Again, Aren't Governments Supposed to Internalize Costs?
18 September 2006
News Director, Morning Edition
National Public Radio
Dear Sir or Madam:
In Jeff Brady's report on efforts to require states to pay for regulatory takings, Boise city councilwoman Elaine Clegg complains that such a requirement will be too costly for government (September 18). This objection fails.
Suppose that a regulation reduces the value of a parcel of land by $1 million. SOMEONE must bear this cost. If government does not compensate the land's owner, that owner is forced to bear the entire cost that this regulation inflicts on his or her land. In contrast, when government pays for regulatory takings it obliges all taxpayers (who presumably share the benefits of the regulation) to share the costs of the regulation.
If government can't afford to pay for regulatory takings, surely it's grotesquely unjust to inflict these costs on a handful of individual property owners.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
News Director, Morning Edition
National Public Radio
Dear Sir or Madam:
In Jeff Brady's report on efforts to require states to pay for regulatory takings, Boise city councilwoman Elaine Clegg complains that such a requirement will be too costly for government (September 18). This objection fails.
Suppose that a regulation reduces the value of a parcel of land by $1 million. SOMEONE must bear this cost. If government does not compensate the land's owner, that owner is forced to bear the entire cost that this regulation inflicts on his or her land. In contrast, when government pays for regulatory takings it obliges all taxpayers (who presumably share the benefits of the regulation) to share the costs of the regulation.
If government can't afford to pay for regulatory takings, surely it's grotesquely unjust to inflict these costs on a handful of individual property owners.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
Posted by Don Boudreaux on
Thursday May 24, 2007 at 3:01pm