A Sickening Example of Eminent Domain

[exploited]

[The Dharma Bum]

It sucksbut but cases like this are an an inevitable result of private property and statism.

[The Dharma Bum]

Also since this is some kind of secret "special forces" military facility they probably do consider this " the most extreme circumstance".

I guess Canada is militarizing in much the same way thet the US is. And in the meantime running roughshod over the people.

[exploited]

[Professor]

Yes, it should be allowed. And, this is a good case of where it should be exercised.

As a condition of citizenship, you are forced to give up your property to the state for the betterment of society every day. We like to call them "taxes". This is no different. In order to provide millions of dollars to the surrounding community, and to provide a training place for the people who defend your country, one person has to give up his personal property.

I went through this a few years back. The road going to our hospital was built to accommodate roughly 5000 cars/day. It was a 2-lane road, with no shoulder. As the town grew to over 50,000, and our hospital went from 80 beds to 450, the road remained the same. Adding insult to injury, Petro built the nations 2nd-largest truck stop between the city (and interstate) and the hospital. To reach the hospital, you had to drive past row upon row of 18-wheelers trying to pull across the highway, dragging their trailers. Inevitably, traffic would stop, and the truckers would be stuck blocking both lanes of travel for minutes at a time. Our local ambulance service estimated that it took 4 minutes to travel the .5 mile stretch between the interstate and our hospital.

So, we pushed for Federal money to expand the highway. And, we got it. But, the plans that were approved by DOTD involved taking the parking lot for a corner bar. And, because the bar would have been too close to the road, it also required tearing it down.

Therefore, for the good of the thousands of people that needed life-saving services, the decision was made (championed by yours truly, via public and door-to-door meetings) to expropriate the land, and compensate the bar owner.

[Spider]

What I don't understand is why this facility HAS to be right there in that one spot. Canada is big. Surely there is some other option?

That's my condition for eminent domain: That all other options be exhausted or wildly impractical. One guy refusing to get off his land shouldn't be able to hold up the construction of a new transportation system that will serve millions of his fellow citizens, for example, if there is no other practical option.

This case sounds to me like its a convenience thing. They want to build this thing right there because its adjacent to the base, not because there is no reason they couldn't put it somewhere else.

[The Comrade]

canada is giant and very sparsely populated. why the hell did they HAVE to build it on someone's property?

[The Dharma Bum]

[exploited]

The thing about eminent domain is that it is most frequently used to build shit that we should no longer be building - like new super-highways (so we can fit more idiotic cars), military bases (so we can be more effective assholes at a global level), big earth-killing power plants (so we can keep on being pigs), etc.

A hospital is one thing. A military base is another.

Also, eminent domain should never be used to make land available to a private, for-profit company.

[Indy]