The Con of Home Ownership

Okay, I'd like this to be a point for discussion, but the con of home ownership, and the importance the government attaches to us all "owning" our own home is one of the biggest cons of all.

For starters, how many of us really own our own homes? As soon as property values start "rising" (although whether they are really rising, or the value of the national currency is being diluted by financial manipulations falls more into my book on How to Invest in Gold and Silver), a lot of people seize on it to make a trip to the bank to increase the size of their mortgage (ker...chinggg!), and use their house as some kind of ATM cash machine. Since any loan, properly viewed, represents a claim on your future productivity, most of us just end up being slaves to our properties, always having live on the treadmill of life, earning to pay the mortgage, the council tax, the utility bills and whatever other taxes the government dreams up to keep the general population slaving away like little hamsters at the wheel, never really moving forward.

Have you ever wondered why there are so many different taxes out there? The real reason, I believe, is to ensure no segment of the population can ever live outside the system. By this, I mean no matter whether you are a young wage-earner, retired and living off your savings, or somewhere in-between, you are required to buy into the system by some form of taxation or other.

and now for the final part of my prediction, now that the last 20-30 years have seen vast majority of the British population have bought into the home ownership con, these taxes and costs of owning a home are about to start going up big time.

Why? Well, quite simply, in a globalised world, where much business is conducted internationally, income taxes and corporation taxes are becoming harder and harder to collect, and where people and corporations can base themselves outside jurisdictions with unfair taxes, taxes on fixed assets are bound to increase simply because those assets are the last ones left that can be taxed.

Property prices may rise in nominal terms, as the pound is devalued, but don't be surprised if in 5 years time, your £200,000 flat is still worth, in paper money at least, £200,000, but a loaf of bread costs £50.

I am so glad I don't own a property in the UK any more.