Suburbs

“Don’t people lose money on property? What about paying property taxes?”, I asked.
“Smart people don’t lose money on property. It’s a very hard investment to screw up. Property values only go up. Property taxes can be avoided. Smart people create holding companies to minimize property taxes. There are various forms of legal entities that can be used for reducing tax burdens. Some places reduce taxes for businesses, farming, or wildlife areas. It’s also possible to create non profits or land trusts, which can hold onto the land. Intelligent people do not pay taxes, if we can avoid it. There are many ways to avoid paying, depending on the circumstances.”
This reminded me of a movement I had read about where people are buying land collectively. They take land out of the market, through creating legal entities, to own the land. I wish I had done more research into the subject. Not like I could help anything from here. Still it seems like some hope for the future. People are finding ways to live outside of the market economy.
“Why is it so important?”, I asked him.
“Stress is very important to keep people moving toward individualism”, he responded. “If we relax the stresses, people tend to revert back to their primitive lazy ways, and start sharing.”
“Families and individuals tend to look inward when they are under stress. Once families start settling down in stable households and feel comfortable, they start organizing with their neighbors, and working together on shared projects. Projects which could be better done by professionals, who contribute to the market. The stress encourages them to reduce sharing and networking with their neighbors. It becomes easier for them to hire a professional, than to bother people to help them.”
“We alter this behavior by putting pressure on people to move frequently, along with other stresses. They are encouraged to settle during child bearing years in suburbs which are kept at a level of diversity which keeps consumers uncomfortable enough with their neighbors, to stop them from sharing. They will tend to end up fighting among themselves over personal and cultural differences before they can organize anything meaningful.”
“The suburban culture then pushes them out after their kids turn eighteen. Adults without children are not welcome in the suburbs. Older people without kids are pressured to leave. If the suburban communities are organized well, having children in grade school is the only thing that suburbanites have in common.”
“The suburban culture also strongly favors consumerism, and punishes any troubling behavior or beliefs among it’s citizens. It becomes increasingly difficult for those who don’t assimilate into consumer culture. Eventually, kids who who continue to resist consumerism will end up in prison or in mental health care, which will either help them to conform or remove them from the population.”
I thought of suburbs as incubators for manufacturing consumers. The whole system of suburban homes, public schools, shopping centers is designed to produce consumers. When children grow up in the suburbs, they return as adults to have their own children, and the cycle continues.