing place-- except for the mosquitoes and flood plains and cold.

Instead of spending a lot of money on a proper house I'll get some mennonites to build me a really nice log cabin to live in-- seriously, my dad had them build a tiny guest house in our back yard for $3,000, and it only took about 3 days! It's really small, so I'd probably have to spend a lot more on mine, but if I learned how to do some of it myself then the costs would go down-- and I wouldn't need much more than a single really big room with a nice fireplace, wood shed, kitchen, bed, bathroom, etc. I know it would probably end up being a lot of work, but I think it would be totally amazing to have a small self-sustaining community (well, we'd probably have to rely on the outside world at least a little). Ideally, I'd be able to get a group of about 5 or 10 likeminded people together and we'd make like our own tiny town in one of the last remaining 'fronteirs'-- if it was 100 acres, then it's not like we'd be stepping over each other.

Still, I wouldn't want it to be so much work that there wasn't any time to do fun stuff...
 
I own my own home. We have a nice house in a great neighborhood and it is our second, having moved from a dingy area of San Jose, Ca to the far more posh Woodside, on the S.F. Peninsula. Once you're in the right place in the right home, it's a good feeling. The closest structure is 30' away. We can walk out into our yard and lounge around in privacy. We know our neighbors. All of them. People don't move much.

I like our house. We designed and built it. I would never want to rent again. I don't like the lack of control over my surroundings.
 
i own my home, and i not only love it here, but it was also a fabulous investment. i would never rent again!
 
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