American Dream or American Lie? How Property Taxes Have Turned 'Home Ownership' into State-Controlled Serfdom

Let’s start with a simple truth that most Americans fail to acknowledge—or perhaps they just don't want to: you don’t actually own your property. That’s right—despite the grand illusions of "home ownership" and "land ownership" peddled to you, the cold, hard fact is that your piece of the so-called American Dream comes with a hefty price tag that you’ll keep paying forever.

Miss one payment, just one, and watch the government swoop in like a hawk, talons bared, to snatch away your home under the guise of unpaid property taxes. Now, I ask you: how is this any different from the Communist Party of China’s land lease system?

The irony here is staggering. In America, we pride ourselves on capitalism, on private property rights, on the idea that what’s yours is yours—except, of course, when the government decides it wants a cut. Isn’t it ironic that the very system we decry as tyrannical in China—where the government technically owns all land, leasing it to citizens for fixed terms—isn’t all that different from the system we’re living under here in the “land of the free”?

You think you own your house? No, you’re just renting it from Uncle Sam. But instead of admitting it, we’ve slapped a nice, shiny capitalist bow on it and called it “property tax.” So, tell me again—what exactly is the difference?

Let's break it down. In China, the government leases land to citizens for 70 years. If you want to keep your property when the lease expires, you negotiate. In the U.S., we’ve skipped the whole pretense of a lease term. Instead, you’re forced to fork over money, year after year, in perpetuity. You can pay off your mortgage, paint the house, mow the lawn, and hang your little “Home Sweet Home” sign on the door, but fail to pay your property tax and watch how quickly that home is no longer “yours.”

That doesn’t sound much like private ownership, does it? More like renting from the state—a form of government-approved extortion, dressed up in a three-piece suit, and called "necessary revenue." Necessary for whom, exactly? Certainly not for you—the so-called “owner."

You see, the property tax system is nothing more than a clever bait-and-switch, a deceptive sleight of hand to keep you perpetually tethered to the state. It’s like a chain around your neck—one that gets tighter each year when the assessor’s office decides, without your consent, that your property is suddenly worth more and therefore, you owe them even more.

So much for the free market, right? So much for that sacred ideal of private property, enshrined in our Constitution but stripped bare by greedy tax collectors who hover over your deed like vultures circling a carcass. But hey, as long as you pay up, they’ll let you keep pretending you're a landowner.

Here’s where it gets even richer—the U.S. government loves to posture as the great defender of property rights, the bastion of freedom against the evils of communism. Yet, in practice, it has constructed an eerily similar framework to China’s infamous land lease system.

The hypocrisy is blinding, and the parallels are undeniable. The CCP at least has the gall to call it what it is—state control over land. Our government, on the other hand, prefers to hide behind the facade of "taxation for public services," pretending as though forcing citizens to perpetually pay for land they supposedly own is somehow different from a communist-style lease. The only difference is that one system admits it outright, and the other lies to your face.