Sustainable Development: Foe Of Freedom

[Terri]

By Henry Lamb
May 12, 2008

Add the word "sustainable" to almost any project, and immediately, the project becomes politically correct and therefore, acceptable. The surge of "sustainability" or "sustainable development" in recent years is phenomenal. Americans have been awed by the sales pitch and have bought into the idea of "sustainable development" - without looking under the hood to examine the engine. Nor have Americans realized that "sustainable development" is a self-directing vehicle that is transforming a once-free society into sustainable communities where nearly every human activity requires the permission of government.

The principle of private property rights is an early victim. Private property rights cannot exist in a sustainable community. In a sustainable community, a property owner's rights are limited to whatever government decides is appropriate.

Freedom rests upon the principle of private property ownership. Ownership of property is the right to use the property, and to exclude others from it. When the right to use one's property is restricted or diminished by government, so then is the owner's freedom diminished.

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[Rivenburg]

These are the kind of back room dealings that scare the heck out of me. I see a social engineering push in almost everything my local planning & zoning board does.

I was hoping to get Fred Thompson in office since he's one of the few politicians to talk about these backroom scams in a negative way.

Think about this small factoid: you aren't allowed to wall off your own property in it's front no matter how dangerous your neighborhood is, 4 feet of wall only. This is country-wide. Most people live on a piece of land that is .25 of an acre or smaller, this is too small especially when so much (the front 20 feet, across the whole width) has to be given over to uses the government decrees, not what you as an owner decide.

This is blatant social engineering, if you are a common person with common means, you are stuck with the front of your house open to whoever walks or drives up, whoever wants to look directly into your house, whoever wants to kick in your font door. There are actually ordnances in some cities forbidding doors that cant be kicked in.

In the rest of the world, Villas are common, and are a common response to crime. The crime of the third world has been allowed to come here by our government, but you STILL cant build a villa to protect your self unless you buy more land then the norm. Even then, the state still gets to say what you do with the first 20 feet of YOUR land.