dcrane wrote:jpete wrote:So that isn't possible in Canada? Or England? France? Australia? Japan? How about China? Lots of new millionaires in China.
right now China and Brazil crush us in terms of ability to pursue, make and keep money, im not sure about the other places currently but jpete is right for sure... I only hope it gets better around here real soon before China owns us all
Im not sure how local Gov. survived and thrived prior to taxation of properties but they did! Maybe their was alot more volunteer work and communities simply helping each other to build a school or repair a road? i dont know, but its a damb GOOD question that id like to learn!
Allot of that growth comes or came from out-sourcing of jobs here. US companies were able to pay less for the work and the recipients of that re-invested in their economies because of the cheap labor pools. Both of those countries have vast labor pools that will work for much less then the worker here needs (or wants) to work for.
As far as prior to the income and property tax period, they were first introduced as a way to pay for WW1 costs/repairations. An interesting result of that tax change was the creation of the "middle class". Before that period, the the divide between have's and have not's was much greater.
I grew up in a small town in western Mass called Lenox. It was known as the "inland" Newport for the "cottages" the Robber Baron's and wealthy built for their summers back at the turn of the 20th century. These were castles and copies of Venetian palaces. The relatives of the workers that built these palaces were the town folk in my day. After WW1 and income and property taxes kicked in many of these places were abandoned by their wealthy owners as to costly to maintain. As a kid we would sneak into some of these places. Most were closed up or had a caretaker that used the greenhouses or whatever. It looked as if the inhabitants left in the middle of the night leaving behind some incredible furniture, Persian carpets and tapestry wall hangings. Even the plumbing fixtures were unreal! I only wish I'd known back then what some of those things would have been worth later on!
Many were turned into private schools or hotel/restaurants etc.. They called that the Gilded Age for those few lucky enough to have lived it in that style. All the big names had a "cottage". Carnegie, Rockefeller, Astor, etc....all had homes there.
