John Schultz's Weblog

Perhaps your 4-year old needs to better understand that the friggin' ROADS you utilized to get to that restaurant would never have come into play without the government's power of emiment domain. We are talking about a recognized power of the government; a power that was given for a legitimate purpose, and which exists for a greater good.

Yes, sadly, this power has been corrupted on occasion for stupid crap like shopping malls, but there is always a sense of balance to these things...do the jobs and tax revenue created from putting the land to a "greater" use outweigh the right of someone to continue to live in a shack?? Touchy indeed, but that is why the 5th Amendment requires just compensation.

The creation of jobs has become a legitimate role of governments, and this is frequently intertwined with economic development. Again, this is touchy and should be narrowly used, but to sit back and gripe about the use of this power or the limiting of it to very basic uses could impair the greater public good.

Posted by Friend of Knob on January 31, 2006 at 03:03 PM CST #