How Government Regulation Creates Wealth Inequality
by Paul HairA small-town newspaper (scroll down to Section B after hitting the link) profiled a local land developer, explaining how he started and grew his own business.
Harry Fox, Jr. spent the past few decades becoming a successful land developer in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. (Fox generally does not build but instead acquires large tracts of land and goes through the necessary steps in order to subdivide the land into lots and bring them to market.) He mentioned to the newspaper that if he had tried getting into the land developing business today he would have a much harder time doing so because of all the government regulation that exists. I wanted to know what he meant by this so I contacted him and conducted an interview of my own.
South-central Pennsylvania on a foggy, autumn day. Photograph © Paul Hair, 2011.
I wanted Fox to explain to me all the steps needed to bring a piece of land to market in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. However, government regulations and requirements are so extensive that we couldn’t go through all the steps in just a few hours. So we focused on just one area: what a developer needs to do to bring a piece of land to market with that piece of land having a private septic system. The description that follows pertains only to Pennsylvania. Any errors made are mine and mine alone.
A developer who wants to sell a piece of land as a building lot (with the intention of using a private septic system on it) must spend thousands of dollars and deal with multiple layers of bureaucracy just to determine if he can install a private septic system on it.
The bureaucracy in the case of trying to install a private septic system is the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). The Pennsylvania government has enabled the DEP to implement and enforce sewage planning and management throughout the Commonwealth. This means that the DEP can (like the federal government) bypass the state legislature and unilaterally institute binding laws through regulation, thus giving it extraordinary power with little to no accountability to the public (since DEP officials don’t face elections, and because bureaucracies rarely undergo reform and almost never disappear).
The first step in the septic-system-authorization process generally is a preliminary hydro-geology study. The necessity of a preliminary hydro-geology study varies somewhat from region to region, but is quite prevalent in south-central Pennsylvania (where Fox operates) and mandated in all areas with a limestone geology. The hydro-geology study determines if nitrate levels on the land are within acceptable levels to install a private septic system. If they are, the developer then must perform a perc (percolation) and probe test to determine if there is sufficient depth of limiting zone. Sufficient depth of limiting zone means that the perc and probe test is checking to see if there is sufficient depth of permeable soil (48 inches needed) between effluent and the limiting zone (i.e. bedrock, etc.). Local municipalities require this perc and probe test based on DEP mandates.
If the developer passes these tests he then must submit a sewage planning module to the local municipality and the DEP. This will take additional time and may cost more money if the DEP decides that additional steps are necessary. Even after the DEP approves the sewage planning module the developer must go through further steps with the local municipality to get final permits and approval for the septic system installation.
Fox mentioned that a lot of people who want to subdivide a piece of their own land to sell to their child or other relative often have no idea how difficult it is to do so. I’d imagine that the steep price necessary to do all the tests needed to determine if one can install a private septic system on the land would be enough to turn off many people from trying to use their own property as they wish. If not, there still are all the other tests, bureaucratic regulations, and thousands of dollars that might stop someone from trying to sell his own land.
Fox told me the most interesting part of our conversation when our meeting had just about ended. He said that government regulation (through existing environmental and statutory constraints) has restricted the supply of approved building lots and land that is capable of being developed (hereafter simply referred to as approved building lots). And while he favors deregulation, he said that this extensive government regulation actually benefits him in the long run. Here’s what he meant.
Just a few decades ago the average person could subdivide and sell a piece of his land rather easily and without spending a lot of money. Less bureaucracy meant there were fewer tests and expenses. Therefore, if a person wanted to sell some of his land he simply did it. This in turn meant that there were more approved building lots on the market and thus an acre of an approved building lot was cheaper since there was a greater supply of it.
Now, however, with all the bureaucracies, expenses, and time needed to bring a piece of land to market, less people are attempting to sell land, meaning that there are less approved building lots on the market for purchase. This means that those who do invest the money and time needed to bring land to market now can charge more per acre of an approved building lot than they could have ten, twenty, thirty, forty, or fifty years ago.
Fox called this, “restriction of supply by regulation.” And he said that while deregulation would allow more people to enter the land market and profit from it, the heavy hand of government regulation actually benefits him by keeping many people out of the land market, thus allowing him to sell more land and being able to reap the benefits of the higher cost of land per approved building lot acre. Thus, the profits from selling land are increased for those who can afford to enter the land selling market while those who don’t have the money to do so cannot profit at all from their own property.
In this day and age when totalitarians and would-be tyrants scream about the need for more government regulation, the evils of the free market, and the need for big government to rule our lives in order to eliminate so-called wealth inequality, the truth is that it is these same totalitarians and would-be tyrants (through their massive bureaucracies and regulations) who are responsible for the true inequality—the inequality that eliminates a level playing field and promotes the consolidation of money in the hands of the few.
If people truly are concerned with eliminating inequality as much as is humanly possible, then deregulation—not increased regulation—is the correct answer.
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77 Comments
Moral to the story ?
Yes, government has even grabbed control over your urine and excrement (and yes you have to pay government for the privilege of them controlling your expulsion of both).
Had enough yet?
National oligopoly brings wealth inequality. It also brings the deep pocketed presence of major corporations in DC. It is so naive to think they are only there to "defend" themselves. Paul, you infer too much taking the leap from local "perc" tests, to national politics.
Just look at most major western European cities; Perfect havens for rich socialists, who occasionally have to deal with enraged, entitlement driven, car burning union thugs.
Another sterling example of bureaucracy run amok. Obviously, no one wants uncontrolled development and dumping of raw sewage into the environment, but the regulatory hoops these people have to jump through are ridiculous.
Here's another little bit of governmental lunacy. I heard that the oil companies will be paying fines in excess of $6 million to the Treasury Department. The fines are due to the oil companies not adding a specified percentage of cellulosic bio-fuel to their delivered product as mandated by law. Problem is, cellulosic bio-fuel doesn't exist except in very small quantities in lab environments. And people wonder why we think the government is out of control?
The Founding Fathers are spinning in their graves….
In my town in Centrel Oregon, to build a garage within SIGHT of the Deschutes River requires approval from the county Building Dept., Planning Department, EPA, Dept. of Environmental Quality. State Fish and Wildlife, to mention the main permits required. Is it any wonder that I joke about early retirement instead of working every day?
Agenda 21 and ICLEI, anyone?
Nice story.
But Reaganomics has created the widest gap between rich and poor, not regulation.
the wealth gap wasn't as large as it is to day until we went about trickle down theories, shower the rich with tax breaks and the all classes will thrive.
Well 3 decades later the poor are poorer then ever and the rich are richer then ever while paying the least amount of taxes ever.
the good ole days of the 50's the middle class thrived as did the rich. what was our tax rate then? Too high, but it didn't stop growth and innovation like the right claims it will if we allow bush tax cuts to expire.
No regulation and the rich soaking up all the capital into one spot will result in us mirroring mexico or some other 3rd world country
If one were to go back and track virtually ALL economic woes throughout all of history in virtually every civilization, one would see the core problem is gov't intervention. NO economic bubble can be created without gov't intervention. The "too big to fail" concept is not a market concept, but a gov't concept. This holds true for the Roman Empire, the ancient Greeks, 14th century Spain, feudal Japan. Why in the hell ANYONE with ANY education would ever think gov't could ever POSSIBLY be the solution to economics woes is beyond me.
In Oregon you have to have an independent home inspector AND the State DEQ confirm that your house is "environmentally safe" before you can even sell it.
Any changes required by DEQ are at the homeowners expense, many homeowners face tens of thousands of dollars in state mandated improvements before they are even "allowed" to sell THEIR OWN PROPERTY.
The home inspection for structural, electrical, plumbing and other safety factors is fine but the State DEQ inspection is completely out of line.
Does this sound like "freedom" to you?
The biggest problem with these issues are the fees. I am sure the tests and rules came into being because of faulty septic system instillation in the past. There does need to be some regulation when it comes to such things but it has gotten out of hand.
How can we reign in the out of control bureaucracies? My thought is to eliminate fees. First you need a local charter that locks in tax rates. NO ability to raise or lower the tax rates PERIOD. Make them a function of the GLE (Gross Local Economy). If the community prospers then the community government gets more tax revenue. If it does not then they get less money.
Once that is in place then ANYTHING that the local government wants to implement must be paid for with the available funds. There will be no fees, dues, or any other compensation what-so-ever! If they wish to test every lot for every possible problem that may come due to installing a septic system then let them do so on their own dime.
I think you would see a lot of the 'we have to regulate everything' mentality vanish when the bureaucracy itself has to pay for it
First, they are now the Obama Tax Cuts.
The Bush Tax cuts expired.
Oh wait, all along they have been the CONGRESSIONAL TAX CUTS!
Anyway, back in the fifties, we didn't send billions abroad in the form of "aid". There was no Department of Energy forcing us to purchase abroad what we have HERE! We didn't have an EPA grinding business to a halt as we do now either.
Regulation by government is to be limited to ENUMERATED POWERS with the rest being left to individuals THEMSELVES.
Government regulation as we witness today is what is bringing us TO third world status, just like other countries, mexico included, that "regulate" their subjects without boundary.
Free exercise of LIBERTY and CITIZENS free from endless government interference and imposition is what saw prosperity grip this nation. As the totalitarianism of big government grows, we creep toward tyranny. And you advocate that path?
Wake up, saj!
Give us all a heads up when the raw sewage between your ears has been flushed.
Bonus. You don't need a permit.
Great post Missy. A couple additions. Most inspectors have a minimum of real world experience and training. Half of the reports I see, prior to doing these improvements for clients are either incomplete for SAFETY codes or just wrong. Second, the back story is that these "inspectors" must be licensed by the state. Great source of revenue for the state.
A side note. I've been a builder for 25 years. I have just completed 16 hours of "continuing education" at a cost of over $500. That plus the increase in my license fees and the need for a new yearly renewed license for lead paint certification has raised the cost of my license by 400%! All of this to continue to eke out a living in an industry that this current REGIME is destroying.
Freedom IS dying, friend…..
NO they aren't fine Missy, not if the buyer and, especially, the seller, are opposed to paying for them as part of the private contract deal. ALso not Ok is this notion that absent them the private property cannot be bought and sold.
People have to take responsibility for what they buy on their own shoulders. Only then will people pay attention to what it is they are buying!
Yes, there does need to be some kind of regulation.
SELF REGULATION!
I'm ready to give some back….
Already underway…
Individual responsibility is being slowly tortured to death. Once we cry uncle, we'll have the government there to solve all our problems. We just have to re-name our country, USSA.
You need to rally your neighbors to throw out the liberal politicians that are running amok in your state.
Sure I can see that. There should be laws already in place that allow a person to litigate against someone whose septic system damages their property. I was just proposing a way for the bureaucrats to be reigned in. If the money had to come out of their own stash then lots of must have regulations would suddenly be not so must have. It is something that people in a local government could do to stop the madness.
I would really like to implement something like it on a federal level with the taxes at least. An amendment to the constitution limiting the percentage of taxes any single individual would have to pay. Add that to a balanced budget amendment and we could effectively gut most of the bloat right out of government.
Oh, B.S.!
Once, a land owner could install a steel underground gasoline tank(s), open a gasoline/diesel station and forget about it. Worse, and then, go out of business an abandon it/them. Over time the tanks rusted and leaked their contents into the ground water and migrated to other properties and in many cases, private, or municipal well waters. Guess who got stuck with the clean up bill? Right, state and federal treasuries, you know, the taxpayer? And, it took twenty years to get them out of the ground and replaced with double walled and monitored tanks that reduce the risk astronomically.
These regulations are to protect adjoining properties from poorly designed, installed and maintained systems that have the potential to do harm to those properties and avoid the taxpayer having to clean them up when the developer goes bust or takes his profits and walks away, or both.
The author talks about property rights but totally ignores the property rights of adjoining property owners whose use and value may be affected by loose or non-existent regulations. It is therefore the reason why the regulations are/were enacted was to suppress the desires of developers to maximize profit that sometimes cost the taxpayers hundreds of times the cost of doing it right the first time.
So Mr. Hair is it your desire to raise the ire of these readers about the expensive regulations and ignore the consequences of poor or criminal developers and give them free reign again or do you desire to give a balanced approach and let your readers know why these regulations were enacted in the first place which was to protect the taxpayer?
So you believe that there is one pot of money and once the "rich" take their portion there is none left for anybody else? Fact is the rich got richer but so did all the other classes. Where else in the world can you have a 52" flat screen and still be considered "poor"? I could be a millionaire and be considered poor if the richest people had a trillion dollars. Point is, if I earn it it is NOT the right of you or the government to take MY money.
I don't know why liberals/progressives have such a hard time understanding this simple fact. Big government favors big business. More regulation harms small businesses and individuals. The more government seeks to control business and personal behavior, the more incentive there is for big businesses to cozy up to the government. If progressives really want to support "the little guy", they'd be screaming for small government and limited regulations.
If y'all think this process sounds hard, and complicated, and fraught with overbearing regulations, try cutting a large piece of timber, or try permitting an oil and gas well, and if you really want to get brave, try stripping off a block of coal. Permits are a year and a half out.
I guess to be fair to a lot of people, it does take a learned or experienced eye to spot some serious, yet hidden, defects in a residence. When I graduated high school, I had two years of Architecture and two concurrent (I tripled up on electives) years of Mechanical Drafting. I had produced complete blueprints (Framing, Details, Plumbing, Foundation, Electrical, Kitchen Elevations, Etc) for three homes, one of which we built from the finished foundation up. It's fairly easy for me to spot load bearing walls, correct electrical layouts, obvious GFCI applications and so on. Whenever a friend goes house hunting, I tag along for my standard fee (case of Molson Golden or Labatt's Blue, whichever is on sale). Many learned friends of mine, are oblivious to glaring defects in a home.
That being said, I fully agree. Read. Do some basic research and become rudimentarily familiar with building practices and quit depending on Nanny Government to fix everything for you. They won't. They will charge, fee and fine you up the wazoo and often times the problems are not found. Most building inspectors (Government type) are not Trades grounded. But people will always assume Government has their best interests at heart. Nothing could be further from the truth. Every Government regulatory process has morphed into a revenue generator with absolutely no guarantee or recompensatory process for errors.
We need more than that, friend. On a national level, my Congressional district has the ONLY Republican in the entire Oregon delegation. On a state wide basis, we have consarvative Representatives and Senators. Here's where the trouble lie. On the local level, the urban center of Bend has had a major influx of libs from Portland, Seattle and California. This has lead to liberalization of the city council, of which I have no say about as I live in the county. The county commission is mostly Conservative. The insideous little parasites are gaining inroads by the force of numbers as we speak. At this point, until the collape, gridlock is the best we have been able to do……
"""Anyway, back in the fifties, we didn't send billions abroad in the form of "aid"""
If you think foreign aid is the problem you're delusional. 700 Billion a year for war and empire a much bigger problem.
""There was no Department of Energy forcing us to purchase abroad what we have HERE! We didn't have an EPA grinding business to a halt as we do now either. ""
Tell the people who have been victims of toxic spills that have ruined land and waterways that the EPA isn't necessary… yet another way the GOP wants us to be a third world country. no environmental standards.
"""Government regulation as we witness today is what is bringing us TO third world status, just like other countries, mexico included, that "regulate" their subjects without boundary"""
Which government regulation is hindering the 3rd world? Mexico is a class of wealthy people behind walled compounds and everybody else. In the US we're dissolving the middle class so it's just like mexico, wealthy ruling elite and the poor people that work for them.
"""As the totalitarianism of big government grows, we creep toward tyranny. And you advocate that path? ""
Nope, that hannity extremism talking. be rational. I'm advocating open free markets, but also fair markets, a referee so we don't have mass pollution, or wall st crashing the economy.
Give us a heads up when you have a valid point to make.
Looks like you went to the Mark Levin school of debating, your voice sound like your balls are being squeezed too?
I noticed you couldn't refute anything I said. So telling.
these people scare the ever-loving crap out of me.
""Fact is the rich got richer but so did all the other classes""
DCgirl,
I cannot stress this enough
What you just said that I quoted is COMPLETELY FALSE.
The middle class gotten worse over the last decade then any other time.
The income gap is greater then ever with REAL WAGES over the last decade decreasing.
The rich have never been richer in the history of this country and the middle class wages have been STAGNANT OR DECLINED SINCE THE 80's.
even in a bubble economy we had before 08 crash, more manufacturing shipped over seas then at any other time in recent history.
"""Where else in the world can you have a 52" flat screen and still be considered "poor"?"""
I'm glad your barometer for poor is size of tv. There are people who cannot feed their kids, afford school, healthcare, basic goods, jobs are being shipped away while CEO make more and more, and you're going to pretend that they all have flat screens and are living the high life?
You're watching too much fox.
When you get on here and spout out ignorant crap like this you better have statististics. You have no idea of the tax changes brought on the the "86 Tax Act. The wealthiest tax payers had all their special deductions pulled away.
Get your HUFFPO, and NYTIMES crap out of here.
If existing, sensible zoning practices were followed and enforced evenly, the situations you describe would evaporate. They essentially have.
I wasn't aware that septic systems were used for gasoline storage. Must have missed that.
Generally, it is a very simple matter to track the abstracts of a peice of property and determine it's history and usage. If I am developing a large tract of farm field, why should I have to go through a ridiculously expensive and lengthy process to look for that which has never existed?
I agree. I also live in Bend and the restrictions and regulation is strangling. thankfully I am outside city limits.
3 miles upstream from Sunriver. OWW.
Maybe they can dig their way out and vote?
Right On! I'd add Kokanee to the list of renumberations, however…. ; -)
Amen brother.
I don't know why they want to control mine. They can't even control their own inexhaustable output.
Great now zombies are going to vote?
Nice area. Howdy neighbor.
Pfffttt,……It's been refuted over and over. No need to reiterate and slapping leather with your RoNNie RayGuN?
Ooooo…topical!
Straying off topic and forgetfulness are generally signs of dementia. Probably need to get that checked.
All of that hard work, red-tape, risk and expense just so you can LEASE the property from the government. Yes lease — If you think you can actually own your property try defaulting on the property taxes!
http://www.politiseeds.com
The rich have never been richer in the history of this country and the middle class wages have been STAGNANT OR DECLINED SINCE THE 80's
Explain this to me.
By choice, I have been middle class my entire life. I have no use for chasing more and more income. Just enough, is good enough for me. Since 1983, I have done better each and every year…. untill 2009. Am I supposed to be pissed off because a CEO makes even more than I do?
Why?
EDIT:
Let me elaborate even further. I have never made more than $58,000.00/yr in my life. I own two paid for homes, one is rented to a friend for a ridiculously low monthly amount. My primary residence is on a lake and is worth six times what I paid for it, pre-Obummer. I own two paid for vehicles. I have no credit cards, no debt, two IRA's, mid five figure stocks and did most of this in the defense of this nation you so obviously disapprove of. Why should I be pissed?
I was having a friggin blast until Obummer showed up. This shouldn't be possible, huh?
There are a number of flaws in your thesis.
You fail to define exactly who is rich and who is poor and by what standards. Assets? Income? Someone who's retired, paid off the house and living off their savings would be classified as poor by the standard of income but rich by the standard of assets. Someone else who makes 250K and blows it all shopping and eating out and paying a ton in rent with a big credit card debt would be income rich but asset poor. So unless you can define exactly what you mean, don't bother spouting off further. And "anyone who has more money than me" doesn't cut it.
When you're comparing two group thirty years apart, you're making the flawed assumption that these are the same people in each group. In some cases they are and in some cases they're not. Someone could have started out with nothing and have been classified as poor. By working, saving, investing, and, yes, luck, they could be the rich thirty years later. And it goes the other way too. Just ask anyone who invested with Madoff. But again we're back to the problem of what determines whether someone is rich or poor.
And don't get me started on what's wrong with your tax rate thesis.
What if Washington wanted to EAT THE RICH?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=661pi6K-8WQ&fe...
Very, very good!
In other words. You've got nothing
You are clearly unable to comprehend what I wrote and the proof is your comment regarding septic systems as gasoline storage which was simply ridiculous.
The points I was trying to make which was one, developments can and do affect the property rights of adjoining property owners and two, when serious flaws occur in the development of a property that affects health, safety and value of others, the taxpayer usually picks up the tab to correct them. Therefore, whose rights are more important? The developers or those he/she intends to affect by what they want to do and the cost to them to do it?
Define sensible. Are practices that maximize profits or maximize the protection of adjoining property owners more sensible? Who needs the protection of regulations more than those who have little to no say in what gets installed next door other then attend zoning meetings and complain? Example, in my county a private school built its building in the county to avoid the cost of complying with city rules and regs. A few years later, right across the street, a multi-million dollar quarry operation is going in where hundreds of trucks are going in a out of it on a daily basis. The school, parents sued to block it, but lost because why? There was nothing in county or state regulations that would prohibit it. Now, they will be inundated with noise, dust, diesel fumes, traffic, vibrations and all the other ills associated with quarrying. Lesson learned – the attraction of loose regulations is fine until those regulations apply to someone else and adversely affect you.
Farmland is the most notorious properties that can contain unrecorded underground installations, dumps and criminal activities. It is naive to think that abstracts contain accurate information because regulations are either non-existent or hidden by ignorance, apathy and criminal intent.
Yell about regulations all you want and I agree that they can be burdensome but again, most of them are in place to protect me from people like you and the author who want to return to the simpler days of a few guys making a buck and walking away but leaving the consequences of their actions on the backs of the adjoining property owners and taxpayers.
See below. I have lots and lots accumulated from not all that much.
It completely disproves your class warfare meme. Read Count de Moneys' post, If your head can stand it.
You realize that last paragraph reveals you to be a hate-filled bigot, right?
""I was having a friggin blast until Obummer showed up. This shouldn't be possible, huh?""
wow, you're one of the very few the 08 crash didn't effect. being that Obama didn't come in until 09, he had very little to do with that.
And good for you if you have a comfortable job, own a home and are doing fine. Unfortunately, for the most part the rest of the middle class isn't feeling as good as you are.
Wages have been stagnant or declining while prices keep going up.
It's getting harder and harder for a family of four to make ends meet, health insurance companies ripping us off, good schools tuitions keep rising, food and drugs prices keep rising and we're being encouraged to take on more debt, use credit cards, take out equity in your home (partly to blame for 08).
Now no one should hate CEO's or bankers. But at the same time people are offended that BOTH parties find it necessary to coddle them like little babies, give them everything they want through their lobbying efforts. Feel bad for the Factory worker who's job was just shipped over seas for slave labor, not the CEO who's taking in million dollar bonus to ship that job over sea.. while enjoying the lowest tax rates in our history.
No difference between the two, is there?
NYTIMES CRAP
I forgot, the right hates journalism. But they love foxnews.
Hows all that biased news working out for you.
How Capitalism Saved America and How Government is Destroying It | Thomas J. DiLorenzo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLJaBJwYHHc&eu...
"The time is near at hand which must determine whether Americans are to be free men or slaves."
George Washington
Sorry. That would mean my wages would be stagnant or declining and they never did. Until 2009.
Your narrative is class warfare tripe. The reasons for job exodus and price inflation can be laid directly at the feet of beyond anal-retentive Government regulation, class warfare politics, Nanny Statism and a collapsing social welfare system.
Leave people alone and they will thrive or fail of thier own volition. Encouraged to take on debt? What,…people aren't allowed to think for themselves? Blaming someones' stupid financial. transactions and their inability to learn from mistakes is not RoNnIe RayGuNs' fault. Perhaps, they should #OCCUPYMORECOMMONSENSE, eh?
So, it's OK if I do well, but it's not OK if big business does well? No rich man ever did anything to me, but offer me a job. It was up to me to do the work.
And who said "no regulation"?
Exactly.
In the cost of a new home, about 12% goes to enviromental BS.
Another 5% is bureaucratic BS.
Proably worse in some states like California, where I'd guess the environmental BS to be closer to 20% and the bureaucratic BS to be around 10%.
Communities are slapping impact fees on new home construction in an effort to wring some money out to do repairs on the roads that are 20 years old. Think what the cost will be to home buyers in another 20 years. No one will be able to afford a house.
A boat ramp has taken over two years because it is on land that will be donated to the county in exchange for the "right" to develop the land adjacent as RV hook ups. This with the biggest resort in the area right across the river.
Oh, I clearly comprehend quite well.
Sensible, is exactly what it means.
Farmland is the most notorious properties that can contain unrecorded underground installations, dumps and criminal activities.
I have yet to see it. I guess I'll just take your word for it.
Example, in my county a private school built its building in the county to avoid the cost of complying with city rules and regs. A few years later, right across the street, a multi-million dollar quarry operation is going in where hundreds of trucks are going in a out of it on a daily basis. The school, parents sued to block it, but lost because why?
That would be the fault of the school. Avoiding zoning is not a reason to complain. If the quarry operation, evidently profitable, was built and is operated leagally, then they will just have to deal with a poor decision.
most of them are in place to protect me from people like you and the author who want to return to the simpler days of a few guys making a buck and walking away but leaving the consequences of their actions on the backs of the adjoining property owners and taxpayers.
Yeah,… I was just looking at my black top hat and cape, twirling my cheesy moustache, wondering when I would get the chance to use them again.
""Sorry. That would mean my wages would be stagnant or declining and they never did""
You're an exception, the data indicates that for the most part they are.
""Until 2009""
Why? could it have been because of 08 crash? Or was their a specific Obama legislation passed in 09 that affected you?
""Your narrative is class warfare tripe""
Spoken like a true frank luntz talking point. just say class warfare over and over again.
""anal-retentive Government regulation""
You're right. You can make a lot more money when you can dump waste into rivers and pay people cents per day. Darn government having some standards!!!!
""class warfare politics""
Like the right constantly whining about the poor not paying more in taxes? that class warfare?
"""Perhaps, they should #OCCUPYMORECOMMONSENSE, eh? ""
Perhaps they should, but the masters who you get your talking points from would love it if people left the banks alone and just bent over without question.
"" but it's not OK if big business does well?""
Nope, thats more hannity talking. I'm for as much success as possible, done fairly and not through exploitation. Look at the banks. they made sht loads by buying off the ratings agencies who marked their crap sandwich securities as AAA, allowing them to be sold to state pensions and other places. Now you wonder why some states like Ohio are in trouble with their pension fund… well their mayor, former lehman exec, sold them garbage securities that were deceptively sold as AAA.
But nope, save your anger for the poor.
Oh, I see…
the Fox Derangement Syndrome Defense of all things not touchy feely.
Cool.
As soon as I install a rare-earth metal recycling plant in my backyard, I'll agree with having to pay for regulatory compliance for something I couldn't do, even if I wanted to.
No…..I get no talking points from anyone, sweetheart. I observe, I learn, I judge events based on empirical data and common sense. But, hey….feel free to enjoy yours.
Don't be scared. After all they only have your best interests at heart! This is all for your own good, don't you know?
Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!
Doesn't work for me.
I haven't read the New York Times in years.
…or watch FoxNews, for that matter.
And it's even worse than that. Even after you've jumped through the unbelievable maze of red tape to get permitted, and are getting started on your logging, drilling, or mining project, the retarded dirt worshipping freaks will run into court and get an injunction from a judge and you will be stopped. It doesn't matter if you're a little mom & pop outfit or a multi-national corporation, these vile freaks dont discriminate, they will stop EVERYBODY from making an honest living with natural resources. The only creature on this earth more hypocritical than your everyday Liberal, is one who is also an 'enviromentalist'.
Back in the fifties how much money did Government spend? How many people per hundred had government jobs.
You are a moron
Clinton, and Barack along with some rino's did this to us. Reagon had it right.
By the way ask what JFK did because of taxation in the 50's the USA's economy was going down.
JFK lowered taxes the first trickle down by a democrat and it worked, The economy grew more people were working.
Stop with your communistic rewritten history and look up facts.
Okay Snidely Whiplash, let's agree to disagree.
Oh, go away.
"The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal." Aristotle
ooh, your so right, the clinton admin regulated the U.S. up the yingyang…and set all our job and manufacturing to the rest of the world…we need deregulation and get rid of NAFTA
Flat screen TVs are nice and cheap now – in fact you can get one at Walmart for $200.
Poor people can and will make stupid choices in how they spend their money just like everyone else does.
That, however, is beside the point. The fact that they do or don't have TVs doesn't mean that the wealth disparity isn't growing – it just means some people have shiny things that make it look like they have money.
At some point it won't matter though – if the middle class dies off then we will only have very rich people and very poor people in this country. The very rich might make up 5% of the population – so what do you think the other 95% will do to them when they think they have no options?
Every society has acknowledged this dilemma – that rich people must spend SOME money on the poor to keep them content enough to not riot and take all that the rich people have by force.
Just saying.
Marxism brings wealth inequality.
Cronies get the wealth, and everyone else gets the inequality.
People don't choose to be rich or poor, as nobody has free will. People don't choose their genes or where they grow up. Both of those factors determine everything about the condition of a person's brain. People aren't responsible for their actions, since people didn't choose their parents or the childhood environment that shaped their neuroanatomy. Whether someone becomes a criminal or a hero is determined by the condition of their brain's frontal lobe. Sam Harris and David Eagleman are two neuroscientists who convincingly argue against the unscientific notion of free will.
To be fair, the pre-sale "independent" home inspections are required by the Oregon Realtors Association when they are requested by a prospective buyer, not the state.
The state imposes the DEQ inspection at the homeowners cost which is not a natural function of a healthy free market.
We don't call it the "people's republic of Oregon" for nothing, if there's a dime under your sofa cushion you can bet the State of Oregon has "better" plans for it than you or I do…
I'm an Oregon LEB, the license and continuing education fees are crazy now!
Conveniently, Oregon refuses to reciprocate with other states because they collect more fees that way, unless of course you're in the union….
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