Comments on: The Blight of Eminent Domain

By: Scratching By: How Government Creates Poverty as We Know It

Scratching By: How Government Creates Poverty as We Know It — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 22:27:17 +0000

[...] would be the end of the story in a free market: there would be no eminent domain, no government ownership, and thus also no political process of seizure and redevelopment; [...]

By: James Madison Fan

James Madison Fan — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 17:49:45 +0000

This article is even more impressive when you consider it was written 4 years before Kelo vs. New London. If Madison had known ED was going to be used like that he would have had to race Jefferson to remove it from the Constitution. I’ve read Kennedy’s majority and I can only conclude that his brain is missing.

By: Cry_Aboutit

Cry_Aboutit — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 16:30:35 +0000

This kind of thing really gets my blood boiling. Taking homes and business locations to make an off-ramp for the interstate is bad enough, but ever since I read about New London, Conn. I have been completely disillusioned with the power of ED.
Does it work, though? I mean, it would be cold comfort to have your rights trampled on in the name of tax revenue, but it would be worse still to know that you are a casualty in an ill-advised long-term failure brought on by political expediency.
If you glut a “blighted” area with Costco’s and Sam’s Clubs and other retailers, how long until the consumer base disappears and the businesses fail? Longer than an election cycle, I’ll bet. So I guess it doesn’t matter if it works in the long term or not.
My despondency has a bright side, though: if the goal of ED is now to increase tax revenue, how long will it take for the government to figure out that it will make more money on a Hilton than a Holiday Inn? Or a Wal-Mart over a Costco? When they start reaching for that land, suddenly property rights might become important again.

By: Bob

Bob — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 03:57:01 +0000

To exist, government must first infringe on our natural rights and force us to allow them to “protect” those rights. Silly isn’t it?

By: Drik

Drik — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 16:28:09 +0000

Life, liberty, property. The Constitution was set up to protect all three from government. Now with the deconstructed transformed Constitution, it does a Frankensteinian job of pretending to do anything at all, let alone protect us from government tyranny.

By: Bill McGee

Bill McGee — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 14:58:39 +0000

Government thinks “rights” are a gift only of government. I hope I live long enough to see a complete turnover of the thieves in Washington, and an 80 per cent reduction in their numbers.

By: ProbusinessGuy

ProbusinessGuy — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 09:19:53 +0000

The problem i have with this is that when you have a government that has scumbags in washington then your in trouble. That said i dont know where i stand on this.

By: Government Eyes Private Parcel for Border Station Expansion | The Freeman | Ideas On Liberty

Mon, 03 May 2010 12:09:24 +0000

[...] domain to seize it.” (Washington Times, Monday) Thou shalt not steal. FEE Timely Classic “The Blight of Eminent Domain” by Steven [...]