The use of property is a continuous topic having many facets. One of the main issues is how private property can be used, for there is not a state, county, or city in the United States that doesn’t have some sort of regulations on how private property may be used.
With regards to the proper use of private property, for Libertarians, private property is just an extension of the individual. The Libertarian position is that a person may do what he wishes with his own property as long as his usage doesn’t impede on another’s Liberty in the process. Therefore, just as the individual should be allowed personal maximum Liberty, so should an individual have maximum freedom to use his own property. Maximizing individual rights over personal property is essential because a person who is in control of his own property is likely to utilize and create whereas if there is no personal investment being a landowner, there is no incentive to produce, as the landowner has no stake in the production.
Meanwhile there are many who will disagree with this viewpoint. Many believe that a private property owner should yield to the dictates of authority in order that individual landowners don’t abuse or cause harm to the society at large. This mentality has evolved as a perversion of the Constitutional powers granted by the 5th Amendment. “…nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.” At first this was a Federal power only, but federal court rulings has ceded the power of eminent domain to the states as well, citing the powers of the 14th Amendment as justification. By extending the powers of eminent domain to the states, it was just a small cognitive leap to the perspective believing that individuals left to their own devices can cause problems for neighbors and communities surrounding them unless these individuals are monitored for improper use. Put another way, this viewpoint distrusts the actions of the individual and believes that only an authoritative approach to land management will keep society functioning best and the public good to be served.
Unfortunately, this distortion of logic to extend the Constitutional power couldn’t be more inaccurate. Once this viewpoint of the state knows best has been adopted, the infringement upon Liberty will never end. Eventually, the land owner will face regulations over the simplest of matters, i.e. what color his house can be, if he chooses not to maintain his lawn, if he wants to build and addition to his home, if he can run a business for himself out of his home, etc. The list is almost endless to what will be dictated to the individual if the state is allowed to interfere in the use of private property. Thus, the proper way to govern private property to is to allow the state to interfere within the private activity of a landowner only if that use caused another’s Liberty to be directly harmed, not just potentially.
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