Quote:
Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop
If this is just a squabble about whether, as a practical matter, governments pay people enough as compensation for takings, I'll agree that they probably don't.
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It's not. That's a different issue. Issue here is, our country (through the Constitution) professes a higher degree of attention to the value of the individual over the group than other countries have historically embraced. One of the touchstones of that concept lies in our right, over the right of our limited government, to retain our property. We allow, as an extreme exception, our government to take some things from us (with compensation) only on a rather high showing of public need. Not just benefit, but need. (I'm speaking of tradition here, not recent jurisprudence.)
Lately, it's degenerated to "benefit". Kelo is the best recent attempt to wind this "group over individual" attitude back.
