Real estate

Real estate is property in land, along with its natural resources and immovable property.

The first man who, having fenced off a plot of land, thought of saying, 'This is mine' and found people simple enough to believe him was the real founder of civil society. How many crimes, wars, murders, how many miseries and horrors might the human race have been spared by the one who, upon pulling up the stakes or filling in the ditch, had shouted to his fellow men: 'Beware of listening to this imposter; you are lost if you forget that the fruits of the earth belong to all and that the earth belongs to no one.' ~ Jean-Jacques Rousseau

The equal right of all men to the use of land is as clear as their equal right to breathe the air — it is a right proclaimed by the fact of their existence. For we cannot suppose that some men have a right to be in this world, and others no right. ~ Henry George

Quotes

• How far, O rich, do you extend your senseless avarice? Do you intend to be the sole inhabitants of the earth? Why do you drive out the fellow sharers of nature, and claim it all for yourselves? The earth was made for all, rich and poor, in common. Why do you rich claim it as your exclusive right? The soil was given to the rich and poor in common—wherefore, oh, ye rich, do you unjustly claim it for yourselves alone? Nature gave all things in common for the use of all; usurpation created private rights. Property hath no rights. The earth is the Lord's, and we are his offspring. The pagans hold earth as property. They do blaspheme God.
  • Ambrose of Milan, in The Cry for Justice, p. 397

• The equal right of all men to the use of land is as clear as their equal right to breathe the air — it is a right proclaimed by the fact of their existence. For we cannot suppose that some men have a right to be in this world, and others no right.
  • Henry George, Progress and Poverty (1879), Book VII, Ch. 1.

• Kushner has succeeded at exactly three things in his life. He was born to the right parents, married well and learned how to influence his father-in-law. Most of his other endeavors — his biggest real estate deal, his foray into newspaper ownership, his attempt to broker a peace deal between the Israelis and the Palestinians — have been failures. Undeterred, he has now arrogated to himself a major role in fighting the epochal health crisis that’s brought America to its knees.
  • Michelle Goldberg Putting Jared Kushner In Charge Is Utter Madness (April 2, 2020)

• On the surface it appears to be incongruous that the Christian right would rally behind a slick New York real estate developer who is a very public serial philanderer and adulterer, has no regard for the truth, is consumed by greed, does not appear to read or know the Bible, routinely defrauds and cheats his investors and contractors, expresses a crude misogyny and an even cruder narcissism and appears to yearn for despotism. In fact, these are the very characteristics that define most of the leaders of the Christian right. Trump has preyed on desperate people through the thousands of slot machines in his casinos, his sham university and his real estate deals. Megachurch pastors prey on their followers by extracting “seed offerings,” “love gifts,” tithes and donations and by selling miracle healings along with “prayer clothes,” self-help books, audio and video recordings and even protein shakes. Pastors have established within their megachurches, as Trump did in his businesses, despotic fiefdoms. They cannot be challenged or questioned any more than an omnipotent Trump could be challenged on the reality television show “The Apprentice.”
  • Chris Hedges, "Trump and the Christian Fascists," July 24, 2017

• Well, companies themselves have been causing this crisis as much as speculators, because companies like Amazon, like Google, or Apple especially, have been borrowing money to buy their own stock. Corporate activists, stockholder activists, have told these companies, we want you to put us on the board because we want you to borrow at 1 percent to buy your stock yielding 5 percent. You’ll get rich in no time. So these stock buybacks by Apple and by other companies at high prices can push up their stock price in the short term. But when prices crash, their net worth is all of a sudden plunging... this morning in the stock market was a huge wipeout of borrowed money on which people thought the market would go up, and the Federal Reserve would be able to inflate prices. The job of the Federal Reserve is to increase the price of wealth and stocks and real estate relative to labor. The Federal Reserve is sort of waging class war. It wants to increase the assets of the 1 percent relative to the earnings of the 99 percent, and we’re seeing the fact that this, the effect of this class war is so successful it’s plunged the economy into debt, slowed the economy, and led to the crisis we have today.
  • Michael Hudson (economist) Behind the Market Crash: The Smoke and Mirrors of Corporate Buybacks, Counter Punch, 26 August 2015

• Men did not make the earth... It is the value of the improvements only, and not the earth itself, that is individual property. ... Every proprietor owes to the community a ground rent for the land which he holds.
  • Thomas Paine, Agrarian Justice (1795).

• Buy land. They ain't making any more of the stuff.
  • Will Rogers as quoted in Land in America : Its Value, Use, and Control (1981) by Peter M. Wolf, p. 6
  • Unsourced variant: Buy land, they aren't making any more of it.

• The first man who, having fenced off a plot of land, thought of saying, 'This is mine' and found people simple enough to believe him was the real founder of civil society. How many crimes, wars, murders, how many miseries and horrors might the human race have been spared by the one who, upon pulling up the stakes or filling in the ditch, had shouted to his fellow men: 'Beware of listening to this imposter; you are lost if you forget that the fruits of the earth belong to all and that the earth belongs to no one.
  • Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Discourse on Inequality, 1755.

• [...ReMax, Century 21, and IproRealty Ltd. among others, as well as the Canadian Real Estate Association and the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board, have] conspired, agreed or arranged with each other to fix, maintain, increase or control the price ... for buyer brokerage services in the GTA.
  • Mark Sunderland, who "launched" the class-action lawsuit according to Price fixing has sent Realtor commissions soaring in an already hot market, lawsuit alleges (CBC News · Posted: May 19, 2022 | Last Updated: May 21, 2022)

• Why not sell the air, the great sea, as well as the earth? Didn't the Great Spirit make them all for the use of his children?
  • Tecumseh, in The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Old West (1999) by Mike Flanagan, p. 94

See also

• Enclosure
• Land
• Property

External links

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