So, here's what I found out. Our original ancestors were hunter gatherer's. They had tribal leaders and they lived the life of nomads. The average family was no more than 2 children because of the life style of being on a constant move. At this point in time there was no real land ownership. Then society evolved into an agrarian society "Now, where a family of hunter-gatherers might be able to support one or two children at best, farmers could produce several children. The increased fertility also meant increased available laborers." This led to a more, in my opinion, barbaric society where the biggest club won and became the leader. This is kind of where we are as a society at this moment in time, but we're slowly evolving from an agrarian society to a more centralized society.
In an agrarian society "This system of labor-for-protection developed into two separate systems in most countries: taxes and tenancy. Royal families spread their wealth to friends, signing away titles and deeds to lands that allowed the holders to collect the revenues (rent) produced by the peasants living there. On top of this rent, all the people within a ruler's realm were generally required to pay a tax. Many other demands were made by ruling leader, such as military service, and they were grudgingly met because these rulers owned the land not only by birthright, but by military might as well. Rulers could be overthrown by other rulers, and sometimes by peasants, but a new ruler would sit on the throne and the average peasant would rarely notice a difference.". This starts to explain why we are paying rent or a mortgage payment. Because here in the U.S.A. our ancestors came from Europe, we've adopted this system because turning this system upside down could possibly create chaos. When the U.S. had its Civil/Revolutionary war with England we were able to break this up a little bit as far as who owned the land "Many aristocracies were eventually displaced - usually by displacing an aristocrat's head from the body - with supposed meritocracies - a system where the best and brightest lead a nation for the good of all....Title lands were broken into smaller parcels and sold on a free market of sorts, but the people with the money to buy the deeds were either merchants or former aristocrats who managed to escape being shortened by revolutionary fervor." The article I'm quoting goes farther to say "The industrial revolution was one of the great equalizers in human history, perhaps only matched by the invention of firearms....The use of machines for manual labor freed many peasants for different tasks, and allowed a privileged few time for education and specialization into new fields of labor opened up by the mechanization of industry".
With the evolution of man and money man was able to evolve into the current system of mortgage's and the common man having land ownership "The invention of mortgages belongs to no particular country. Mortgages existed for a long time as an exclusive loan given only to nobility. After the industrial revolution, however, the wealth of the world increased to the point where banks opened themselves to "higher-risk" mortgage loans to common people. This allowed individuals to own their own homes and, if they so desired, to become landlords themselves. It took 30,000 years, but home ownership is now open to many people. In fact, it has reached the point where people often buy too much or take out too much of a mortgage"...."English real estate law (or 'Estate Law' as it was known back then) was imported, through colonization, into the earlier forms of law in the U.S.A., Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Many of these states, or their territories, have since modified this historical law, to varying degrees. A study of the old feudal land system of England provides us with an invaluable glimpse of legal history regulating the most valuable asset of them all: land. In medieval times, land was the sole form of wealth and it depended primarily on possession.....All this changed with the Norman conquest of England in 1066. William decreed that he owned all of the land in England by right of conquest. Not one acre of England was to be exempted from this massive expropriation. This sudden vacuum of privately-held land was promptly filled by a variety of huge land grants given by the new King to either his Norman officers or to those of the English who were ready to recognize him as king. The device used by the King to control and administer his land was that of tenure. Tenure was the key component of the feudal system.....Tenures were of a variety of duration known as "estates" and the Fee Simple Estate was the most extensive and allowed the Tenant to sell or to convey by will or be transferred to the Tenant's heir if he died. In modern law, almost all land is held in fee simple and this is as close as one can get to absolute ownership in common law. It was in this context that the British began their dominion over the seas and their explorations which led to the modern nations of Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States of America. The concept of developing an informal association of local real estate agents originated in the United States in the 1880s, and by the turn of the century about 15 Real Estate Boards had been established."
Once I was able to find out how mortgages were brought about I thought about money and where it came from, how do you pay a mortgage without money? Below are the stages of money:
- Barter--This kind of exchange started at the beginning of humankind and is still used today. From 9,000-6,000 B.C.,
- Shells--At about 1200 B.C. in China, cowry shells became the first medium of exchange, or money.
- Metal Currency--China, in 1,000 B.C., produced mock cowry shells at the end of the Stone Age. They can be thought of as the original development of metal currency.
- Silver--At about 500 B.C., pieces of silver were the earliest coins. Eventually in time they took the appearance of today and were imprinted with numerous gods and emperors to mark their value. These coins were first shown in Lydia, or Turkey, during this time, but the methods were used over and over again, and further improved upon by the Greek, Persian, Macedonian, and Roman empires. Not like Chinese coins, which relied on base metals, these new coins were composed from scarce metals such as bronze, gold, and silver, which had a lot of intrinsic value.
- Leather currency--In 118 B.C., banknotes in the form of leather money were used in China. Thought of as first paper money
- Paper money--From the ninth century to the fifteenth century A.D., in China, the first actual paper currency was used as money. Through this period the amount of currency skyrocketed causing severe inflation. Unfortunately, in 1455 the use of the currency vanished from China. European civilization still would not have paper currency for many years.
- Gold Standard--In 1816, England made gold a benchmark of value. This meant that the value of currency was pegged to a certain number of ounces of gold. This would help to prevent inflation of currency. The U.S. went on the gold standard in 1900.
- Depression--Because of the depression of the 1930's, the U.S. began a world wide movement to end tying currency to gold. Today, few nations tie the value of their currency to the price of gold. Other government and financial institutions now try to control inflation.
- Electronic money--Tomorrow is already here. Electronic money (or digital cash) is already being exchanged over the Internet.
After looking at the evolution of man from nomads to a centralized society I see where the problem resides. In the beginning man had no need to own land, but evolving into an agrarian society changed that. I would say it's proven that when you own something you take better care of it than if you were just leasing or borrowing it because it's yours. I think that man had to declare ownership to give himself the confidence and power to wield the land how he saw fit such as growing corn or grain instead of doing what someone else wants you to do. I think ownership would then be classified as a state of mind, not an actual possession when it comes to land. Due to the "Dark Ages" and the fall of Rome, I think, set us back as a Western Society up to 1,000 years when it comes to evolution. Because the "Dark Ages" was a time when the West was ruled by barbarians and despots. We have taken the same traits our rulers had and applied themselves to ourselves. When I say traits I would like you to think "Keeping up with the Jones'" or "The child who tries to emulate its parent". Because our barbaric leaders decided that the land was theirs and the serfs were just there to work it for them because they were conquered by the King of the land we wanted to own the land just like they did. With the U.S. declaring it's independence and instituting capitalism this has brought land ownership to new heights. With the invention of the mortgage, banks, and capitalism, I think that we may have let things get a little out of control. Land is not to be owned by anyone.
Our founding father's wanted to remove us from the aristocracy of Europe because they saw how it destroyed and/or held back their citizens from being able to have the freedom to evolve, hence the "American Dream". When our country was first being born and growing we had homesteading. If the person stayed on the land for 5 years they could claim that land as their own. Once the local governments gained more and more power to zone cities for the development of the city the land was purchased by a developer from the city, a home built on that land. and then sold back to the citizen is when too much power was taken from the people. The government is supposed to be ran by the people to represent the people. Why would the people want to have land sold back to them that was already theirs to begin with?
Without the education of the public of their government and their responsibilities as a naturalized citizen this allows the government the ability to lie, cheat, and manipulate its people do rob them blind and take complete control. Every man has the right to a place to live, food to eat and grow, and water to drink. No other man has the power to take that from you. We give people power to govern us because we want them to handle the basic details of how things are to be run with our best interest in mind. It has turned into us being swindled out of what was ours to begin with. Man has evolved enough to where we no longer need a sword to take control because government can be used to do the same thing that the sword used to do without any blood being shed. I will believe until the day that I die that I should not have to pay for any land within the U.S. because politicians, money, and capitalism all overstepped their boundaries and have been perverted to make us slaves instead of independent citizens with the right to live our dreams without having to worry about where we sleep, our next meal comes from, or how much we have to pay for water.
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