Property taxes (WAS: On Nh living and commutes..)

[Derek Martin]

On Fri, Apr 23, 2004 at 10:08:10AM -0700, Michael Costolo wrote:
> Democracy in action.  

Or something.  Democracy is a myth.  I think it's only really
democracy if most everyone participates, and makes informed decisions.
And votes for what they truly believe in...  

> Of course that same democracy could be used to amend or even
> eliminate the historical district if it was the will of the people.

Apathy in action: the reverse will never happen because no one will
vote it down unless they are unfavorably affected by it.  The people
affected are invariably a small minority, and stand no chance.
Historical district laws are well-intentioned, I'm sure...  But they're
also inherently unfair.  

These laws allow some empassioned citizens to essentially dictate what
some OTHER group of citizens can and can't do with their own property.
Preserving historical monuments always sounds like a good idea, so
many citizens will vote in favor of such laws without considering the
actual owners of the property in question, or often (like in any other
case) vote without even understanding what the issue is.  Once the
unfortunate travesty has passed, it's virtually impossible for the
land owner(s) who have been wronged to do anything about it.

If people want historical districts, then they should be required to
BUY the land being turned into a historical district.  No one should
be able to decide what another person does with their property, until
and unless their actions are a genuine nuisance to the community at
large.

I'm noticing that this thread has ceased to maintain even a tenuous
connection to Linux or anything else even remotely computer-related
(such as geeks working with computers), and I am utterly shocked that
the topic police haven't stepped in.  Note that I'm not trying to
encourage intervention...

-- 
Derek D. Martin    http://www.pizzashack.org/   GPG Key ID: 0xDFBEAD02
-=-=-=-=-
This message is posted from an invalid address.  Replying to it will result in
undeliverable mail.  Sorry for the inconvenience.  Thank the spammers.

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 189 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/private/gnhlug-discuss/attachments/20040423/5e6cdc0e/attachment.bin