Kelo Case Clips Liberty

Filed in archive on June 27, 2005

I just added a new category today - Liberty. It probably won't be featured much but I think it is important. Because at the end of the day, making all the right moves with our financial game plan is of little use without liberty, defined as "the condition of being free from restriction or control." You know, it's why many Piligrims came here in the first place and why we fought a war when others felt we had too much of it.

So liberty is a big deal, a huge deal. That's why The US Supreme Court's decsion last week in Kelo vs. New London is a real step backward for individual liberty.

While the opinion is long it deserves to be read. But in the event you're pressed for time or just like an abridged version, go here to read eyebrowing raising stuff like:

Thus we have a situation in which, unlike under socialism, individuals can still hold title to their own property. But unlike a free-market system, they do not own their property by right. They hold it at the discretion of political authorities who can yank it away at a whim. This is the economic principle of the classical corporatist or fascist regime.

To call it corporatist or fascist is no mere epithet. It designates a system that maintains the veneer of property while political authorities have extensive powers to limit rights in the name of economic planning. This system necessarily means political conflict is the normal state of affairs -- either in open Elections and legislation or closed-doors deals between lobbyists and politicians. It means no one's property is truly secure.