10-21-2005, 09:52 AM
I have been working on a cause and effect paper for a little while. It is about how eminent domain causes people to lose their homes business, and lives, and what it will cause in the future for our nation. It is very opinionated, cynical but it is also the way I feel about the current stance of my country. Feel free to make any suggestions or just talk about what you think about Eminent Domain. I would like to here what some other people think of the issue.
Suit and Tie Bandits
On June 23rd of this year, the Supreme Court made a decision that will allow the
rich to become richer, at the expense of the shrinking middle class. Eminent domain has always been with us, it is in the Bill of Rights as our Fifth Amendment, but the court ruling allows local governments to seize land to sell to private contractors, for the increased generation of tax revenue. That is not part of the Fifth Amendment. The amendment states that server of private property can only be accomplished for public use, and yanking it out of the hands of one private owner just to place it in the hands of another is simply theft.
While supporters state that this could alleviate some current economic problems by creating construction jobs, they are really the people who have something (i.e. other peoples land) to gain from it. There is so much that can be lost, material and morally, that this has become one of the most threatening issues to the rights of the American people I can recall in my life time. It is a greater threat to our way of life than any foreign terrorist, because the thieves are the government itself, and they can raid without fear of prosecution. This is quite possibly the degeneration of our society we are staring in the face right now. Eminent domain will cost people their homes, businesses, and heritage while taking us closer to a new age in which this country becomes U.S.A. Incorporated, with big business as our shadow rulers.
Of course this statement may seem a bit radical, but considering it is already happening all over the country, it really isn?t so far-fetched. Many cities have been waiting for opportunities like this, and have already taken measures toward securing property that will make prime real-estate opportunities for investors. Take the story of Jim and Joanne Saleet of Lakewood, Ohio. They have been fighting their city for right to live in the home they have been together in for 38 years. The city wants to tear down 56 homes, 4 apartment buildings and more than a dozen businesses, so that they can then resell to developers that will build high priced condos. The city will then be able to tax them at higher property tax rates, bringing in more revenue for the city. Take what isn?t theirs to make more money- they might as well just dress up in masks and rob a train like old west bandits or go to the local jewelry store and do a smash and grab.
Supporters of this corrupted interpretation of eminent domain just don?t see having your home yanked out from underneath you as a problem because they pay you the ?fair market value? for your property. That doesn?t take in to account the fact that you now have to abandon the place where you lay you head at night, because someone else wants to make money off your property. It just sounds so dirty when you examine the process involved.
And even the compensation system is wrong. People that fall victim to the new ruling on eminent domain may not have the money to relocate. The business owners in particular will be hurt by this the most. Most of your clientele are associated with where you are located. If you are forced to move, then you can lose many customers, because you might be too far out of the way to provide them local services. Also, the money they pay you for your property, won?t include the cost of relocating. Moving all of your stuff to another location can be expensive for just a home owner, but if you have equipment or merchandise that has to be moved as well it can cost thousands of dollars to relocate. This in many cases will be an expense that businesses can?t absorb and they will be forced to close up shop.
The worst part of having your estate stolen is that if that is the land your family has lived for generations, you have not only lost your current home, but your ancestral one as well. So instead of going back to the house your great granddad was raised in, some slob is now parking their gas hogging SUV where it used to be. And if you can?t relocate locally (because chances are a lot of people just lost their homes as well, and there will be housing shortages) you may have to move away from the town your family has lived in for as long as there are records. So basically people get run out of town because someone wants what they have, and just takes it.
All of these situations are not only possible or probable, but realities in some parts of the U.S. This isn?t an opinion of what could happen; this larceny is happening now. Like in New York City where the New York Times wants to build a new house on a corner that Stratford Wallace and his family had owned for over a hundred years. They didn?t even try to negotiate over his property. The world most prestigious news paper just double teamed him with real-estate developers and the city of New York to have his land considered blighted, and his butt kicked to the corner. But these transgressions are just a prelude; the things that could happen though are far more frightening.
If someone were to take into account in how much major corporations already have their hand in politics today and combine it with the current transgressions against property laws, they would begin to turn pale. If they can take a neighborhood, like they are trying in Ohio, why can?t they take a district? And after taking neighborhood after neighborhood, district after district, they could own the whole city. This wouldn?t happen over night, but we are looking at the infantile stages of such a corporate take over right now.
And of course the politicians won?t be left holding out their hands. Only now instead of getting their campaign money from certain corporate organizations and lobbyists, all politicians are big business puppets. Corporate agenda and political agenda merge closer every day, becoming a closer form of mutualistic symbiosis, with each other every year, while the people are being are being drained and robbed by the parasites. With all the lobbyists on capital hill, this is almost true right now, but with the new ?theft amendment,? it will become a perfected example of political corruption.
With this verdict on the Fifth Amendment, everyone but the financial elite loses. The continually disenfranchised middle class could be completely eradicated. The people who have the money get more at the expense of everyone else. There is no ?good for the community? when you make the people of a community suffer such a hardship as this new interpretation of amendment number five now offers. The way it stands now, we will not only lose our physical belongings, but our sense of right and wrong as well. Eminent domain is no longer a tool to clean up slums, or a threat to force owners of disgusting, unhealthy private property to clean up their property, or even a solution to build new school or highway; it is a license to rip people off if you got the cash.
CBS News. Mike Wallace ?Eminent Domain: Being Abused?? July 4, 2004. October 21, 2005.<http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/09/26/60minutes/main575343.shtml>.
Suit and Tie Bandits
On June 23rd of this year, the Supreme Court made a decision that will allow the
rich to become richer, at the expense of the shrinking middle class. Eminent domain has always been with us, it is in the Bill of Rights as our Fifth Amendment, but the court ruling allows local governments to seize land to sell to private contractors, for the increased generation of tax revenue. That is not part of the Fifth Amendment. The amendment states that server of private property can only be accomplished for public use, and yanking it out of the hands of one private owner just to place it in the hands of another is simply theft.
While supporters state that this could alleviate some current economic problems by creating construction jobs, they are really the people who have something (i.e. other peoples land) to gain from it. There is so much that can be lost, material and morally, that this has become one of the most threatening issues to the rights of the American people I can recall in my life time. It is a greater threat to our way of life than any foreign terrorist, because the thieves are the government itself, and they can raid without fear of prosecution. This is quite possibly the degeneration of our society we are staring in the face right now. Eminent domain will cost people their homes, businesses, and heritage while taking us closer to a new age in which this country becomes U.S.A. Incorporated, with big business as our shadow rulers.
Of course this statement may seem a bit radical, but considering it is already happening all over the country, it really isn?t so far-fetched. Many cities have been waiting for opportunities like this, and have already taken measures toward securing property that will make prime real-estate opportunities for investors. Take the story of Jim and Joanne Saleet of Lakewood, Ohio. They have been fighting their city for right to live in the home they have been together in for 38 years. The city wants to tear down 56 homes, 4 apartment buildings and more than a dozen businesses, so that they can then resell to developers that will build high priced condos. The city will then be able to tax them at higher property tax rates, bringing in more revenue for the city. Take what isn?t theirs to make more money- they might as well just dress up in masks and rob a train like old west bandits or go to the local jewelry store and do a smash and grab.
Supporters of this corrupted interpretation of eminent domain just don?t see having your home yanked out from underneath you as a problem because they pay you the ?fair market value? for your property. That doesn?t take in to account the fact that you now have to abandon the place where you lay you head at night, because someone else wants to make money off your property. It just sounds so dirty when you examine the process involved.
And even the compensation system is wrong. People that fall victim to the new ruling on eminent domain may not have the money to relocate. The business owners in particular will be hurt by this the most. Most of your clientele are associated with where you are located. If you are forced to move, then you can lose many customers, because you might be too far out of the way to provide them local services. Also, the money they pay you for your property, won?t include the cost of relocating. Moving all of your stuff to another location can be expensive for just a home owner, but if you have equipment or merchandise that has to be moved as well it can cost thousands of dollars to relocate. This in many cases will be an expense that businesses can?t absorb and they will be forced to close up shop.
The worst part of having your estate stolen is that if that is the land your family has lived for generations, you have not only lost your current home, but your ancestral one as well. So instead of going back to the house your great granddad was raised in, some slob is now parking their gas hogging SUV where it used to be. And if you can?t relocate locally (because chances are a lot of people just lost their homes as well, and there will be housing shortages) you may have to move away from the town your family has lived in for as long as there are records. So basically people get run out of town because someone wants what they have, and just takes it.
All of these situations are not only possible or probable, but realities in some parts of the U.S. This isn?t an opinion of what could happen; this larceny is happening now. Like in New York City where the New York Times wants to build a new house on a corner that Stratford Wallace and his family had owned for over a hundred years. They didn?t even try to negotiate over his property. The world most prestigious news paper just double teamed him with real-estate developers and the city of New York to have his land considered blighted, and his butt kicked to the corner. But these transgressions are just a prelude; the things that could happen though are far more frightening.
If someone were to take into account in how much major corporations already have their hand in politics today and combine it with the current transgressions against property laws, they would begin to turn pale. If they can take a neighborhood, like they are trying in Ohio, why can?t they take a district? And after taking neighborhood after neighborhood, district after district, they could own the whole city. This wouldn?t happen over night, but we are looking at the infantile stages of such a corporate take over right now.
And of course the politicians won?t be left holding out their hands. Only now instead of getting their campaign money from certain corporate organizations and lobbyists, all politicians are big business puppets. Corporate agenda and political agenda merge closer every day, becoming a closer form of mutualistic symbiosis, with each other every year, while the people are being are being drained and robbed by the parasites. With all the lobbyists on capital hill, this is almost true right now, but with the new ?theft amendment,? it will become a perfected example of political corruption.
With this verdict on the Fifth Amendment, everyone but the financial elite loses. The continually disenfranchised middle class could be completely eradicated. The people who have the money get more at the expense of everyone else. There is no ?good for the community? when you make the people of a community suffer such a hardship as this new interpretation of amendment number five now offers. The way it stands now, we will not only lose our physical belongings, but our sense of right and wrong as well. Eminent domain is no longer a tool to clean up slums, or a threat to force owners of disgusting, unhealthy private property to clean up their property, or even a solution to build new school or highway; it is a license to rip people off if you got the cash.
CBS News. Mike Wallace ?Eminent Domain: Being Abused?? July 4, 2004. October 21, 2005.<http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/09/26/60minutes/main575343.shtml>.