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Home ownership and your vote

Email|Link|Comments (2) Posted by Rona Fischman November 3, 2008 01:42 PM

Pop quiz:
Did America’s Constitution give the right to vote to all American citizens?
Of course not. No African-Americans, no women, no renters.

No renters?

Not until 1850 was the vote extended to men who were not property owners.

What was the logic of the founding fathers?
Was the idea that landowners were the big stakeholders, so their vote counted? Is it that landowners were responsible and established? Was landownership the sign of responsibility, maturity?
Or was it only one step away from the nobility system of England that we rebelled against?

We’ve come a long way, baby.

What do you think?
Are homeowners bigger stakeholders?
Did home ownership translate into ruling class membership in 1790? Does it now?

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2 comments so far...

Homeowners aren't necessarily bigger stakeholders, but the issues that impact homeowners and non-homeowners are usually somewhat different at the polls and the two groups usually have different interests to protect in the voting booth. Take for instance Question 1, which seeks to do away with personal income tax. If you are a property owner, you have to be very concerned that the resulting shortfall in taxes being allocated from the State to individual towns in the Commonwealth will be made up in the form of higher property taxes. If you're a homeowner, that's probably not what you're looking for. If you're a renter, that's just fine and dandy.

To answer the question though, do homeowners have a larger stake? I don't think so. Particularly because many super-wealthy people choose to rent their primary residences instead of owning them for tax reasons or they get more services or what have you. Do they have less of a stake in the health of the State or Local economy and government than anyone else? Probably not.

Homeowners certainly aren't the only ones who take advantage of public services, parks, libraries, police, fire, medical services, personal rights, laws, policy, privacy issues - basically anything impacted by our government - and for that reason, I'd say nope, both groups are impacted in a fairly similar manner.

Posted by J.P. November 4, 08 12:31 PM

JP - An increase in property taxes will likely result in a commensurate increase in rents.

Posted by Renter November 4, 08 03:57 PM