Dear HCN,
If the concept of
“takings’ is to be a part of our way of life, then the concept
should extend to population growth.
Increased
traffic congestion resulting from population growth could, for
example, cause a person to spend an extra half-hour a day commuting
to and from work; added up over a working lifetime this lost
half-hour constitutes a substantial “taking.” Suppose a person’s
time is worth $30 an hour; then each extra half-hour spent in
traffic jams leads to a loss of $15, which is $75 a week, or $3,750
a year. Over 30 working years this loss is more than
$100,000.
If the air pollution produced by
population growth is responsible for medical conditions that cause
the loss of ability to work, then this lost ability is a “taking”
and surely merits compensation.
Individuals have
too long been victimized by governments that permit or encourage
population growth. The lavish use of tax breaks, grants and the
promised expenditures of public funds to recruit new businesses is
the ultimate obscenity. These recruiting actions all result in
losses and extra expenses for citizens; why not call them
“takings’?
Albert A.
Bartlett
Boulder,
Colorado
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Taking our time, too.
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