TIL Jon Bon Jovi avoided property taxes by raising bees so that he could classify his mansion as a farm.

No. This is a perfect example of what has gone wrong with America, and why income/class inequality is the worst it's been since the Great Depression. Just because what the rich are doing is technically legal doesn't make it ethically or morally right, or good for the greater good of society.

People like Jon Bon Jovi know they should be paying a greater percentage of property taxes than a poor person who lives on a property a fraction of the value or size. They KNOW this. But they choose not to, simply because they have the wherewithal to know how to game the system, and because their only thought is what's in it for them rather than what's in the best interest of the common good.

Multiply this mentality by millions of people, and you have the situation we now have in this country where there are truly two Americas, one in which the rich do better and better, and everyone else keeps falling further and further behind. One where government services get cut due to budget and revenue shortfalls as the wealthy continue to exploit every loophole, including asinine ones like in this story. And who pays the price for that? The people who need those government services the most. And we as a society are the worse for it.

At a certain point these people are going to have to ask themselves if this is really the society they want to live in--one where they need to protect and isolate themselves from the unwashed masses with gates and walls and enclaves, or one in which we're all in it together and a rising tide truly lifts all boats. Because if they choose the former, eventually this country is going to look like an economic wasteland that even the rich aren't going to want to live in.

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