Looters Loose in Wicomico County …

… County Council Proposes Plunder in the “Name of the People”

If you have ever read Frederic Bastiat’s The Law you are familiar with concept of legalized plunder.  If you have ever read Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged you are familiar with the looting class.  If not, I heartily suggest you read them FAST.  THEFT in the name of “public good” has come to our little corner of the world.

Last Tuesday, the Democrat majority of the Wicomico County Council (sorry John Cannon, you no longer qualify as even a “Republican in Name Only”) voted to move forward with legislation that will strip farmers of their property rights.  The council’s proposal would reduce the number of lots which a parcel may be subdivided into.  It also ends the dreaded “cluster provision” which allowed farmers to sell parcels of land for development at greater density by requiring that more open space would be preserved.  The net effect of this proposal is to drastically reduce the value of a given parcel relative to its value if still developable.

Translation – the farmers pay so that certain developers and special interest groups may prosper and the lefty fringe can feel good about themselves.

Council members Gail Bartkovich, Joe Holloway and Stevie Prettyman stood their ground.  If Ag District landowners are to lose value in their greatest asset, they need to be compensated.  Additionally, the legislation itself appears to be seriously flawed.  This doesn’t seem to bother the socialist majority of the Wicomico County Council.

Aren’t You Exaggerating A Bit?

Am I?  Let’s see.

Socialism refers to a broad set of economic theories of social organization advocating public or state ownership (or control) and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods, and a society characterized by equality for all individuals, with a fair or egalitarian method of compensation.

Farm and forest lands are a means of production.  In fact, they are our oldest means of production.  Socialism does not require state ownership, merely state control.  The proposal advocated by council members John Cannon, Bill McCain, Dave MacLeod and Sheree Sample-Hughes certainly calls for state control of the private property of a certain class of county resident.

As far as “a fair or egalitarian method of compensation” goes, that simply means taking from the more productive members of a society in order to reward those who are not productive.  Stealing from a productive group, like farmers, is OK because it’s for the “public good”.

The majority of county farmers agreed to the current zoning regulations as a compromise between their natural rights as property owners and some nebulous “public good”.  Unfortunately, the left consistently proves that Lord Acton was correct:

Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Why should local enviros be concerned about picayune concepts such as property rights when they can sieze your property and mine for what they consider the “public good”?  Groups like the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, which produce nothing and survive through the misguided philanthropy of those that are productive members of society, and through your tax dollars, need to advocate for the legalized theft of individual property.  If they do not they will cease to have a reason for their existence.  They always call for socialist solutions to problems because this helps to ensure their continued survival.

You see, socialism is not really about the “public good”; it is about guilting the public into actions that allow a small subset to live well as society’s parasites.  As Bastiat pointed out, labor is pain.  Why be productive when you can plunder the property of others?

The “public good” advocated by individuals such as the CBF’s Alan Girard and Mike Pretl of the Wicomico Environmental Trust MAY be good for the “public” depending on how you define them.  However, there is no question that this proposal will be very good for certain members of the public.

Who Benefits?

Developers -

Local developers are at the top of the list of those who will benefit from expropriating development rights from farmers.  For starters, those developers who already own developable land outside of the Ag District will literally see their wealth increased overnight upon passage of this legislation.  This will be accomplished, not by hard work or adding value, but through the theft of the property rights of others.

Despite the protestations of the left, markets work.  Just as the sun rose this morning and will set tonight, by restricting the ability of farmers to develop their land (or sell it for development) the supply of developable land will decrease and its per acre value will rise accordingly.

Environmental Groups -

As noted in the previous section, most environmental groups are funded by well meaning, productive members of society.  They claim to be solving problems.  In reality, they are aggravating problems and making up others in order to perpetuate their existence.

Groups such as the CBF cannot afford to actually solve environmental problems any more than government agencies charged with doing so do.  If problems were actually solved, they “reason”, these groups and agencies would loose their funding.

Do you have any idea how many people are getting paid to solve environmental “problems”?  I don’t either.  However, I’m willing to bet that there are more people working on America’s environmental woes than worked on the Manhattan project; a lot more.  However, while we were able to invent the atomic bomb in just a few short years we don’t see much progress on the environmental front.  Do we?

Sure, laws are passed.  Regulations are enacted.  Property is confiscated.  Are there any problems solved?

The Political Class -

Playing with people’s lives (and their life’s savings) is no problem for a politician if they believe that some gain can be gotten.  Look at Councilman Bill McCain.

McCain does real estate appraisals for a living.  Many a bank has lent money to McCain’s clients based on appraisals that show a higher per acre value BECAUSE a piece of land is developable.  Yet, McCain now claims that Wicomico farmers won’t loose out by this government sanctioned theft.  Who gains?  As noted above, certain developers will see their land values leap overnight if this measure passes.  How many of those developers are McCain clients?

The most amusing little dance occurring among the political class is between County Executive Rick Pollitt and County Exec wannabe John Cannon.   Pollitt has pledged that he won’t support this type of legislation unless farmers are compensated.  Now Pollitt will not commit to vetoing this bill even if farmers are not compensated.

It is reported that last week there was a meeting between Pollitt, Cannon, the CBF’s Girard, and others to come up with some sort of TDR (Transfer of Development Rights) plan.  Given that such a plan will only work if ALL developable land is required to be part of such a scheme and that developer will simply move to have their property annexed into towns IF the county government ever grew a big enough pair to force non-ag land into a TDR program, this just isn’t practical.  However, expect Cannon and Pollitt to claim that a non-workable TDR plan is “just compensation”.   They should each buy a dictionary.  Taking someone’s property without providing fair market value is THEFT, not compensation.  They might as well use a gun.

How do Cannon and Pollitt gain?  Cannon is somehow deluded into the notion that Republicans won’t abandon him despite his complete betrayal of everything they claim to believe in.  He also seems to think that the enviro left will cross over and support him.  He forgets the fact that these folk can’t even find the GOP line on a ballot.  Pollitt, by displaying his usual moral courage, is playing both sides.  Politically, Pollitt will reap the greatest gain.  Morally, they are both damned.

Why Should You Care?

If you’re like me, you’re not a farmer.  You won’t be hurt by this proposal.  Right?  There’s no point arguing that this is just a slippery slope and that your land could be taken next.  You’re enlightened, liberal friends will tell you that such views are “simplistic” and “out dated”.

At a public meeting held last year at Wicomico High School I heard SU professor Harry Womack claim that he was sick and tired of hearing people talk about property rights.   He claimed that, “We gave them the value of their property.”  This man, who never produced anything of value in his life; who was living off of the taxes and tuition paid by hard working men and women believed that the collective had a right to the property of those who owned it.  This “enlightened scholar” realized something that my simplistic, out dated mind simply cannot comprehend – those who work to produce, to create jobs, to provide the goods and services upon which we depend have NO RIGHT to the means by which they produce; namely their PROPERTY.  What sickened me even more, was that Rich Hall, head of the Maryland Department of Planning told me the exact same thing after the meeting – “We gave them the value of their property”.

These “enlightened”, supposedly educated individuals profess that “we”, the collective, have a greater right to your property than you do.  You should care because YOU still have a choice.  If people like Cannon, McCain, Girard, Pretl, Womack, and Hall have their way the day will soon come that you no longer have that choice.

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