For Public or Private Good? Government always has been able to invoke Eminent Domain and force you to sell your land for the common good. But what about taking it to give to private developers? What should the ground rules be for using Eminent Domain?
Jack talks with Michigan Representative Glenn Steil, Pat Wright who is the Senior Legal Analyst at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, and MSU Professor of Law Adam Mossoff.
I worked for several years for a company that made much of their recycling program, with separate boxes for recycling. I frequently worked late many evenings, and watched the cleaning staff empty the recycling containers into the trash.
I asked several times why this was done, and was always told that they had a recycling policy, and that the cleaning staff were supposed to be following it. (I did not feel comfortable asking the cleaning staff, most of whom were not native speakers of English.)
Posted by: Jennifer | October 03, 2005 at 01:54 PM
Hi Jack,
I tried to get on the show today but I was late (1:45). . .
Right now I'm looking at a bottle of Gatorade, and POM (Pommegrant juice) and I'm sure there are hundred more of these selling drinks.
My comment for this or future shows is "Should Michigan have a plastic bottle law that is like Maine ($.05) deposit or California (CRV cash refund? How much would it cost and how much it would contribute to the states benefits of the environment
Posted by: Bruce Goldsmith | October 03, 2005 at 02:31 PM
On the eminent domain issue, I would like to know what in the nature of government makes it capable of operating businesses at a profit?
As far as I know government is an institution that has the legal monopoly on the use of force to break and destory things. I'm 64 and that is the only thing I know it is good at and contributes to our survival.
The rest of government's excursions into fields that are necessary to man survival i.e. engineering, education, medicine, economics, etc., it can not make a profit. And if profit can not be made civilization is going to deteriorate into primitivism, and please do not confuse technological progress with the humanities i,e, and how we deal with each other politically. Our Country was initiated by 13 colonies not 13 states and they declared in 1776 that every man has an unalienble right to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness and I would add all that logically follows from that principle. The screw up started because they did not have a philosophy to guide them and in 1787 they put together our Constitution that denied people of color their unalienable rights and 71 years later we fought The Civil War and 630,000 Americans died because of racist intellectuals and politicians.
Thank You.
Paul
Posted by: Paul | October 04, 2005 at 02:25 PM