3 ms·
The US does very little to protect property rights. A lot of places have extremely aggressive zoning (a police power, established by the Euclid v. Ambler SCOTUS
by zbrozek 3y ago
The US does very little to protect property rights. A lot of places have extremely aggressive zoning (a police power, established by the Euclid v. Ambler SCOTUS case) that limits even what kind of housing you can build or how big a parcel must be.
We also play fast and loose with eminent domain, allowing government to take away property and hand it to another private developer to produce pretty much anything; the development doesn't even have to be something like public infrastructure. (Kelo v. City of New London SCOTUS case)
Municipalities are free to extort a variety of silly easements out of folks seeking permits. In my own town, the planning commission routinely extracts enormous conservation easements or public pathway easements (often larger than an acre in the SF Bay Area, where that much land is handily worth north of $1M) from anyone trying to build or remodel a house. In what universe is that not a taking, as defined by the Constitution? This universe, of course.
So yes, our property rights protections are incredibly weak. You have more freedom to do what you will with your property in formerly Communist countries in Eastern Europe than you do in the United States.
- randomopining 3y agoAre you sure? I think you are overly focusing on issues that are not even on the minds of international property owners in the US.