New age serfdom

What does it mean to own something? The word ownership means that you, the owner, have the exclusive right to use or control property in whatever manner you see fit. The concept is in no way foreign or abstract to Americans, as everything in this country seems to be owned by someone or something.

Yet, what does it really mean to own something? In the purest sense, ownership means the full use of and right to something, including the right to sell it to someone else, destroy it, or whatever else suits your desires. When you rent an apartment, or lease a car, you don’t own that property. Someone else does, and you are simply renting it. You can’t take that car or apartment and sell it to someone else, because it’s not yours. You can’t gut the whole apartment and remodel it (unless you’ve first gotten permission). You can’t drive the car off a cliff for your amusement (without facing repercussions). The difference between renting and ownership is also not difficult for Americans to understand.

Yet, despite such seemingly concrete concepts, the lines are blurred at times… specifically: what does it mean to own a home? Ashley and I just paid our first of four property tax installments to the county. Even though we supposedly own our condo, we must pay tax in order to keep that property. If we don’t pay the tax, the state can come and take over what we “own.”

This begs the question — if we must continually pay the state in order to possess our property, do we truly own it? How is this setup any different from a renter who must pay his landlord for the rental of an apartment?

But some will say, “You are receiving services for those taxes. How else do you propose the state pay for schools or firemen or police officers if not through property taxes?” Of course, this kind of question only supports my argument, which is that we are all serfs, and the state is our landowning feudal lord.

We look down on the sad history of Europe in the Middle Ages, but is ownership really much different now? Serfdom may have a different name and a new facade, but as long as we must pay tribute to our lord, we are merely just slaves of the state.