Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Dude -- you guys live over in that product over there?

Tonight at the rental property inspection committee meeting, Mr. Haesley, the owner of Property Solutions, made these assertions.

(a) His business is located at (insert Floyds Knobs address here).

(b) All the many houses this business owns, from which the business derives income (dare we imagine … makes a profit?) by charging people a fee (that’d be “rent”) to live there, actually are not properties. They are products.

(c) Does a department store have to register each and every one of the products it sells?

I’ll leave it to Bluegill (who filmed the meeting) and others – was local media present? – to provide the in-depth coverage of the evening.

All I can say is this.

(a) Okay. I have an address, too. It isn’t a post office box, either.

(b) The beers I sell aren’t products, mind you. They’re dreams. How can we tax/register/license a dream?

(c) Pick an item in any store. Every step of the way, licensing is involved. Even if it comes from an unregulated Chinese sweat shop, the product is subject to some manner of importation licensing. What of the truck that delivered it? A licensed driver, of course. I'm sure we could follow this further. Why bother?

A product, huh?

Earlier in the session, Councilman John Gonder took a poll of the people in attendance, asking whether they were for or against a simple rental property registration program without registration fees. The vote predictably split along landlord/activist lines. Gonder did not permit stronger views to be enumerated.

Count me among the latter, though. So long as rental property owners insult my intelligence with arguments as weak as Mr. Haesley’s, then I advocate licenses for every rental unit in town.

Am I am extremist? Maybe. All I know is that my business is in fact a business, it is regulated to the hilt by multiple governmental agencies, and I accept regulation as the cost of doing business.

Business is business … right?

8 comments:

Iamhoosier said...

I'll give Mr. Haesley a hand for an innovative argument. It's a crappy position and wrong but innovative.

All of the feeds(you know, products)that our company sells are registered with the state.

Following some of his logic, you and your partners should not have to register/license your additional, new location downtown.

Right.

All4Word said...

Really interesting, iam, that you would bring up animal feeds.

B.W. Smith said...

courtesy Black's Law Dictionary:

real property. Land and anything growing on, attached to, or erected on it, excluding anything that may be severed without injury to the land. Real property can be either corporeal (soil and buildings) or incorporeal (easements). -- also termed realty, real estate

personal property. 1. Any movable or intangible thing that is subject to ownership and not classified as real property. 2. (as relates to tax) - Property not used in a taxpayer's trade or business or held for income production or collection.

product. Somthing that is distributed commercially for use or consumption and that is usu. (1) tangible personal property, (2) the the result of fabrication or processing, and (3) an item that has passed through a chain of commerical distribution before ultimate use or consumption.

courtesy Merriam Webster online dictionary:

Specious :
1 obsolete : showy 2: having deceptive attraction or allure 3: having a false look of truth or genuineness : sophistic specious reasoning

Christopher D said...

A big, burly man visited the pastor's home and asked to see the minister's wife, a woman well known for her charitable impulses.

"Madam," he said in a broken voice, "I wish to draw your attention to the terrible plight of a poor family in this district. The father is dead, the mother is too ill to work, and the nine children are starving. They are about to be turned into the cold, empty streets unless someone pays their rent, which amounts to $550."

"How terrible!" exclaimed the preacher's wife. "May I ask who you are?"

The sympathetic visitor applied his handkerchief to his eyes. "I'm the landlord," he sobbed.

Iamhoosier said...

all4word,
Okay, that one went right over my head.

All4Word said...

iam: That's right, you left early. Wait for the video feed, near the end, and all will be made clear.

Still, it's really interesting you mentioned products ingested by livestock in the context of my own reactive references to products digested by livestock - and their aftermath.

G Coyle said...

Wow, that clever Mr. Haesley, just like his name says, has found a solution to property ownership. Just stop calling it property. Sorry to miss the fun last night, no babysitter. Looking forward to the video, my tums are at the ready.

Iamhoosier said...

Ah yes, the FBS. We sell bull feed also.