Private Property

Private property…what does that really mean? I have been thinking a lot about this lately, partially because of our class discussions, and also because it interests me. Ok, so it doesn’t exactly interest me – it infuriates me. Allow me to vent, I mean, explain. I have dear, close friends who are very involved with the laws being passed about eminent domain. I have not studied it as much as they have, but I have overheard enough dinner conversations to know the gist of what is being done. Basically, if you own land and the government wants it, they can take it. It is perhaps a little more involved than this, but that truly is what is happening. So, as I said before, THIS INFURIATES ME! Why should the government be allowed to take something for which you have paid, something for which you have worked, something that is rightfully yours? The answer: THEY SHOULDN’T! And yet, they do.

Locke would certainly not agree with eminent domain. In class we discussed that Locke said the purpose of the state (or government) is to protect private property. Clearly our government isn’t doing such a hot job of this nowadays. We pay property taxes, we “mix our labor” with our property, and we “own” it, until one day when the government decides they want it back. So they take it, and we practically give them the right to do this. Every time we ask the government to do something for us, we give up a portion of our freedom. I personally do not believe that we should give more power to the government, state or federal. I think that the founding fathers would agree with me (the documents which they wrote prove this point). I value my freedom for many reasons; I am not willing to give it up for any light cause. The freedom to own private property is one which I would like to keep, but if our nation continues to look to the government to solve all of our problems, we may soon have very few freedoms indeed.

(I commented on Camila's Post)