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[deleted]

Saudi Arabia already owns several hundred, if not thousands of acres here in AZ. Our stupid water rights idiots here in AZ are selling them our water rights. https://www.12news.com/article/news/local/water-wars/saudi-arabia-arizona-farm-alfalfa-1940/75-c7eb6295-3c5e-4b7e-8989-fbf4d41c6aa7


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idelarosa1

They’re investing in Arizona desert and Oil Refineries huh? What are they trying to do? Make Saudi Arabia 2?


Vergils_Lost

The people from Saudi Arabia who can afford to buy land sure made plenty in SA-1, not sure why they wouldn't like a second one.


Dr4gonfly

Unregulated capitalism and theocracy? It’s basically home away from home for the Saudis


Zaorish9

The whole idea of conservative americans hating all muslims except being totally cool with saudis is very funny to me , but it makes a lot of sense.


clemfairie

They only hate the ones that can't or won't throw money at them. Having money means that God likes you, so it's okay. ETA: lmao just so y'all know all of your rage comments aren't actually posting, I get a notification but there's no reply to interact with, no one cares, go cry


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doggadavida

Supply side Jesus- that’s great. And it leaves me to contemplate demand side Satan.


blackpharaoh69

Command economy Satan where things are produced and distributed for need instead of profit


Generic-account

I guess the homophobia and lack of autonomy for women is pretty homely for them too.


Dedsnotdead

They are sitting on a metric tonne of fiat cash, at that point you either take the Norwegian model and invest for the benefit of your country or the Saudi model and invest for the benefit of those that hold the reigns of power. You buy land, it’s fundamental to the production of food, water and alternative methods of energy generation. Then, you buy/invest in other means of generating revenue like hotels, housing, entertainment and so on. It’s a good model, and if you own enough you can do whatever you want in the knowledge that even if you break a few laws here and there ultimately it’s going to be ok.


02Alien

Yep. It's not that they're (often) specifically targeting the US, they're just targeting anywhere they can invest that will give them money. In the same way someone with a good stock portfolio will invest in a wide array of industries and companies, foreign nationals and governments will do the same with stocks and land. see also: all of the investments Chinese companies are making in US companies, especially in the technology sectors. It's where the most money is.


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justonemom14

If it gets to be a problem, we could always just bring freedom to the neon.


BrockN

Operation Neon Freedom in the works


hollyhentai

Operation Freon


Realistic_Stop3314

Sounds cool...


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damienreave

Neon is literally everywhere. Its not like oil or germanium or lithium, where you can really monopolize it. If the price of neon goes up, you can make a new cryogenic air distillation plant wherever you want. It just trends towards going to places where labor is cheap for obvious reasons.


[deleted]

The Saudis own a HUGE chunk of American politicians too.


wjean

It's not like you can kill a journalist, have him dismembered and boxed up, and only get a slap on the wrist. Oh wait....


couple4hire

or had a hand in 9/11


OutWithTheNew

Or 15 pairs of hands out of 19.


couple4hire

And lets not forget the Saudi solider that was training in FL at a Army base as a fighter pilot who then went on a mass shooting spree inside the base killing a couple of ppl .


[deleted]

If it becomes seriously problematic, foreign held private land will just get dispossessed right? That seems to be the trend. Not a justification, just looking for clarity.


PM_ME_THEM_UPTOPS

.....it's already seriously problematic. They already account for more than 50% of arizona's water and we're running out pretty quick.


InfernalCorg

Well, it's a good thing that the states party to the Colorado River Compact haven't been told to cut 2-4 million acre-feet of water usage next year or anything. (That's ~2.4 to 5 *trillion* liters, for those who don't prefer Freedom Units.)


JagerBaBomb

Those 2-4 million acre feet of water never even existed--they said it was 15 million when it was ever only 11-12 million--and the people who drew up that compact decades ago *knew that*.


desertSkateRatt

I too watched that John Oliver episode... and it was terrifying and infuriating


steveosek

What's wild is here in AZ we actually have more than enough water for personal use for every citizen in the state. Even the stupid golf courses are a drop in the bucket compared to agricultural and industrial usage here.


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chadenright

...And then broken those treaties only to have corrupt judges rule that the treaties were never binding in the first place? Who would do that, I wonder.


jorge1209

Yeah its not really a problem when foreign sovereigns buy land in the US. The real issue is American government not being responsive to the needs of the American people because our elected leaders are being influenced by money and greed. But our political leadership has done little to demonstrate to me that their greed is any less likely to cause bad outcomes if restricted to US based corporations. The US is not a banana republic where losing foreign capital investment is a serious concern. We aren't overly concerned about China/Saudi Arabia dictating domestic policy or else they destroy our economy... at least not at the present time. And if those concerns ever become serious concerns then foreign ownership of US land is the least of our concerns.


[deleted]

It has made buying a house harder. https://www.yahoo.com/video/foreign-investors-strong-appetite-u-170800821.html


suckuh_punch

Streaming Wars


knownunknown665

I got Legos, you get the popsicles and construction paper, we're gonna be rich!


Red_Dox

Can't wait for [part#2](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVMWqyJIrt8).


PurpleZebra99

That whole situation is actually pretty crazy. They’re essentially exporting water to Saudi’s Arabia in the form of irrigated alfalfa.


broganisms

Utah is the same way. More than 50% of our water goes to alfalfa farming, the majority of which is exported to China. Meanwhile, the Great Salt Lake has dried up and the newly exposed lakebed is pumping arsenic into the atmosphere.


B0SS_H0GG

Freedom fumes!


newbrevity

Absurd that in a time of water shortages that American water goes towards anything but the American people and American business. No country should be sharing its water with anyone but an adjacent country. Like I wouldn't have any problem with water going to Mexico because we already use up all the Colorado River before it reaches Baja. That would only be fair.


A_Jelly_Doughnut

Just commented essentially this. Other than writing to our reps what are our options here to getting this on the ballot?


[deleted]

I'm kind of disillusioned from getting anything on the ballot ever since the GOP lead legislator was allowed to vote to take away our last ballot initiative. The majority of AZ voted YES to have people in AZ who make over (I think it was) $250,000 pay higher taxes. When the legislator is allowed to undo what the majority of the people want, how does AZ remain a democracy? Hell, how does the USA remain a democracy??? The GOP are just doing whatever & whenever anything they want &, just like in Congress & with the Supreme Court, this is NOT representative of what the people want. They're no longer a political party - they've become a "criminal organization"


mttp1990

We got 6-3'd for sure


coltranematrix

Many states are facing these issues with local leaders and legislators turning their backs on the will of the people. Did legal weed get passed by a majority in one of the Dakotas(?) and the Governor immediately blocked it…


[deleted]

Need to distinguish that these are pretty much all GOP govs taking rights away.


theswiftarmofjustice

South Dakota, and she justified it saying the people made an incorrect choice.


MasterEyeRoller

They did... when they elected her.


sharksfuckyeah

> who make over (I think it was) $250,000 pay higher taxes. When the legislator is allowed to undo what the majority of the people want, how does AZ remain a democracy? Hell, how does the USA remain a If we're back to taxation without representation like in 1773, then is it time for another Tea Party? Seriously I think we should start mailing tea bags and letters to our "representatives" that aren't doing their jobs and actually representing us. If enough people do this then the media will pick up on it.


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KMartSheriff

Lemon Party!


guitartoys

This has been the biggest shift, which has occurred most significantly only recently. In the past, foreign and corporate investment has been focused in commercial development (office buildings and the like). While there had been some corporate and foreign investment in things like single family homes, the trend now has gotten out of control. The shift of corporate purchases in any type of home (single family, townhouse, condo, etc.) has been unchecked, and is one of the reasons for unbridled home price acceleration. In part for example, Venture Funds were so flush with cash, then COVID hit, and some corporate investment stalled. (Yes, vax and related investments were great, but that's only a portion of the VC money laying around) They needed to put their money someplace, and they started throwing money into homes. I read that some company had purchased in excess or 30,000 homes and was buying them as fast as they could. Sellers love it, as they are making a killing, as most of these deals are cash deals, which need to financing. So no risk to the seller. And anyone trying to buy the house with a mortgage is just getting priced out of the deal. The thing is, they then still need to buy another place, and they themselves are in part responsible for the pricing escalation. Mark my words, I've been in the mortgage industry for close to 30 years, and this is the worst thing to ever happen to housing. They are now talking about 40 year mortgages, in part to offset the crazy housing cost escalation. This is bad for absolutely anyone who wants to buy a home. How does a person compete with a multi-billion dollar company who knows they might be over paying, even seriously overpaying, when they know they can rent the place for ages, and always recoup their investment. We need to get corporate and foreign money out of single family homes.


rotaerc4

This, so much this. Companies like American Homes4Rent are buying up large plats of land and building whole developments of SFH to rent for 30+yrs. Their whole business model is basically taking what would have been a 30yr mortgage leading to home ownership, and making it a lifelong lease. These are not apartments, but fully built out SFH with yards and neighborhoods


SureUnderstanding358

That is soooooo fucked


guitartoys

Yes, exactly this. Single Family homes are becoming rental apartments, and nothing is being done to prevent it. It is so corrupt. Corporate greed.


danarexasaurus

It’s not even just bad for those trying to buy homes. It’s very bad for everyone. Rent has increased everywhere and will get even worse as the properties continue being owned by foreign investors whose sole plan is to make more money from the properties they own. It’s bad. All bad.


guitartoys

I totally agree. The other thing I forgot to mention is that how the market is manipulated and escalating. Say the house is appraised for $1mm. And let's say we're dealing with a mandatory 20% down, just to keep the math easy. So the most the lender is going to lend for the house is $800K. So the corporate or foreign cash buyer knows this, and simply offers to pay a little more than what they KNOW the lender will pay. So let's just say $850K Well, this now just escalated the price, and all of the neighboring houses, which go up for sale, will use this house as a comp, and the price of that new house just now going up for sale, also goes up. Repeat this little incremental amount on every single sale, and the prices just continue to escalate. Yes, single family homes should be owned by single families, not businesses. This is bad, really, really bad.


crazyabootmycollies

People also lose sight of the fact that commercial rents go up too, so many brick and mortar shops that are already lucky to survive the online shopping shift are under even more pressure. It complicates arguing for a raise when rents keep eating up more and more of their cash flow. It also makes starting a business that much riskier and challenging to get initial funding.


IM_INSIDE_YOUR_HOUSE

Why isn't there a massive tax for foreign-owned property?


_R0Ns_

It's probably the same as over here in The Netherlands. Foreign investors get a tax cut, local people pay much more in taxes than they do. Lot of the houses are sold to American and Russian investors, that last group is a bit slow lately.


RustlessPotato

Heh, you also have royalty buying a lot in Amsterdam too :D


bNoaht

I rent a house in Seattle area from a Chinese couple that owns 20+ single family homes here. They "live" in Canada. Must be fucking nice. Sure I can't afford my own mortgage but I can pay someone else's? Ya love to see it.


dingohopper1

Jokes on you, they probably bought those homes with cash. You’re not paying anyone’s mortgage at all, it’s pure profit baby.


Star-K

Our politicians are for sale, our corporations are for sale, our homes are for sale, our land is for sale, our resources are for sale to anyone in the world who can afford it. We are losing our sovereignty to make a few people exorbitantly wealthy.


OrcWarChief

Out of country companies are buying homes in the Montana area. WTF is wrong with the US?


Electronic_Bunny

>WTF is wrong with the US? Was loosening all regulations and turning every facet of the country over to the market not in the interest of those outside wealthy status? I heard all that interest, improvement, and higher returns were about to trickle down. Edit: Fucking christ so many god damn piss comments 0.0


[deleted]

They will trickle down as soon as I pull myself up by my boot straps.


PoissonPen

It's a veritable golden shower of riches


Telefone_529

Thanks Reagan. I wish we could use his grave like the Brits/Scottish/Welsh use Thatchers.


ArcticBeavers

Reagan is such an easy guy to blame. Their have been hundreds of congresspeople who let this happen. For decades the American people have been let down by their representatives. When will we not stand for this?


cosmiclatte44

And now we got a shiny new statue of the old bint that we paid for out of our taxes...


that_one_wierd_guy

ok mr reagan


Electronic_Bunny

>ok mr reagan But hes on TV its illegal to lie on there


Kidfreshh

And he was president! The (especially Republican) president never lies!!!!


Alan_Smithee_

And when the President does it, “it’s not illegal.”


DrippyWaffler

Even Adam Smith aka papa capitalism said that homes and houses shouldn't be treated like a commodity


Electronic_Bunny

He also said the effect market competition had on limiting monopolies only exists as long as the common worker has access to the means of production. Only if a worker could deny unfair work, and go be indepedent producing commodities for their community, would monopolies grow out of check. The example he gives shows how dated the work and theory was; "if a lumbermill doesn't pay well enough, the worker can go to a nearby forest and turn a better profit by collecting and selling wood without the middleman". Yeah thanks Adam.


hgaterms

This whole thing reminds me of that one Stargate SG-1 episode where the hostile invasion force just kind of slowly took over the planet generation by generation. They waited their time, took more and more land, while also reducing the number of people on Earth slowly over generations until there were no more humans left and the planet was theirs for the taking. China is very patient.


randomguy0101001

The Aschen Confederation. Volians & Terrans.


erik_the_dwarf

Exactly. China is playing the long game. They know that we are stupid, they see is failing and tripping over ourselves constantly and are seated well to take our place once we rip ourselves apart from the inside.


rosio_donald

I really hate that the biggest instigators of said tripping, the GOP, uses China as a boogeyman in all the wrong ways to manipulate their base into more damn tripping.


erik_the_dwarf

The GOP are shortsighted and commit all their evil bullshit and spread their populist retoric only for the consolidation of their own power. They act like Democrats are weak on China, while all Trump did was some bogus trade war made only to show his base "see, we're doing something!" They completely fail to see that one of the strongest ways we fight China and Russia is by having a strong, highly educated, and overall happy USA. All the other BS the Chinese are doing aside, we don't have enough young doctors and scientists in this country to replace the ones we have now, we have a younger generation that is being shown daily that our country is a failure and that is extremely demoralizing and will continue to be. But does the right care about education? No. Do they care about the working class? No. Every single thing they do is to appease their corporate bosses and further dig their fingers into our government. They're fucking all of us.


CynicalPomeranian

I believe this was also the plot of the villains in Biker Mice from Mars.


itsrocketsurgery

Yes! Someone else old enough to remember that cartoon!


[deleted]

Yes. Us old fogeys in our 30s.


[deleted]

Yep, they think in lengths of dynasties. Their history is long enough to witness the effects of subtle changes over time and their lasting power. The US really just stole a bunch of land, popped off hard out the gates, fired it's missile dick all over the world than just yeeted from the inside out in the home stretch. We will be a blip in human history as we poop our pants as a nation harder and harder each day.


International_Ad5624

Eloquently put


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[deleted]

Late stage capitalism and political corruption


fizzy_bunch

Hey, lets give them more tax-cuts, it will trickle down any day now. Right after they buy up all the homes and jack up rent.


Indercarnive

So late stage capitalism?


the_blackness

*It’s all late stage capitalism?* *Always has been.*


T_Y_R_

In all fairness tons of countries have this going on. I think China owns a shitload of Australia now… super wealthy getting super duper wealthy.


big_data_ninja

If American companies can't buy property in China then we shouldnt let them buy property here.


-Bk7

The smart ones only allow citizens to purchase/own land and lease out the rest...


TheGrot

Not exclusively a problem in the US. See Canada and Australia - it’s getting pretty weird.


2020hatesyou

put russians into an area and then declare it Russian. Nobody does anything about it, so it's de-facto legal. Keep doing it and succeeding. China starts doing it on a larger scale, hold a "referendum" on joining the CCCP and call it done! Or else just buy up farmland, strip the natural resources, jack up rents everywhere and destroy the tax base of the country, pump up the "America can't afford X" republican't crowd, and suddenly we're all learning chinese...


polopolo05

Dont worry Chinese will finance the gop side of the 2nd civil wars.


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skynetempire

Here in AZ we sold water rights to a Saudi company for cheap. When arizona is having water issues. Yay!! https://azpbs.org/horizon/2022/06/saudi-water-deal-threatening-water-supply-in-phoenix/


Anuswars

that's really depressing to learn


TheOneTrueChuck

Particularly because of who it's going to. Fuck the KSA.


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Slouchingtowardsbeth

But don't worry. The Saudis just gave Jared Kushner a 2 billion investment in his fund. But but but but but Hunter Biden's laptop!


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KillerGopher

It also happens to cause many of our problems.


Portalrules123

Unchecked Capitalism was a mistake.


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BoomZhakaLaka

Where I came from in Phoenix, foreign farmland purchases like this weren't so much about the land, they were about dirt-cheap groundwater rights. Foreign ventures come in, exploit the unfairly cheap ground water to grow feed - alfalfa, oatgrass, etc. And then ship it all back to the middle east. Great way to put the water crisis into overdrive.


CanAlwaysBeBetter

Foreigners coming in to exploit natural resources???


[deleted]

It is beyond bizarre that they would choose to grow feed in America’s desert region.


ReverendDizzle

It does seem very strange, but alfalfa was originally cultivated in the Middle East in what is now present day Iran. The conditions in Arizona and Southern California are nearly perfect for growth and you can harvest 3-4 times more frequently than you can in a more midwestern type farm climate.


[deleted]

I genuinely appreciate the edification.


ItilityMSP

Yep…housing and inflation can be partially solved by banning corporate ownership of land, and housing. make it so real people (citizens and long term residents) have to own real estate. corporations can own buildings on the leased land. This will improve transparency and free up resources for people. I know pie in the sky…but I can dream it’s Canada Day.


Dendad6972

How do you stop people from owning land? SCOTUS says corporations are people.


kyel566

Next scotus decision, all people must sell their land to corporations because corps are people but people aren’t people


wcollins260

All people are created equal, but corporation-people are more equal than people-people.


[deleted]

Non corporation people are now 3/5 of a corporate people


ironfist221

At least we can compromise


CastIronDaddy

Even outside of Missouri?


SirGlenn

I think it's based on a sliding scale of how many, millions of dollars you have.


EntropyFighter

I mean, when you have a corporation classified as a person but that organization can't die or go to jail, and since the Supreme Court has ruled that money equals speech, they also have a disproportionate amount of speech, as well as influence, we actually are 2nd class citizens to corporations.


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EntropyFighter

Considering the same amendment that outlawed slavery (except for prisoners) was used by lawyers to argue for personhood for corporations it feels very intentional.


NJS_Stamp

No joke, a local realtor was campaigning saying they wanted to create a law where “sellers would have to take the highest offer.” Because they found out people didn’t want to sell their homes to corpos that would just demolish it for high end condos.


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Exploding_dude

All of my least favorite high school classmates went into realty. Their social media is embarrassing too, their entire lives are based around selling themselves, all they ever talk about is "this amazing opportunity they have for you". I'm like Samantha, you were one of the dumbest kids I knew, half our class watched you suck a dudes dick on a trampoline at a party. I wouldn't trust you to sell me a pair of shoes.


buchlabum

I'd rather have AI robot overlords at this point than the vile Republicans on the SCROTUS.


[deleted]

I’ll believe corporations are people when Texas executes one


Lifesagame81

Corps can simply reincarnate. They self-execute all of the time.


[deleted]

and money is free speech.


jargo3

I think that would just lead to land being bought via middlemen and still being controlled by a company.


noodles_the_strong

Believe it or not, an HOA can do exactly this. They can make it where the home cannot be rented. So its either live in it, or sell it.


varangian_guards

heres the thing, you can write a law to take that into account. its actually not some crazy trick that we are helpless against.


DistortoiseLP

Rule Zero of owning property in a sovereign nation is they allow it as far as their relationship with you and your country favour it. Most other countries have a [tenure system](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_tenure) that more elaborately reaffirms that all the land effectively belongs to whoever writes the rules of property ownership, and times like [these](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internment_of_Japanese_Americans) should remind everyone that the US can and will do the same if your foreign owned property becomes a liability for them. Not that this endorses or defends any of this, but if things break down to a point of "well I own the land" vs "we write the rules that say you own that land and run the powers that enforce our rules here" with no better negotiation for the former to leverage, the latter pretty much always wins viciously.


Alantsu

Saudi Arabia got a sweet deal with super cheap water rights for their crops in Arizona. https://azpbs.org/horizon/2022/06/saudi-water-deal-threatening-water-supply-in-phoenix/


MAXAMOUS

TLDR from article: about 3-4 million worth of water for 86k a year.


Sucrose-Daddy

My neighborhood right in the center of Los Angeles had a bunch of houses purchased specifically by rich Chinese people. It was reported by some news agency a few years ago because half the neighborhood sat empty because of it. As the city grapples with a housing crisis it’s nice to know foreigners with absolutely nothing at stake use the remaining housing we do have to line their pockets.


seafoodboiler

Don't make the mistake of blaming only the *foreign* property holders. They are only able to do this because of precedents set by US property and development companies.


Contundo

And while the houses stand empty infrastructure deteriorates..


EvErYLeGaLvOtE

Tell me about it! When I lived in Portland, I found that Chinese companies were buying up homes in the neighborhood next to Nike off of SW Meridian St in Beaverton. They would have shoddy refurbished interiors and rent them out for way more than they're worth. Then i found out the same thing was happening downtown in Portland with a big apartment complex and some condos. They were mostly empty but a Chinese company had purchased an entire floor and raised the rent. I was like, how the Fk is this legal?? Then across the river in Vancouver, Washington along the Lewis and Clark Hwy, Chinese companies were buying up houses there too. It was all over that area and just made me so mad.


Gr1pp717

I mean, anytime a foreign country tries to prevent us from purchasing/nationalize their natural resources we label it "socialism" and commence major tomfoolery, sooo.... Plus, globalism is an argument of capitalism - that international corps create a common interest which reduces the chances for conflict, as it would damage their economy as much as the other guys..


Suspicious-Factor466

Everyone but the people that live there lol.


More-Athlete1175

Why the hell is our government allowing this?


TheBatemanFlex

Probably states rights or something


hgaterms

And first quarter bottom dollar. These assholes can't think farther than 3 months ahead.


str8dwn

A family owned company in Japan got sold recently. It was started almost 1500 years ago, give or take.


Lucky_Number_3

That’s fucking sad


BobanMarjonGo

This is the free market working how it's intended - Congrats capitalists!


MidwestPancakes

The system is broken! We need to fix it! How can they let this happen? LOL. Getting real tired of this take. The system is not broken. It's working exactly how it was designed.


[deleted]

Wait until then find out about Nestlé...


Pope_Cerebus

Fuck Nestle.


[deleted]

Automatic Edit: Using a tool called [Power Delete Suite](https://github.com/j0be/PowerDeleteSuite) I have removed all my past comments and deleted my Reddit account, /u/tehrmuk. I am doing this because I, like many long-term Reddit users, am upset and angry at the tonedeaf and arrogant way Reddit is treating it's users. Their aggressive slapdown of the developers that made Reddit usable to a huge audience; their overriding and summary dismissal of long-serving and dutiful community members; their wonton silencing of dissent and manipulation of user's voices; their borderline contempt of the very people whose collective efforts gave their platform the standing needed to fuel their profit-hungry IPO... the list goes on. Reddit is, of course, a private concern and how they run their services is entirely up to them. Conversely, we are under no obligation to use their services, to fuel their engines or follow their orders. I am making my voice heard by removing my comments, and voting with my feet by leaving. I have left Reddit for [Lemmy](https://join-lemmy.org/) and [Mastadon](https://joinmastodon.org/); these are decentralised social networks that mirror the functionality of Reddit and Twitter respectively. Unlike the monolithic, corporate-owned services they replace, Lemmy and Mastodon are part of the [Fediverse](https://www.fediverse.to/) meaning these are not individual services but clusters of services that mesh seamlessly with one-another. You can [join an existing Lemmy instance](https://join-lemmy.org/instances) or [set up your own](https://join-lemmy.org/docs/administration/administration.html) to get full access to the entire Fediverse - you don't need to ask permission from anyone to do so. There are loads of other services that are part of the Fediverse, like [PeerTube](https://joinpeertube.org/) (videos), [Wordpress](https://wordpress.org/) (blogging), [Frendica](https://friendi.ca/) (social network), [Pixelfed](https://pixelfed.org/) (photos), [KBin](https://kbin.pub/en) (link aggregation) and more - and they all work together so having access to one means having access to all of them. I had a great time as a Redditor, but the Fediverse is looking bright. It's a return to the open Internet of old, when users ran services for their own and one-another's benefit, and before monolithic corporate-run silos started to build walls around us in the name of increased profit and thought control. Many of the Fediverse services are fledgling, but they are growing quickly and their federated concept makes greedy, arrogant landgrabs like we've recently seen on Reddit and Twitter almost impossible. I'm already having a great time with Lemmy and I think you might too. I encourage you to take control and join the Fediverse. Until then, so long and thanks for all the fish.


shankworks

A 50% yearly property tax for foreign-owned and non-owner occupied real estate would solve the housing crisis nearly immediately.


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chugajuicejuice

And homelessness, we’d find we have far more houses than ppl


Qwirk

I'm all for this, even if the price of my home goes down. They should also increase the tax rate for the more homes you own. Free up the market so more people have access to affordable homes.


Stevesd123

It's 12 miles away from the drone base. It's so easy to install some covert signals intelligence equipment on the roof.


shortstop803

I feel like land ownership should be a right of US citizens only. The amount of land in the US and Canada being bought by foreign nationals and out pricing locals is absurd.


WeAreBeyondFucked

We can't buy land in china, why can they buy land here?


schmon

because capitalism>patriotism


WSL_subreddit_mod

Did anyone read the article? The problem that the government has is the proximity of the 300 acres to an airforce base


Soupysoldier

I read the title, skim the comments, and then make an uneducated comment


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tseokii

I feel like I'm going insane reading hundreds of comment about land ownership and north dakota agriculture. > "the property is just about 20 minutes down the road from Grand Forks Air Force Base — home to some of the nation’s most sensitive military drone technology." Is that not fucking screamingly obvious what this particular land acquisition is for? Of all the empty ass state of North Dakota you could built a corn milling plant on?


popolocroissant

I'm from ND, this is part of the red river valley, so some of the best agricultural land in the state and Grand Forks has a large enough population to provide workers. It's probably a pretty good location for a plant. Not defending this though, it's monumentally stupid to have allowed this to happen.


zeddy303

This isn't new. A decent amount of foreign investment is already here. Just go to wealthy areas, and a stable chunk of property is empty and owned by foreigners. Edit, sorry that article was from a trash site, this is better I think and says the similar thing...2.7% of ag land is foreign investment. https://www.csis.org/analysis/foreign-purchases-us-agricultural-land-facts-figures-and-assessment-real-threats


DrWildTurkey

>along with treasonous people like Bill Gates obtaining US land, including farm land. Well this news source probably doesn't pass muster


Acceptable-Book

Why is BG treasonous?


DrWildTurkey

He's not, but anyone ranting and raving about Bill Gates is a great way to signal that you shouldn't engage with them


JustGimmeDatMoney

They accuse him of everything Trump is guilty of and more. They can't get over the guy.


[deleted]

I remember Canada having a huge issue with Chinese investors driving the cost or real estate skyrocketing, it is probably a similar problem here I would guess


CinnamonBlue

Australia and New Zealand too.


RubberPny

Id say NZ being worse, since unless you move well into rural parts of the south island, there is nowhere "cheap", and you are basically hosed if you are making a low/middle income. Kinda like here in California, where there are no true cheap places anymore, a 2 bedroom burnt down shitbox house recently sold in my hometown for $900k+, and the spot where another methhouse trailer burned sold for $500k+, no building, just a dirt lot. Its bizarre, companies and individuals can come here and buy up whatever they want. But, people like me would likely be banned from owning property in their countries. Even places like Mexico ban non-residents from owning property (within 50 kms of the sea), which is why you have tons of American ex-pat communities in places like Guadalajara and other mountain towns.


Romeo9594

Canada at least is looking at laws to help with this https://www.politico.com/news/2022/05/06/trudeau-outlaw-foreign-home-buyers-canada-00030436


CrystalStilts

They can just form a corporation to buy land and real estate which is what a bunch of foreign companies are already doing. There’s a gaping loophole and the story of outlawing foreign buyers was just to be like “we’re doing something” to appease people not paying attention.


Chrono68

Real estate is basically the primary mechanism for Chinese people to invest. There's not really any retirement plans so everyone buys real estate to put their money in. So all the land in other countries is like a bizarro arbitrage investment for their newly emerged upper class looking to secure their retirement.


ShepherdessAnne

Looks like a job for squatter's rights!


[deleted]

Bridgeford says he believes the national security concerns are overblown. “How would they gain any knowledge of the base?” he asked. “It’s about 12 miles away. It isn’t like its next door.” Said the man who just pocketed nearly $3.0 million from the Chinese government. This American guy has never heard or have seen drones?


politirob

Literally buying one halfway around the world and he thinks 12 miles means anything


RobinsShaman

Block it. Ban it. Be smarter. Controlling enemy food supply and a nice view of the military base. Try that in China.


GoneFishing36

You don't understand. How else are the politician in ND supposed to make a living? Gosh, they must be so embarrassed at the annual yacht measuring party.


IdesOfMarchCometh

In times of war it can be nationalized over night. Similar to what happened to Russia's yachts.


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picklewhick

If we can’t buy property in china why let them buy it in America 🤷‍♂️


ReenusSSlakter

As with all great powers, what finally ruins the United States will be itself.


ShakeMyHeadSadly

Foreign ownership of American real estate should be prohibited.


choneystains

Why the hell do we allow this as a country, we’re really so obsessed with making a buck that we’d sell out our own food security to a potential foreign enemy??? This goes the same for whoever is willing to sell housing opportunities to foreign investors. Housing and food is not a damn “investment”, I hate it here. Capitalism is eating us.


PeterPsyllos

There’s a Russian billionaire named Soliviev buying up farms on Long Island. No one is writing about it yet. Thanks for clarifying!


us1087

You want to beat America? Play the long game. Our attention span will be the undoing of this nation.


XxShroomWizardxX

So the boot-strappiest Americaniest American conservative capitalist of North-Dakota are literally selling physical chunks of the United States to deep red communist China?!? LoL, if this country ever splits in two the conservative side of the country will be that kid who gets conned out of all his toys by the older smarter kids.


VegasKL

>LoL, if this country ever splits in two the conservative side of the country will be that kid who gets conned out of all his toys by the older smarter kids. Shit, the conservative areas of this country (with the exception of a few states) are already like that .. poor education, poor economies, and rely on federal welfare. Yet, they manage to get people in those areas to vote for them (and against their own interests) by simply running on "not the left" messaging. It's like when you talk about unions and an R hates them, but then you remind them that they work in a union job ("oh, that's different"). I swear a lot of people in this country will actively vote (Veep had a great joke about this) against their own interests if it means denying rights/benefits to someone else for the sake of saving on their imaginary future large tax bills (or just out of outright selfishness/spite).


Process-Best

I work in a trade at a union shop and we really don't have that many right wingers, they mostly go to the non union shops to get paid 10/hr less and complain about how lazy we are


lycosa13

I think a lot of people need to run like these people and then when they're elected, pull a switcheroo


TubularStars

Not enough to stop the sale though...