From Montana, Evelyn Weighs In on Disrespect for Law Enforcement

There is not just a disrespect of law enforcement that is being tolerated in America, there is also a tolerance for the disrespect of private property rights that has gotten out of control. That's what Evelyn Pyburn with the Big Sky Business Journal has to say.

On Thursday morning, David Knobel and I were talking about the attacks on law enforcement in Minnesota, Portland and elsewhere, and about the broader disrespect of law enforcement that is being increasingly tolerated in America.

Evelyn Pyburn with the Big Sky Business Journal was listening in and sent me this email following the show: 

I just have to add to your conversation of the broad disrespect for property rights.

The violation of property rights in the US has its own government agency and it has offices in almost every town – planning and zoning departments, which get about three-fourths of their funding from the federal government. It is because of them that we have a housing shortage.

Tell me what other product that is in high demand by consumers doesn’t have the whole of the market rushing to deliver it as fast as possible. Even if the product is illegal it usually has people rushing to meet market demand, ie. drugs! Black markets! But not housing.

And the fact is as a commodity, housing is illegal through the unaffordability and encumbrances of building codes and other regulations. I have covered the issue of building codes and zoning restrictions since 1970 and in all of that time I have never heard any discussion from anyone regarding property rights or cost. Never, never in adding a new restriction or requirement has anyone ever said, “How much will that cost the homeowner?” They have discussed whether their government staff can afford to enforce it but never, never, never a word about whether the citizens can afford to pay for it.

They can do this because, again, our education system does not teach students the importance of property rights. We cannot have individual freedom without property rights – the concept did not exist before the emergence of the US. There is good reason that communists attack private property. Property rights are standing room for the individual, communism is not about the individual, hence the name – it is about the
collective which exists for the state.

Evelyn