Homestead mailing list

[tvoivozhd <tvoivozd AT infionline.net>]

Gene GeRue wrote:

> > 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?
>
>
> >  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.


tvoivozhd---you don't come to eminent domain, it comes to you---in rural 
as well as city areas---clearly visible in property-taking electrical 
power lines walking across my neighbors' property, and in the current 
fight against gas transmission pipes intended to benefit Atlantic 
coastal areas, not Appalachian residents.

> > 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.
>
>
> tvoivozhd---exactly---I have had both good experience and bad 
> experience---enough of the latter so I am no longer over-confident.  
> Let me explain the change (the rapidly-accellerating change) from the 
> African Veldt to today.  In small-tribe societies, "investment" in 
> land was more time-stable.  Each tribe of about twenty individuals had 
> to defend territory borders against land-hungry invaders or die.  A 
> simple task without complications'.


Investments, including land-investment are no longer time-stable.  
Hidden undercurrents of risk lurk under the surface in an overpopulated 
world.  You do the best you can to improve the odds and that's all you 
can do---plus maintain no illusions---hope your losses occur while you 
are young and mentally resilient enough to regain your footing.

>