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Property Matters: How Property Rights Are Under Assault and Why You Should Care

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In Property Matters, James V. DeLong argues that the federal effort to protect the environment has sometimes unconstitutionally deprived owners of their property. The book is skillfully written, and it intersperses bits of property law and regulatory history with a catalogue of horror stories. DeLong blames these governmental misdeeds on the tendency of previous liberal- dominated Congressional sessions to create monotonic agencies which lack stopping points. Given these imperatives (e.g., protect endangered species), the federal government has created bureaucracies which rightfully have no concern for private citizens or their rights. When only a few atrocities occurred, the public took little notice, but as the bureaucracies have expanded, more and more families have been harmed. DeLong's book effectively predicts the future of federal regulatory legislation. Eventually, Congress will have hearings that expose these offenses, much as the current IRS hearings have focused attention on a different kind of bureaucratic abuse. Unless environmental groups get a little smarter and cut the public some slack, when the reaction occurs, the pendulum is likely to swing too far in the other direction. Instead of legislation requiring a balancing of interests, Congress may well dismantle some programs.

~Property Matters: How Property Rights Are Under Assault and Why You Should Care~ adroitly and incisively explains that property rights are vitally requisite to a free and prosperous civil society, and he further illustrates how the inalienable right to property is routinely being trounced upon by an overactive and uncaring state. The Lockean cliche "life, liberty, and property" succinctly encapsulates the rights that government exists to protect, and yet in our time the state is the single biggest threat to property rights in our time. A zealous and overactive government rountinely tramples upon property rights in complete disregard of the rule of law. Senseless environmental laws, asinine zoning ordinances, the phenomenon of regulatory takings without just compensation and other illegal takings in violation of the Fifth Amendment are rendering property rights null and void. On the environmental front, DeLong chronicles how the endangered species act and wetlands regulations have produced some ridiculous regulations and have done far more harm than good. The assault on property rights has steadily increased year by year. DeLong substantiates that property rights are the vital cornerstone of American liberties and that this right must be protected. He makes it resoundingly clear that Americans must wake up to the importance of property rights and voice their opposition to the assault upon private property.

Unfortunately, instead of an thorough analysis of the genesis, justifications, and problems with overarching property rights, DeLong acts as a mouthpiece for other property rights activists. DeLong covers some of the same ground as Congressman Richard Pombo in his 1996 This Land Is Our Land, simply emphasizing anomalous examples instead of practicable solutions. DeLong's denial of the externalities resulting from uninhibited development leave his analysis unbalanced and ill-founded. DeLong's politics overcome his analysis. This book is similar to his condemnation of industry for their recognition to the denial of carbon dioxide emissions. (...) His political agenda overwhelm his rationale