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RE: "Mine?" A Deeper Look at the Realities of Home Ownership, Taxes and Government...
Yes it probably needs to begin by choosing to live in a small community with like minded people. Once ostentatious consumption does not equate status, and you control the education of your children locally, you are probably most of the way there. Taxes tend to benefit some, even many, but penalize others. So it seems optimal that no tax is valid without 100% consensus. Better the project/amenity,upgrade be left undone then to have it imposed on anyone against their will. Most people in a small community will make sacrifices if they are convinced that it is for the general good and not to benefit some at the expense of others.
Smaller does seem to equate "better" in many ways. We moved from a metro area of almost 2 million (Austin, TX) to our small city of some 9,500 and in many ways things we didn't feel "right" about have gone away. Some of the "tax issues" we are seeing here now are related to that pattern...
The "curious" thing, though, is that a lot of people seek a "better way," but tend to bring their problems with them from the places they left. We see a great influx of people from California here, trying to escape a certain way of life. And all is well.. until 3-4 years pass and they start "missing" their big city amenities, thereby changing the very character of the place they were drawn to, in the first place.
Yes, I took some of my "needs" with me to the Himalayas way back then. I am sure that I contributed to a dis-harmonizing of the local lifestyle. And I wasn't even fro California :-)