The Kelo Decision - Should your house belong to you, or to the lounge
lizard who bribed and seduced your city council?
Eminent Domain takings should be limited to
traditional public purposes. Your house should belong to
you. Governments should be forbidden to
use eminent domain to seize your house and give it to a developer or
sports team. If your home is taken for a legitimate public
purpose, the fair value of the property should include your emotional loss
and the cost of your time and effort to relocate. As a rule of thumb,
tripling the market value of the property might give a fair payment.
The Environment
- We the American people own vast amounts of land in the form of National
Forests, National Wildernesses, and other Federal lands. We should be its
stewards, leaving our descendants a patrimony that is more valuable than the
one we inherited from our forefathers. In some states, the amount of
Federal Land exceeds all reason or need, has no unique beauty or value, and should very
gradually be auctioned off. We, the American people, own the air we
breathe and the navigable waterways. There is no more a right to vent
poisons into our air and water than there is to dump toxic waste on your
front lawn. When someone poisons your lawn, they are obliged to clean
up the mess, and the same goes for our air and water. It's a property
rights issue.