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To: SeekAndFind

An apartment dweller and townhouse resident are not in the same class as land owners. From the beginning, Americans struggled to become Landed persons. Do they now sell themselves back into the serfdom of the the Tenant class?


70 posted on 09/01/2014 5:36:40 AM PDT by Lion Den Dan
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To: Lion Den Dan
An apartment dweller and townhouse resident are not in the same class as land owners. From the beginning, Americans struggled to become Landed persons. Do they now sell themselves back into the serfdom of the Tenant class?

That's a good point, but I would make the case that the term "land owner" has a much different meaning in the early years of this country than it does today. I a largely agrarian society, owning your land was synonymous with owning a means of production. You could extend the same principle to a shopkeeper or blacksmith, too.

That whole idea slowly began to erode in the industrial age, once it became commonplace for people to "own their land" even while they got up every morning and traveled some distance away to work for someone else. What exactly does the concept of "land ownership" mean in this context? I would make the case that it doesn't mean anything at all ... which is how we've ended up in a situation where it has become commonplace to borrow an exorbitant sum of money to buy a home, then slave away for years knowing full well that you're never going to pay off the loan!

78 posted on 09/01/2014 7:54:41 AM PDT by Alberta's Child ("What in the wide, wide world of sports is goin' on here?")
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