On Wed, 29 Dec 2004 13:36:10 -0500, Graywolf <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Fire your local taxing authorities! > > Seriously, all those folks can see is they can tax, homes, condos, and > apartments at the same rate as a farm. And where there was one farm there can > be > many thousands of those. So the raise the farmers property tax rate until he > has > no choice but selling out. It is called progress. > > That is also what has happened to many small private airports. > > Major paper companies that used to keep millions of acres of forest (and often > allowed folks to use them recreationally at no charge) have had to sell the > land > for the same reason. > > Here in the mountains it is well off people who want a nice place with a view > who build their million dollar house on a ridge. Ruining the view for everyone > else, of course. > > But one of the unfortunate facts is that it is almost impossible to make a > living off of a family farm anymore. That has been so for for a few decades. > The > only things that work are huge agibusinesses, and hobby-farms; they are pretty > much the antithesis of each other.
Back in the '70's, one of my best friends in high school used to live on the family farm, which had been in the family for three generations. As the city grew, it encroached on the farm. Family farms became less and less profitable, and my friend's dad finally gave in, and accepted an offer from a developer for the land. Some other members of the family who had already left the farm tried to block the sale in court. My friend's father "won", but after all the legals, he got enough to buy a nice, if modest, bungalow in town free and clear, and enough to retire on (he was in his late 50's at the time). No great legacy for the children. Just enough to live on for a few years. There's now a great huge shopping mall on the former Shuh farm. The developers and everyone else made huge money on the deal. And, all that's left for the family now is a nice house in town. Maybe they were lucky to get that much. cheers, frank -- "Sharpness is a bourgeois concept." -Henri Cartier-Bresson
