View Single Post
  #6  
Old 05-22-2006, 02:46 PM
Boris Boris is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: i ain\'t got my taco
Posts: 7,943
Default Re: Appropriate use of eminent domain?

[ QUOTE ]
However, I really don't think the community should have a say in some environment or aesthetic or whatever.

[/ QUOTE ]

HDPM - What if I invested millions of dollars building an upscale condo complex. I'm nearing completion on the construction and am in the process of selling units to buyers who don't want to live near big ugly box stores and strip malls and parking lots. They also don't want to live near a place where the white trash and great unwashed will be congregating and working. Now as I'm making my pretty, high gloss brochures espousing the wonderful seaside views and nearby parks and beachfront trails, what if WalMart decides to build a mega store RIGHT NEXT DOOR!! The Walmart store will decrease the value of my development by over 50% and might force me to the land of BUSTO! Should Walmart be forced to buy me out or otherwise compensate me? This is the tough thing about property rights, the question of how to deal with these externalities. Especially the negative externalities. To dismiss complaining land owners as just a bunch of whiners is, IMO, short sighted and perhaps just as an aggregious affront to property rights as the anti-WalMart crusaders' vendetta.
Reply With Quote