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Culture War Roundup for the week of November 27, 2023

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Can you find any examples of what you’re describing? A law changes and then homeowners had to tear down their (previously legal) homes?

This is irrelevant. My whole point is not about what actually happens, but what the logical consequences of the belief set you laid out are. If your argument is just self-interest then you don't need all the other justifications about the differences between building and tearing down etc.

I'm not critiquing your belief set, I think that is entirely justifiable. I'm pointing out that the arguments you made for your specific situation also justify other things which you didn't support. Therefore your beliefs are not derived from the arguments you made. So you can skip all those in future and just say, I believe X should be allowed and not Y because of self interest as a home-owner/resident.

And of course a condo developer can also say I believe Y should be allowed because of self-interest as a condo developer.

I’m saying that there is an obvious logical difference between compelling and prohibiting an action. This isn’t just me saying this; I’m asking you to cite some examples because it is also appears to be a standard by which laws are written.

My beliefs are derived from both a naked, immediate self interest in securing a safe and happy existence for my family, and also an interest in there being a reasonable, logical set of rules for a society to follow that exist in such a way that they are understood even if they have not all been individually read. The term for this, which you already pointed out, is coherence. A specially carved out law which would allow property developers to bulldoze my house so they can build condos is incoherent. No reasonable person could intuit this from an existing set of understandings about laws. It’s also stupid, and would have obvious destabilizing effects on society. The idea of individual property rights is, and I hate to keep using this term, but foundational. You own your property. there are laws which can restrict your use of the property, but not generally laws which compel use of the property.

If you want to build condos next to my house, me and the other homeowners can petition the government to restrict that use, but it only goes one way. The property developers cannot petition the government (generally) to compel me to bulldoze my house.

The property developers cannot petition the government (generally) to compel me to bulldoze my house.

They absolutely can. The fact they don't usually is not the same thing as can't. Railroads are often developed by private companies and the government will use eminent domain when necessary. The reason it is not done more is because it is unpopular, not because it can't be done. Also for electric companies. I'm not saying this is popular or used often (you can see from examples below it is often opposed by local people), because it isn't, but the use derives from the same principles about people and governments being able to control what land can be used for that you are in favor of. To be clear once more, I am not arguing about what does happen often, more how your justifications also justify your neighbors or government bulldozing your land if they felt it was necessary. Just as they prevent a developer building a condo when they think it is necessary.

https://apnews.com/article/eminent-domain-columbia-michael-brown-legislation-bills-60f6059347548fa3dbb4a544e7d8a30c

https://www.usnews.com/news/business/articles/2023-11-27/georgia-case-over-railroads-use-of-eminent-domain-could-have-property-law-implications

"In the past, the “public use” provision of eminent domain law has been used for things like roads, schools, parks, and other public facilities that could be accessed by all in the community. In recent years, the meaning of “public use” has been interpreted more loosely. In the controversial case of Kelo v. City of New London, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of New London and decided that the city could take private property and give it to another private entity for “economic development.” However, despite spending millions of taxpayer dollars on the project’s proposal, nothing was ever constructed.

Now, oil and gas companies have this card to play when justifying land grabs. As suggested by a University of Minnesota Law professor, “in many natural resource–rich areas of the country… the knock on the door is less likely to come from a government official and much more likely to come from a mining, oil, or gas company representative.”"

I understand the point you’re trying to make, I just don’t agree with it.

If you want to live in some absolutely free of any regulations whatsoever place, then I also encourage you to move somewhere and create that place. My suspicion is that it will look more like Dharavi slum than San Francisco circa 2005, but I still encourage you or anybody else to try it.

My neighborhood, enacting the policies you don’t like, has been successful. People want to live here, and the success of the policies we have enacted is, I suspect, the thing attracting you to it.

What I’m asking is that if you want to try this new plan, just go do it somewhere else. There is TONS of land in this country which is empty. Go build your utopia!

You misunderstand, i am not saying the Libertarian version is better. I am almost certain it will not be. I am an authoritarian centralization proponent, and am all for zoning et al. I also acknowledge that eminient domain etc are derived from the same logic as zoning. That where necessary for better outcomes that the government must be able to force people and businesses to either do x or not do x as appropriate. And both are justified by the logic that your land is not just your land, everyone else in your society has an interest in how it is used, from zoning to building regs, to pollution laws,to eminient domain.

I think you don't go far in enough in other words. Your logic justifies things you appear to be against *eminient domain etc.)