Dakota Beacon

There is probably something urgent happening somewhere in the world today, but there are always deeply rooted problems we need to examine with an open mind in order to discover why we don't always get the good result we hope for.  One of the biggest mistakes we are making is in allowing our city governments to engage in "economic development".  Just as in any other facet of our lives in the "free" world, the government (at any level) has no role to play in engineering our economic development.  A major part of government's economic engineering efforts involves taking people's privately owned property through use of force - eminent domain.  

Eminent domain is a necessary option for needed (stress on "needed") public (stress on "public") projects.  If a bridge is needed across a river it might require displacement of people and property ownership.  If a highway must be built this requires similar sacrifice.  Usually it involves some kind of linear development - a power line to serve thousands of consumers, a road, a bridge, etc.,  although it could be needed for a military installation or a "needed" "public" building that simply cannot go anywhere else.  In all cases, alternatives to forcefully taking properties should be sought first.  

Some people love eminient domain.  His support of the foul Kelo decision in Connecticut, which displaced a whole neighborhood for a phantom housing development which never happened, was a major factor in my decision not to vote for Donald Trump.  I stand by that.  Our urban history is littered with the refuse of crony capitalist (which is the opposite of "capitalist") cooperative efforts.  Millions of hard-working people, thousands of hometown businesses, have fallen victim to the ideas of capricious corporations and shady bureaucrats.  It happened in Grand Forks a year ago.  That event involved "only" a city park, much beloved by people who frequented the downtown district, full of memorials from our flood recovery, the work of a whole community grieving its loss and building a future.  But it was still an injustice - some people pay heavy taxes and others breeze into town and pay nothing for at least ten years and build on a public property bought for a song.  

It happened in Connecticut, and in Detroit, where GM promised to build a plant if the city would dispossess some 4,000 people from their family homes, obliterate an entire historic neighboorhood of homes and local businesses.  As often happens when one party has no real investment in a project, once the people were scattered from their homes, the demolition complete and land cleared, GM changed its little corporate mind.  No loss to them.  To Detroit, though, it cost them the tax base it already had and an essential part of their city, already in decline from other factors.  Here is a link - don't take my word for it but read the article.  

In Connecticut, the Kelo home became the focal point of a similar project.  Glenn Beck interviewed Mrs. Kelo.  Listen to the brief interview first, then, for another view, read the interview with Donald Trump.

Under no circumstance does government have any right to collude with one business or conglomerate to take property from another owner against his will.  It serves no legitimate public purpose.  The excuses given are artificially inflated property tax expected in the distant future.  But when one party has no stake in the project, or a disproportionately small stake, there is no real reason to expect this to succeed.  If it did it would be through commission of a crime - theft of property - and through deep injustice which has no place in the American story.

Our country's greatest success came through private investment in ideas and projects.  This is private enterprise, capitalism.  Crony capitalism is NOT capitalism.  It is a pernicious form of disguised socialism and oligarchy.  It is the system which has hobbled Russia and other countries which attempt to apply a veneer of phony capitalism onto a socialist, oligarchical business model.  

This is important to you.  True private enterprise is harmed when another enterprise colludes with government, abusing the public.  Some will celebrate this.  Several months ago I wrote an article wherein I correctly stated that - by accident - Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was right when she opposed the Amazon deal with New York.  Poorly informed or lockstep, unthinking "conservatives" harshly criticized her for this.  It cost the city JOBS!  In the view of these critics of Ocasio-Cortez, these jobs trumped principle.  Who cares about the small businesses and homes when an outside development is at stake?  Who cares that people have been supporting these corrupt governments with their taxes for years, when Jeff Bezos comes to town?  The ease with which Bezos dumped New York in favor of Virginia is reason enough to avoid these schemes.  Bezos had no personal stake in New York.  What did he care?  He made that clear in the first place as part of his pitch.  Take it or I'll leave it.  And this should make an impression on the voters when voting for their city councils and mayors.  They betray the people who elect them in favor of filling their bureaucratic pockets.  Whether or not the original development takes place, there is nothing to keep it after deferred taxes finally kick in.  Grand Forks has had this result - your town probably has also.  

As with all other socialist and oligarchical business plans, government-supported economic development is anti-free enterprise, anti-prosperity and ultimately anti-freedom.  No conservative worthy of the name should be in support of this kind of program nor tolerant of people in government who are.