Homestead mailing list

[Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>]

> tvoivozhd---what James is saying and I will corroborate, it is lack of 
> personal experience to the contrary, that creates the illusion of economic 
> permanency---that can be shattered at any time, including the illusion of 
> permanancy of real estate. It looks like you are standing on terra firma, 
> but quicksand lurks underneath.

Beyond knowledge and tools, the major investment for a serious homesteader 
is land. Without it, you are improving the investment of someone else. If 
one chooses to not depend on a pension fund or social security, then one 
must provide for one's own financial security. What investment would you 
suggest that will pay the taxes and utilities, pay for dependable 
transportation, replace worn-out tools, buy seeds, and, yes, buy a new 
computer in one's post-working years?

In the 70's, there was a book much touted by the survivalists called The 
Alpha Factor, as I recall. Its claim to fame was advice on what to buy to 
prepare for the coming crash that all true-believer survivalists believe is 
imminent. The advice was to buy booze, guns, ammunition, tools, toilet 
paper, toothpaste, etc., much of the stuff that we homesteaders take as a 
matter of prudent practice. After all that, the reader was advised to buy 
gold and silver coins, because stores would "always" take such tokens of 
value. (Making change was never discussed; I guess you were to buy several 
hundred dollars worth of stuff at one time.) I had friends who bought 
Krugerands. They soon learned that any commodity of value becomes subject 
to speculation. DeBeers is the international instructor on that factor of 
human greed and insecurity.

>  Don't place too much faith in your "ownership" rights to real estate in 
> the United States either---Eminent Domain confiscation is a frequent 
> fact---and not just for verifiable public purpose, more frequently of 
> late it is to benefit politically heavy-hung 
> politician/developers---BANG, your "property rights", your supposedly 
> permanent real estate and your money is gone.

Eminent domain is used in high-population commercial areas primarily. So 
don't buy property in such places.

> And the most fearsome threat to ANY illusory ownership today is that your 
> "investment" is represented by 1's and 0's on bank and government 
> computers---how's that for terra firma turning to quicksand?

That's not quicksand; that's accounting. Those ones and zeros have no 
creation relationship to the value of land. The value of land is in its 
utility and supply and demand. Banks and government computers only react 
to, not create, that value. The final decision on the value of real estate 
is made by the buyer.

We all make decisions based on our experience. If your real estate 
investment experience has been negative, it is understandable that you are 
afraid of it. Mine has been positive all my life.