The Government Should Respect Property Rights Essay

The Government Should Respect Property Rights Imagine you’ve been enjoying your backyard picnic table and chairs for the past 10 years when suddenly, for no apparent reason, you are served notice from a government agency that you will be fined $6,000 a day unless you remove them. Or, imagine you would like to add a stone walkway to your garden. You begin to research the procedure and costs, only to learn that a lengthy application will be required, with multiple hearings before a state commission. You find yourself embroiled in a Kafkaesque legal battle costing tens of thousands of dollars. Finally, after years of struggle the government demands, as a condition for approving your little walkway, that you â€Å"donate† a portion of your†¦show more content†¦Ã¢â‚¬Å"All the people† have no right to demand that landowners sacrifice their property for the interests, real or alleged, of non-owners. If one owns property, one has the moral right to control it--even if that conflicts with the esthetic tastes or priorities of non-owners. One has the right to acquire property and, once acquired, to use it without interference from others, subject to only one condition: an owner must not interfere with the rights of his neighbors to do likewise. You r life and property belong to you not to others. The California Coastal Commission and other agencies like it stand the very purpose of government on its head. The Declaration of Independence reminds us that it is only â€Å"to secure these rights,† that â€Å"governments are instituted among men.† A legitimate governmental agency would not violate property rights by telling an owner how he must use his property--it would do all that it could to protect the owner in his right to develop his property according to his best judgment. Once we accept the principle that the government can deprive some individuals of their right to property, there is no basis to reject the complete usurpation of private property. If a home owner on California’s coast can be ordered to stop building a shower, a shed, or a walkway, or to refrain from placing chairs and a table in his backyard, what prevents theShow MoreRelated The Governments and States of Locke, Aquinas, and St. Augustine1375 Words   |  6 Pages In John Lockeâ€℠¢s Second Treatise of Government, he identifies a government that is of the peoples consent with his essential raison damp;#900;à ªtre being the preservation and protection of personal property. This type of government is extremely comparable with the type of government that St. Augustine describes in his work City of God, while at the same time contrasts the views of Aquinas in the ways a state should operate. 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