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I’m not American, so only have an outsider perspective, but I’m not convinced that’s possible in the US to do the same, because the country has a completely dif
by dgellow 7mo ago
I’m not American, so only have an outsider perspective, but I’m not convinced that’s possible in the US to do the same, because the country has a completely different perspective on individual rights. Land ownership seems to be seen as something sacred that cannot be infringed in any way, meaning a small group of people who own some parts of the land can block any development that would benefit the public at large
- amazingamazing 7mo agoland rights aren't exactly a constitutional right, but the 5th amendment makes it hard to take it, so in practice would probably require a constitutional amendment.
- ghaff 7mo agoThe 5th amendment isn't exactly recent. But a lot of factors make it harder--for better or worse--to exercise eminent domain today than in the past. You could probably never reasonably build the equivalent of the interstate highway system today. (Though even at the time, there were compromises made because of strong community pushback in some cases and there was less developed space than today as well.)
- thekyle 7mo ago[dead]
- kiba 7mo agoThe US is the country that originated Georgism.
- yks 7mo agoYou’d think so, but in fact it’s almost the opposite! You can own your land all you want but your neighbor has a final say on what’s allowed on your land.
- titzer 7mo agoThis is mostly true until it's time to build an interstate.
- ghaff 7mo agoGood luck building a bunch of new interstates today. Opposition was already coming in at the end of the interstate system buildout. Drill down and you'll find various odd connections (or lack thereof) throughout the system that resulted from community opposition.
- deleted 7mo ago[deleted]
- orangecat 7mo agoa small group of people who own some parts of the land can block any development Almost all NIMBY opposition to development comes from people who do not own the land in question.
- kjkjadksj 7mo agoEminent domain is designed for this. People are compelled to sell.
- ghaff 7mo agoAnd you'd better be prepared to fight for it through the courts. Might take a decade or more if someone is really opposed to selling.
- kjkjadksj 7mo agoPeople say that but I’m not sure, it seems state of california manages to pull it off pretty well, thinking in terms of recent history it was used a couple years ago for highway expansion in bakersfield for example, using it on 900 homes. Pretty sure they must have used it recently in the owens valley when they widened 395 as well.