Thursday, May 12, 2016

What advice does Thoreau offer to his "fellows" about ownership of land and property?

Thoreau says that " . . . when the farmer has got his house he may not be the richer but the poorer for it, and it be the house that got him." In other words, he believes that owning property is actually detrimental to our happiness.
If a man buys a house, he must first work in order to be able to afford that house. Then, once he owns it, he must continue to work harder than he would otherwise need to in order to heat the house and furnish it. He must also care for the land around the house as well, something else that requires funds and additional work. The man will spend so much time working that he'll have hardly any time to pursue hobbies or other interests; he will have little time for himself because he will always be working in order to pay for and/or care for the things he owns. He becomes a slave to those things.
It would be better, then, for him not to own the house or the property because then he would be able to use his time for things that bring him pleasure rather than working.

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