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  • From: tvoivozhd <tvoivozd AT infionline.net>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] The Piggy Bank is empty, Wall Street reacts
  • Date: Sun, 26 Sep 2004 12:40:36 -0400

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.










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