John Locke said, “Government has no other end, but the preservation of property.” Lost since then was the sense that property was to be owned by persons and not government. When people lived off government land, they were not considered free, and they were called serfs. Today, however, “free” means “able to partake of marijuana without going to jail,” and “preservation” means “selling property to government for conservation.”
News stories of government acquisitions of natural lands abound. In the latest, The NC Wildlife Resources Commission acquired 534 acres in Spruce Pine, with taxpayer dollars and a philanthropic contribution. The total cost was $5.6 million. Since the state funds cannot be immediately released, the state will take out a loan from the Open Space Institute.
Buncombe County managed to find $1.25 million in its budget to acquire well over 1300 green acres. County staff referred to the acquisitions as conservation easements, but they weren’t technically. A conservation easement is the surrender of development rights on property still owned and maintained by a private party. The majority of the nine transactions listed by Buncombe County were bargain sales, in which taxpayers let government buy the land on the cheap in exchange for a tax writeoff. Soon, the land will go off the tax rolls. Worse, government will have gained possession of more of that stuff that, owned by private parties, is supposed to be fundamental to liberty.
