On Liberty

Liberty is waning. The population no longer desire or want liberty. The people want to be sheltered and want the ability to be able to tell others how to live. We are growing softer and I pray for a turnaround.

The first expample I have is local. Prescott is contemplating a new planning and zoning ordinace that would require 40% of land to subdivided be allocated for open space. This is a popular idea in Prescott these days. To get free stuff (open space) without renumerating others for it is seen as just these days. Prescott did not used to be populated by characters such as these, but then again this country did not either. Say a person has acreage locally that has been handed down through generations and the current owner has been planning on selling it off to finance his or her retirement. Now the citizens of Prescott seek to change the rules and make subdividing land impractical, which is the whole point.

Prescott has a beautiful downtown area of victorian homes. If a developer today were to suggest narrow lots with homes packed in like the valued downtown, the developer would be attacked, defamed and the people would attempt to extort value (land) from him. The development would not be viewed as quaint.

The second example is national. Barak Obama said new coal plants could be built but he would tax them so hard they would go bankrupt. Coal is a "dirtier" option for energy, but there is new technology coming on line all the time. To restrict electricity production by harrasing coal companies does not make sense and would end up most impacting the lower and middle classes to which he claims to fight. The coal miner's families would be devastated. The people that heat their homes with coal generated electricity would suffer. Barak Obama put himself in a difficult postulating a police power taking of private property.