Sunday, July 03, 2005
Eminent Domain
The question of 'when' is not a simple one. How does one define 'public good'? Is getting rid of a single family home on four acres of land 'good' if one putting up a strip mall, how about a hospital? For me, I'm not really comfortable with any use of eminent domain. Using it to line the pockets of a developer for a project that is not a public works undertaking is wrong. For a municipally owned hospital, for a utility facility, public school, city infrastructure such as police or fire department, those are acceptable, if regrettable, but those things do actually benefit more than just the person building them, and the person whose palms the builder crosses with some silver.
