20 Nov
Kelo’s Back in Town
Kelo v New London broke blood pressure gauges all over the political Right, with libertublicans calling for Justice Souter’s neck.
Mother Jones reports the rest of the story:
A neighborhood torn down to build Pfizer an R&D facility. Now Pfizer has bugged out, leaving the city with a demolished neighborhood and a 90 acre plot with nothing but weeds.
I’ll wait right here for the outrage from the Right. < crickets/>
Are you kidding?
The libertarians continue to be outraged that the city used eminent domain to forcibly take property from its owners in order to hand it over to private developers. The fact that this particular development project was a failure is all the more reason that eminent domain should be used only very rarely, and only for the obvious and genuine public good – not for enriching pharmaceutical companies or (see NYC) sports arenas.
I’m not sure what additional outrage you are looking for. Outrage at Pfizer for bugging out? You want them to be outraged when corruption is rewarded by bad faith? Okay – but you got to admit, its hard to get terribly worked up about a lack of honor among thieves.
November 21st, 2009 at 8:20 am