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Land property has become majorly expensive in Australia. The housing shortage crisis has impacted upon prices and land values across the board. Until very recently, property investment in Australia was a rolled gold investment and this has contributed to the sustained growth in prices over many years. The great Australian dream has been narrated around owning your own home and for many this has seemed unaffordable on the basis of the high prices for land and housing. Alan Kohler has shown us that home ownership now demands up to x13 years of average annual incomes in places like Sydney. The danger of land ownership is not only economic, however.
“In December last year the average dwelling in Australia cost 16.4 times that of household income per capita. That increase in the ratio is the equivalent of an extra $167,000 in the price of a dwelling – or roughly an extra$33,000 on a 20% deposit.”
The Psyches Of Property Owners
Something happens to the psyches of land owners in my experience, especially those who purchase their hobby farm in semi-rural suburbs around our cities. The financial impost necessary to achieve this may well contribute to the change in attitudes of these property owners. I have visited quite a largish number of these properties in northern suburbs around Brisbane in my role as a government inspector. I was surprised at the plethora of land owners exhibiting resistance to the community program I was involved in. It struck me that many of these property owners had let this fact of land ownership go to their head. Tinpot kings of their castles came to mind at their gated and fenced attitudes to their private territory. In extreme cases, we have seen ‘so-called’ Sovereign Citizens shoot dead visiting police officers to their property. The danger of land ownership can turn very nasty.
“The alleged killing of two police officers who attempted to serve a warrant on a self-proclaimed “sovereign citizen” in Australia shows how a movement that originated in the United States has taken root in the country and now carries the threat of violence, experts say.”
Tinpot Land Lords Dangerous & Armed
This happened in Queensland, Tasmania and Victoria, where police were shot and killed whilst going about their duties. The number of guns on rural properties are invariably greater than those founds in inner-city suburbs. We live at a time polluted by social media, which is fundamentally an American invention. Americans dominate far right politics and culture. America is a gun culture. America is a culture of complaint and festers with the politics of grievance. The blame game is their favourite pastime. One Nation downunder is copying the MAGA strategy, which crowned Donald Trump into the presidency twice. Australia follows American trends and is usually a decade or so behind what happens over there. What we have happening is a population consuming social media, without scrutinising its sources adequately. Aussies use social media without comprehending how the digital realm actually works. This makes them vulnerable to manipulation by right wing billionaires like Elon Musk and Gina Rinehart. If you don’t understand how something functions you cannot look under the hood for answers.
“When the far-right activist Tommy Robinson emerged from a London courtroom this week after a judge cleared him of a terrorism charge, he gave thanks to the man he said had bankrolled his defense.
“Elon Musk, I’m forever grateful. If you didn’t step in and fund my legal fight I’d probably be in jail,” Robinson said. “Thank you, Elon.” “
Land Owners Infatuated With Themselves
It seems to me that those infatuated with their own status as land owners lose perspective over community issues. Of course, not all property owners fall into this category. I was surprised, however, at the siege like mentality I encountered during my visits to many properties in the northern suburbs of Brisbane. Often, the more land possessed by these individuals the more they seemed to see themselves as kings of grass castles. Somehow many of these property owners lose touch with what is the common good in favour of their own concerns. Right wing politics feeds this by highlighting the rights of NIMBYs over things like solar and wind farms and higher density living requirements. This denial of the social issues and challenges facing Australians in the 21C is a cause for public concern. We can see the extreme version of this happening under Trumpism in the United States. The denial of the science of global warming, as if by merely burying your head in the sand this existential crisis will just go away. “Don’t spoil my view with wind turbines or solar panels!” “Don’t damage my property value with your clean energy saving technology.”
This is the selfish individual fucking over the community for their own profit. The danger of land ownership puts their possession above the common good for the rest of the community.
The History Of Land Ownership
Settlers have a history of taking what is not theirs and making it their own by whatever means possible. This is occurring in Palestine, as we speak, in the illegal West Bank settlements by Israeli settlers. The history of the New World in Australia and North America saw European settlers move in and forcibly take the land of the Indigenous peoples there before them. Settlers in Australia murdered by poisoning and gun violence Aboriginal people all around the continent to establish their homes and property. This is a part of the history of land ownership in Australia. It is, perhaps, useful to keep this provenance in mind when considering the property rights over land and our attitudes toward them.
Crazy Queensland Land Owners
People can get a little crazy when they think they are defending their property rights and land. A red haze can descend upon their thinking, when confronted by a government employee wishing to inspect their property. Of course, a few of them are involved in illegal activities on their properties and wish to go on concealing this fact. It might by an illegal business doing things with cars and vehicles. Or cooking up something for the lucrative drug trade. There are, however, too many land owners who just don’t want you on their property, no matter your job or community program. It reminds me of what I have read about feudal times, as these property owners invariably have multiple guard dogs. Amid the loud barking and gnashing of teeth of hounds one is forced to negotiate with these tinpot lords of their land to gain entry. It is not conducive to rational thinking, this medieval security arrangement salivating and growling in your face at the gate. I think about the rest of us who live quietly in apartments and small town houses in cities, as the contrast is substantial. No wonder there is an urban/rural divide around the world, especially when it comes to politics. I am not sure if these land owners live in the same Australia as the rest of us. ‘No man is an island.’ This might be something to remember for those guarding their gates night and day on their tinpot properties. Fear of invasion seems to rank high on their list of anxieties. The Chinese and government inspectors fall into this category.
I have been to houses surrounded by high steel fences and gates. Plus, aggressive dogs guarding it and no way to reach the front door. I wonder about the psychological state of those living inside. The danger of land ownership can be what it does to you ‘upstairs.’
The New Digital Imperialism
“Have you been getting the message that machines do it better? That AI is smarter than you? Have you been replaced at work by some sort of artificial intelligence program? Digital imperialism: The new colonialism is here. Now, you get to experience what plenty of Indigenous peoples have had to deal with over the journey. The clear and present inference that you are not good enough and too dumb to matter. Your culture thrown on the scrapheap of progress and advancement. This time, however, it is humanity per se copping it in the neck via a form of Social Darwinism. Only a small group of investors matter, those who are shareholders in the Big Tech companies overlording the rest of us.”
Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of The Stoic Golfer; The AI Heresy; What Price Life?; America Matters: Pre-apocalyptic Posts & Essays in the Shadow of Trump; and other titles. NOW AVAILABLE AT APPLE BOOKS & GOOGLE PLAY BOOKS. Google Play Books AUDIOBOOK
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A Guide To Healing & Wellbeing PDF
In this book I touch upon some of the expanding concepts of health and wellbeing. There is a movement toward the enhancement of human life. Some of us are asking, “how can we continue to raise the bar when it comes to human happiness and potential?” Having enough to eat is one level achieved. We can all do more to assist everyone around the globe having this basic need satisfied. Having a secure home and community is next level. Finding…
