Bear in mind that the right to property is a right to action, like all the others: it is not the right to an object, but to the action and the consequences of producing or earning that object. It is not a guarantee that a man will earn any property, but only a guarantee that he will own it if he earns it. It is the right to gain, to keep, to use and to dispose of material values. – AYN RAND
Politics, according to an old adage, is "the art of the possible." But, during election years especially, politics has increasingly become the art of the impossible. What politicians promise to all the various groups adds up to more than anyone can possibly deliver....
Despite the fanfare of a televised speech at the National Press Club in Washington, a very old and hackneyed set of proposals was unveiled as a "new vision" for the creation of "affordable housing." The speech was by Richard Ravitch, co-chairman with former...
Too many people who talk about a lack of "affordable housing" seem to think that this is something the government must build or subsidize. It never seems to occur to them that government activity is itself one of the biggest reasons for housing being unaffordable. Nor...
A RECENTLY published housing study says: "San Francisco is one of the densest large cities in the U.S." That is true in both senses of the word "dense." Nowhere are San Franciscans more dense than when talking about housing -- especially that perennial will o' the...
Fraud is so inherent to the operation of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development that "HUD Scandal" might as well be one word. The latest hudscandal involves a feel-good program (what else?) for cops and teachers. Since 1997, police officers have been...
The obvious makes headlines in California. Maybe this shows that a sense of reality or common sense is not something that can be taken for granted among Californians. A recent headline stretching across the top of the front page announced that "Population dwarfs...
The Coming to the Nuisance Doctrine is the only objective means of determining who has the right to continue using his property in the event of a nuisance. If zoning is to be replaced, therefore, it must be replaced with the Coming to the Nuisance doctrine. Since it...
"Coming to the Nuisance" means exactly what it sounds like: if a property owner is using his property so as to cause a nuisance to another property owner, then the property owner who was the earlier to start his particular use is the one who has the right to continue...
The proponents of zoning claim that such initiation of force is necessary against developers to prevent the occurrence of nuisances.A "nuisance" is defined as the effect from an activity on others which unreasonably interferes with another's lawful use of property, or...
Real estate developers have good reason to feel cannibalized when they attempt to develop something today.Building permits for their projects are often exceedingly difficult to secure, requiring thousands of dollars in architect's and attorney's fees, and months (if...
The interstates were never the result of some individualistic, egoistic ‘love of the private automobile’, but rather of anti-capitalist, mixed-economy politics straight-up: the initiation of physical force for the sake of the greatest good for the greatest pressure group.
Urban Renewal disfigured cities because of the introduction of eminent domain into the land development process.
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